The Journey Begins

On a great day in July, we got wonderful news, we learned that WE WERE EXPECTING OUR THIRD CHILD! Praise God! What a miracle! We were so excited! I (Becca) had been praying for this child for years, so hearing this was good news indeed! We told our Rachel & Jaxon, as well as our family and friends. I had gone in for all the regular check-ups and even for an early ultrasound, and everything was going great! We began to plan and prepare (With much excitement!) for this baby to join our family.

At 20 weeks along, we went in for our routine ultrasound appointment. This is a day we had been anticipating the whole time! We had decided NOT to find out the gender of the baby. We wanted it to be a surprise :-) Jon, Rachel, Jaxon and of course myself all went in for the ultrasound. We were all so overjoyed to see this tiny baby moving around on the screen. The technician was brief in her talking about the ultrasound as she is not allowed to share information regarding the baby with us. She completed the exam, we got our pictures and home we went.

A few hours later I received a call from my Mid-Wife. My heart dropped when I saw her name on the caller id as I knew the old phrase "No news is good news" and that is also pertained to ultrasounds. She shared some devastating news with me that I never in a million years dreamt I would hear. She said there were some problems with the baby and that I would need to go see a specialist immediately for further testing. She continued on to tell me what the problems were with our baby. She said that the baby had no left arm or hand, no right arm or hand, no right leg or foot and a small partial left leg but no foot. She also shared that there seemed to be some problems with the baby's heart as well as with it's head. She continued by telling me that I also had complete placenta previa (Meaning the placenta was completely over the cervix, this can cause some problems as well as it requires a c-section at the time of delivery). WOW! What did you just say? I must be dreaming right? This is just a very bad dream and I am sure to wake up soon! Nope! It wasn't a dream at all. It was real! I was in shock.

I had an appointment scheduled for the following day to see a specialist where they would do a more extensive ultrasound, as well as an echocardiogram followed by a consultation with the doctor. Jon and I (As well as others we had told) prayed all night long as well as the whole day before our appointment. We went into this appointment feeling every emotion possible. As the technician was performing the ultrasound he looked at many things and took many measurements and notes. He was wonderful at providing us with tons of information as he did the ultrasound and we felt very "in the know"...well as much as we could anyway. He then made a comment and this is what he said "Ok, I am now going to move on and look at the extremities and take measurements of those." I almost felt offended as he said this as we knew there really were no extremities, except a partial leg. He moved the ultrasound "thing" to a bone. I assumed this was the one leg bone. He typed in the screen above the bone "Right Arm". I looked at Jon then at the technician and said "Are you saying that's an arm?" He replied with "Yes, and here is the rest of the right arm". He continued on to show a full right arm (However with an absent hand), a partial left arm (Also with an absent hand), a full right leg (With an absent foot) and a partial left leg (With an absent foot). I was stunned! During the ultrasound we also learned that my placenta was in a different place! I no longer had Complete Placentia Previa! I would be able to deliver naturally with no need for a c-section. We also learned that the baby's heart was completely fine! WOW! Praise God was all I could say!

Before we went in for this ultrasound, Jon and I had decided we did want to know the gender of the baby. We wanted to be able to call it by name and make this experience more personal. So during the ultrasound we learned that this wiggly little person inside my womb is a little BOY! We had a name picked out long ago (That God had given us) and so he will be called Israel David.

After the ultrasound was said and done we met with the doctor. She shared with us about a new problem we did not know of before. The baby's...um I mean Israel's chin was recessed. Meaning it was pushed back and not in line with his upper jaw. The long and short of that means there could be long term problems for him after he is born. He may not be able to breath through his mouth. If that were the case a traciastomy would need to be put in and surgery preformed so he could breath on his own. However this will not be able to be determined until birth.

So what does all of this mean? THAT WE SERVE A GOD WHO IS SO MUCH BIGGER THAN ALL OF THIS! If in one night of praying God created limbs on this precious child, completely fixed his heart, and moved my Placentia...WOW what could he do in the next 4 1/2 months?!?!

We are praying (And ask you to please join with us in prayer!) that God would just completely heal this baby! That every arm, leg, hand and foot would be complete! That the chin would realign and that he would be a normal healthy baby.

We have another ultrasound scheduled for 1 month from now. We will keep you updated and informed along the way. There is a place on this blog to sign up to automatically get an e-mail every time I post a new entry or you can just check back from time to time.

WE SERVE A BIG GOD WHO CAN DO ANYTHING! WE ARE BELIEVING FOR THIS MIRACLE TO HAPPEN IN OUR PRECIOUS LITTLE ISRAEL.

All our love, Becca (And the rest of the family too Jon, Rachel & Jaxon)