Former White House press secretary and current Fox News host Kayleigh McEnany has shared for the first time her challenging experience becoming pregnant with her second child.
Following the birth of their three-year-old daughter, Blake, McEnany, 35, and her husband, Sean Gilmartin, a former New York Mets player, decided to grow their family in the summer of 2021.
The family was ecstatic when their son, Nash, was born in December of last year. However, McEnany had to overcome many obstacles in order to become pregnant, so the road to his arrival was anything but simple.
In an excerpt from her new book, Serenity in the Storm: Living Through Chaos by Leaning on Christ, Kayleigh McEnany told the DailyMail.com about the sharp contrast between her two pregnancies.
My first pregnancy went rather quickly, and we were grateful that God had made it relatively easy for us to have a lovely daughter. It was different the second time,” she wrote.
McEnany acknowledged that by the spring of 2022, she was starting to worry as the months went by with several negative pregnancy tests. She asked, “Why wasn’t I getting pregnant?” She resorted to faith for strength, determined to overcome her mounting anxiety.
She was inspired to change her perspective and “pray with expectation” after receiving Draw The Circle: The 40 Day Prayer Challenge by Mark Batterson as a gift from a friend. This practice wasn’t instinctive, though.
We are prone to anticipating results right away. “That is a natural human tendency, and I definitely fit into it myself,” she said.
McEnany admitted to the struggle she was having with herself in spite of her efforts. She disclosed, “Satan did his best to infiltrate with worry, doubt, and frustration as I tried to pray with expectation.”
At a Christian conference, gospel singer Mandisa’s music and the prayers surrounding her helped Kayleigh McEnany refocus her frustration over her infertility.
Two weeks later, she told a woman named Kathy that she wanted a second child while she was speaking at an event in Collinsville, Illinois. At the dinner table, Kathy immediately prayed over her, asking God to grant her a child.
“The last time I said a prayer like this, God blessed the young woman with twins!” Kathy said after the prayer. The thought brought a smile to McEnany’s face.
Even though she had a number of negative tests that month, she suddenly felt the need to take another three days later. She wrote, “I guess you could say I went into the test that morning expecting to do well.”
Kayleigh McEnany noticed a faint pink double line, which indicates pregnancy, a few minutes after taking the test.
“Is this real?” she asked herself. She did, in fact, take another test, and the outcome this time was unmistakable: two solid pink lines.
After only a few months of trying to conceive, McEnany and her husband, Sean Gilmartin, were blessed with their first child.
Although she and Sean had prayed with faith and hopeful expectation, she acknowledged that the journey can be much longer for millions of women, and for some, pregnancy remains impossible.