If you regularly tune in to Fox & Friends, you recognize the face of Ainsley Earhardt.
Yet, until recently, few knew her heartbreaking struggle to get pregnant and the tragic miscarriage she suffered during that process.
In a new video for I Am Second, Ainsley opened up about her pain and loss, but also about how God’s faithfulness shined through:
Ainsley Earhardt’s dream to be an entertainer began when she was a very young girl.
It always hinged on the desire to “make people smile.” God blessed her with not only her current Fox News position, but also His joy and salvation.
God’s joy is something people are drawn to, whether they realize it or not. When He fills us, we overflow, and this pours into what we do.
When people experience this, there’s a shift that draws them in. Earhardt has been able to make people smile by His Smile shining on her for many years.
Earhardt’s faith was never hidden from the public, but not necessarily prominent in her role at Fox. That all shifted recently as she faced a tragedy that shook her to her core.
Motherhood. When God calls a person to it, it is an aching space in the heart until He fills it with a child of one’s own, through natural or adoptive care…
For Earhardt, who admittedly calls herself “a planner. I had my whole life planned out… when I started trying to have children, I was not successful.”
And after a long struggle to get pregnant, Earhardt was at the precipice of diving into the world she longed for. God had granted her to be with child.
So when finally the first pregnancy test came back as YES, she was praising God. She honored and glorified the Maker of Life.
It’s hard to contain the thrilling excitement when you’ve been led through a door you’ve been knocking on for a long time, especially when you are doing all the “right things” to seek entrance.
But then, sometimes God has plans that feel so strange and wrong…
Earhardt recalls the moment she got the news, the moment everything in her whole forward-moving world came crashing down.
This was supposed to be routine, another checkup, another ultrasound, just like the others before them when everything was going great.
The doctor “puts the stuff on your stomach and runs that ultrasound and she saw the baby, and we saw the baby on the screen. And just like before, she had to find the heartbeat, and we saw the heart.”
“[The doctor] just looked at us and said, ‘I’m so sorry,’ and she just tried and she tried, and there was nothing there. There was no heartbeat.”
Baring her heart as part of an I Am Second video, Ainsley shared how this news affected her entire reality.
As the video caption reads, “She found herself in a dark place of pain, fear, and doubt, wondering if she would ever feel whole again. Could Jesus really be trusted to heal that pain?”
“And you walk down the streets of New York and you see other girls with their carriages and their strollers and their babies and their baby-bumps and you want it so badly. I started thinking, should I have done this earlier? Is this my fault? What’s going on?”
“I remember going in for the D&C, which is the surgery, and I remember crying because I didn’t want them to take her away from me. I just imagined my child going in for testing, and it was so scientific, and this was my child. I just thought, I’m going to be separated from this baby until I go to heaven.”
Her heart wrestled with anger, sadness, overwhelm, and yet the spiritual life inside her was growing even while the little physical life in her was no longer present.
Her choice in that moment? Abandon hope and be altogether destroyed, or trust God.
Through God’s help, she chose to keep trusting Him. It was not easy and did not decrease the physical, emotional, or even spiritual grief. But yet, the presence of hope was still with her.
To give her body and soul a break, a healing space, she and her husband stopped trying for a child for a while. But then… “I took the pregnancy test, and it said pregnant!”
During this time of letting go and being OK with whatever God had for her, God blessed her with what she so desperately wanted.
And after a healthy pregnancy and delivery, Ainsley and her husband welcomed a beautiful little girl into the world! God blessed her mightily with a sweet and healthy little one.
“I am so glad I have a little girl, she’s like my partner. She’s the best, she’s my little girl.”
Earhardt is very aware that this child is not the only blessing though. There is another gift that was born to her, even before this child came onto the earth.
In the loss of her first baby, she conceived an opportunity. She bore it forth with all the pains it took for her to share this story to the public.
She knew there were countless other women who have gone through or were going through the same struggle — and she wanted them to know God’s love.
She chose I Am Second as the platform to share the story, and more importantly the presence of God before, in, and even after the circumstances.
I Am Second is an organization motivated to see radical shifts take place in our culture through honesty and humility. According to their written vision statement available on their website, their goal is:
“Restoration. The world as it was meant to be. People redeemed and lives transformed. Relationships rebuilt, communities revitalized, and culture restored. We seek a world where people become second, serving and loving each other as they put Jesus first.”
They do this by providing a platform for people to share their stories through the redeemed lens of restoration that God has made possible.
And that’s exactly why Earhardt chose them to share the journey in full. She affirms this by her closing statement in the video:
“I know that women are hurting. I know that men are hurting. I know that you can get through it. And it might not be your plan, and it might not be what you want for your life. Know that God has a plan and God works it all out. Life is such a journey. Every step of it, good or bad, is still beautiful.”
Watch her full video for yourself:
And to hear more God-glorifying stories and to learn more about I Am Second, visit their website at www.iamsecond.com
Additionally, pray for the continued health of little Earhardt and her parents, as well as the spiritual healing for all hurting mothers who God may reach through this I Am Second project.
