Franki Evensen’s excess weight had affected her fertility, but she hadn’t realized that until she lost 100 pounds and became pregnant.

In 2008, she had her Roux-en-Y gastric bypass surgery with Dr. Daniel Smith.

“I had not been on any type of birth control since 2003,” she said.

At one time, she and her husband had tried to have children, but never saw a fertility specialist. She and her husband accepted the fact that they would probably never conceive.

A year following her surgery, Franki had dropped 100 pounds before she got stomach flu-like symptoms.

“When the doctor told me I was pregnant, it was the last thing I expected to hear,” Franki acknowledged.

Her initial reaction was shock. Then she was scared: she was 38 years old at the time and her husband, as a cancer survivor, had received radiation therapy.

But once it started to sink in, “I felt sheer elation!”

The pregnancy

Every pregnancy is unique, and Franki will admit hers wasn’t easy.

“One of the most challenging problems I had throughout the pregnancy was that I continued to lose weight until shortly before the end of the pregnancy,” she says. “In the end I only gained a total of 12 pounds.”

At 10 weeks she was sitting in an emergency room and thought she was losing her baby. She was sent home with instructions to perform only light duties.

At 22 weeks they were delighted to discover they would be having a baby girl. At 26 weeks, Franki woke in the night with stomach pains. Within hours she was on a Life-Link chopper flight to Duluth. The pains were, in fact, labor pain. Franki was in premature labor.

She spent the next two months in Duluth on IV therapy to keep her contractions under control. Eventually she was allowed to return home. One more event sent her back to Duluth, by ambulance this time. Two days later on Nov. 3, 2009, a healthy Isabella Brin was born 5 weeks early weighing 4 pounds, 14 ounces. After all that happened, “Bella” was a healthy baby girl with no further complications.

“I absolutely believe in miracles and that my daughter was one of them,” Franki says. “Against all odds she is healthy, very happy, and perfect in every way.”

She makes no apologies: “What mother doesn’t think that about her child?”

Franki was able to breastfeed Isabella for seven months, and says she appreciates that “incredible bonding experience” with her daughter.

Franki asked her husband, David, his thoughts on her gastric bypass surgery.

“Well, it was life-changing, a 180-degree turnaround, for both of us,” he answered. “Everything good that has happened to us has happened since you had surgery.”

Franki had never thought of it in that way.

“He was completely right. It was a lifealtering process, but it is one that I feel was so worth it. I am so happy I no longer struggle with my weight,” she says.

“I now have a beautiful, healthy daughter who was the most adorable flower girl when, after more than 12 years as a couple, Dave and I were married on Oct. 23, 2010.”

To date Franki maintains a weight-loss of 130 pounds.