a beachy update

Friends,
I want to thank you for your many expressions of concern and love for us over these last few weeks. They have not been easy weeks, but -- no doubt in response to your prayers -- we are finding solace in the truth of our Father’s love and care for us and our son. Thank you for your prayers on our behalf, your love expressed in cards, embraces and calls and for, at times, giving us the space we have need to work through these times together. We are so thankful that God has placed us in such a loving family. We know you will understand if there are times we just need to not talk about it.

To (briefly) fill you in, we met with the Maternal-Fetal Medicine Doctor again yesterday morning and had another ultrasound. Overall we are more encouraged than we expected to be. Last month the Doctor had prepared us to expect to see things getting worse: heart condition more pronounced, stomach smaller, feature in the brain measuring smaller and (maybe most significantly) the baby’s overall growth dropping off substantially. So we went in to this ultrasound expecting these to have gotten worse. In fact, they have not. The ‘smaller’ defects that were observed last time, the Doctor didn’t even really comment on this time. The hole is still present in the heart and is more visible and there is still at least a cleft lip and maybe cleft palate as well. Those things the Doctor does not expect will get better. The other things (kidneys, stomach, something in the brain, aorta) probably wouldn’t even have made our discussion yesterday with the Doctor had they not been present as slight abnormalities last month.

What does this mean? Well, from what we can gather, it means the likelihood of this baby being a Trisomy is decreased. Which means we will probably have him around a good bit longer than we were initially preparing ourselves for. Also, his likelihood of making it to term is increased. The longer he continues to grow on track, the higher that likelihood gets. However, given the cleft lip and the heart defect, he likely does have some kind of chromosomal disorder, which, while it may not be lethal pre-term, could manifest itself in a host of issues once he is born.

I realize I’ve used the words ‘probably,’ ‘likely’ and the like a lot. While an exact diagnosis may be getting narrowed down some -- especially as we continue monthly ultrasounds (next one is Dec 19) -- we simply won’t know exactly what things will look like until he is born. But, I guess that is how life works with anything. The Lord gives us a lamp for our feet, period. There is no knowing what the future will bring when it comes to anything, let alone the lives of our children. So we press on, attempting to live faithfully in the present, where the Lord has us. One day at a time. One hour at a time. Sometimes, one moment at a time.

Thank you for your prayers. I am confident they have been to us the life jackets we have needed in these rough seas.

Together and all for Jesus’,
grant