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Oct. 2008 -
We are headed out the door in 15 minutes for the airport, but I wanted to get a quick update out for those who are curious about our 20 week sonogram.
We had our 20 weeks sonogram on Friday and we are having a boy! I was shocked beyond shocked....and quite honestly, it threw me for a loop as my immediate reaction was "please God, don't take my only son." Funny, huh, since he sent his only son for us....that just hit me. Anyway, I was pretty emotional over the weekend reprocessing and grieving for my son, not my daughter, but God impressed on me the story of Abraham and how he waited so long (much longer than me) for a son, how God fulfilled that promise and then asked him to sacrifice that son back to God. Abraham's faith was so strong in God's original promise of making a great nation using Abraham's son that he was able to let go of the only visible sign of that promise. And God chose to send a replacement in the ram. I know you know the story, but it just hit home for me this weekend that this baby, boy or girl, is God's and while he hasn't promised me a son, He has made me many promises, and I need to trust in His promises and let go of my earthly desires. It remains to be seen if God will give me this son on earth, but I'm in a better place today for sure. The specialist was able to see a lot on the heart condition during the sonogram. We found out that the heart is not only outside of the chest cavity, but is severely malformed. When the heart is developing, part of it starts as a trunk which develops a septum separating the trunk into the pulmonery artery and the aorta. Our baby's heart simply has a trunk. The pulmonery artery is essential for oxygenating the blood so while the baby is in utero, it can breathe because it doesn't require oxygen. This will change of course at birth. We are going to Children's Hospital in DC on Oct. 29 to conduct a Fetal Echo and have consultations with both a pediatric cardiologist and geneticist (to explore some of Henry's family's conditions to see if that could impact the baby's prognosis). We also plan to have amniocentisis later this month to give the pedicatric cardiologist and geneticist more information to work with in putting together a clear picture of what's going on. My prayer (other than healing) is that we would have wisdom in making decisions going forward and understanding all of our options. Children's of DC is supposed to be a great place to go on the East Coast so we're blessed to live so close. That's all we know for now.
I'm thankful for these few days to rest and connect as it seems we are headed into a time of endless doctors appointments. I'll update the girls' pages another time.....