Special Families

Good Afternoon!

I write this post with a heavy heart and am asking each of you who is still kind enough to check in on us to pray for some new friends of ours.

We came to know Greg and Shelly and Royce and Susan through Alexandra's House. It has been a rough summer for all of us. You know our story, and both of these families have their own stories as well, as they chose to carry their babies, both of whom had been diagnosed with Trisomy 18, to term.

Royce and Susan welcomed baby Gabriella into their lives on Saturday, July 5th. She has defied the medical community's odds in many ways....by making it to term, by surviving birth, and by now, surviving for two weeks. Royce and Susan were able to bring their precious pink bundle of joy home after just a couple days in the hospital. However, Gabriella is now having episodes where she stops breathing...resulting from her brain not telling her body to breathe....and these episodes are occurring more and more frequently. As you can imagine, this has been a very difficult time for Gabriella's family (she has a big brother and a big sister, too!), but they are such a testimony to God's strength as they share how much they are enjoying their short time with Gabriella here on earth. As Royce has said, she is "sprouting her angel wings" as heaven prepares a place for her.

Greg and Shelly, who have three older children, gave birth to their fourth child, Noah James, on Friday the 18th. Unfortunately, they are familiar with our pain, as their son was not born alive. They are now back home together, healing, grieving, and feeling empty. Hearing of their feelings instantly takes us back to the sheer rawness of emotion that occurs in the hours and days after telling your baby good-bye. And it breaks our hearts.

We are amazed at how, even though we have not spent much time with these families, we have felt instantly bonded with them as a result of the shared experience of carrying terminally ill babies first in our wombs and subsequently, in our hearts. We ask that you would say a prayer for these two families and thank you, in advance, for doing so.