Dear all,
First I wanted to tell you all thank you. Thank you so much. The outpouring of love and support that we have received from family, friends, and strangers is overwhelming. The initial diagnosis for our daughter left us in shock; we were totally distraught and helpless. Both the specialist we saw and my OB recommended we terminate the pregnancy due to the severity of heart defect that was found. That was very hard to hear because it left us with the sense that the situation really is hopeless. But then we began receiving phone calls, emails, and facebook messages with such words of encouragement and love that you realize there is hope. That no matter what God's will in this situation is there will be a greater good to come out of it. Already His grace is working through all of you and your prayers, and we cannot thank you enough.
Many of you have asked what our baby's name is. We have decided to name our little girl Caroline in honor of Karol Wojtyla (Blessed John Paul II.) We are still working on a middle name.
As far as our plan, we are just taking things day by day. I know we cannot tackle this thing in its entirety, it would be too overwhelming. We are just focusing on facing each day with its own struggles, pain, and joys with love and acceptance. Already things have gone very well for us. We received the diagnosis in Italy on Tuesday and by Thursday we were on a plane to the States. The flight went as smoothly as a 10 hour flight can go, and we distracted ourselves by catching up on all the American movies we had missed in the last year. We arrived in Michigan without incident; we breezed through customs and had NO lost luggage, yay! Tomorrow, July 10th, we have an appointment at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Many thanks go to my uncle for helping us get an appointment so quickly. There we will have a followup fetal echo-cardiogram and meet with a fetal medicine specialist. Based on the information we receive at that appointment we will start making decisions about how to proceed. Until then we are with family and just trying to keep positive.
I hope to have an update for you all later this week. Again we cannot thank everyone enough for everything. All the thoughts and prayers, all the research and practical advice, all the medical support and offers of places to stay have meant so much to us and shown us how lucky we are to have you all in our lives.
“I plead with you--never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
―Blessed John Paul II
First I wanted to tell you all thank you. Thank you so much. The outpouring of love and support that we have received from family, friends, and strangers is overwhelming. The initial diagnosis for our daughter left us in shock; we were totally distraught and helpless. Both the specialist we saw and my OB recommended we terminate the pregnancy due to the severity of heart defect that was found. That was very hard to hear because it left us with the sense that the situation really is hopeless. But then we began receiving phone calls, emails, and facebook messages with such words of encouragement and love that you realize there is hope. That no matter what God's will in this situation is there will be a greater good to come out of it. Already His grace is working through all of you and your prayers, and we cannot thank you enough.
Many of you have asked what our baby's name is. We have decided to name our little girl Caroline in honor of Karol Wojtyla (Blessed John Paul II.) We are still working on a middle name.
As far as our plan, we are just taking things day by day. I know we cannot tackle this thing in its entirety, it would be too overwhelming. We are just focusing on facing each day with its own struggles, pain, and joys with love and acceptance. Already things have gone very well for us. We received the diagnosis in Italy on Tuesday and by Thursday we were on a plane to the States. The flight went as smoothly as a 10 hour flight can go, and we distracted ourselves by catching up on all the American movies we had missed in the last year. We arrived in Michigan without incident; we breezed through customs and had NO lost luggage, yay! Tomorrow, July 10th, we have an appointment at the University of Michigan's C.S. Mott Children's Hospital. Many thanks go to my uncle for helping us get an appointment so quickly. There we will have a followup fetal echo-cardiogram and meet with a fetal medicine specialist. Based on the information we receive at that appointment we will start making decisions about how to proceed. Until then we are with family and just trying to keep positive.
I hope to have an update for you all later this week. Again we cannot thank everyone enough for everything. All the thoughts and prayers, all the research and practical advice, all the medical support and offers of places to stay have meant so much to us and shown us how lucky we are to have you all in our lives.
“I plead with you--never, ever give up on hope, never doubt, never tire, and never become discouraged. Be not afraid.”
―Blessed John Paul II
We're praying for you all. I'm glad you're back in the States and we will be thinking of you tomorrow. God bless sweet Caroline!
ReplyDeleteI hope you don't mind but I passed your blog post onto a friend of mine named Sarah and have asked her to pray for you. Her baby boy Nathan was treated at Mott and I know they do amazing work there. We are praying for you.
ReplyDeleteYou guys are really an inspiration. We'll be praying!
ReplyDeletePraying for y'all as you go to the dr. today. I would also like to cross-post your blog on my blog if that's ok.
ReplyDeletePrayers for you and for Caroline! Keep praying, God loves you SO much He is gifting you with a very special daughter!
ReplyDelete