It's a .....

"Do you not know? Have you heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint." Isaiah 40:28-31

We are so blessed to be under the wings of our Mighty God. The past weeks have gone quickly and God has provided peace for us while awaiting the results of the amnio that was done on January 19th. We were able to speak with the genetic counselor at length today and given our results. She started off by saying that all of the results are in and final. She said that all the results are normal and the baby does NOT have any chromosomal disorders!!! This news was such a relief and almost surreal. What a blessing that we see as a miracle. We were told by both sets of doctors and nurses that we had a 75% chance of miscarriage and chromosomal disorder. Our journey with the medical community has not been easy. We have been told over and over again things like, "when we terminate" and "when we lose the baby." It has been difficult to just trust God with each day we have with the baby. Making through the first hurdle of being clear on chromosomal level is such a blessing, so wonderful, that we could never describe it or thank God enough. Your prayers and encouraging notes and calls have encouraged us so much to keep going, to keep trusting God. The counselor spent some time explaining more about the cystic hygroma on our baby. She looked in the chart and compared the notes from both ultrasounds. When measuring the hygroma, they measure the thickest part, not the length. Our first measurement was 11.2mm and at the second it was 18.5mm, which means it is growing. At this point, we just wait and pray that it will resolve. We do still, however, need to rule out more things to see what could be causing this issue in our baby. We were told that with a cystic hygroma they have "brackets" that the pregnancy is put it. Low risk, high risk, etc. The highest bracket is anything 6.5mm or larger. Since ours measured 18.5mm we are considered on the extremely high risk level. Of course she gave us her percentages and said we still have a 50% chance of miscarrying anytime for the remainder of the pregnancy. We are choosing not to focus on that and are just thankful for each day.

What's next:
We have the option of doing genetic test that only looks for 5 specific genetic diseases when there are hundreds of possibilities. We are leaning towards not doing this test, as we can find most of the answers as the pregnancy progresses through ultrasounds, and the test is not very conclusive. An ultrasound is scheduled for this Monday morning to do a quick check on heart tones and to measure the cystic hygroma. For the remainder of the pregnancy we will be followed closely by ultrasounds. The specialist will be measuring the hygroma and watching the baby's organs as they get bigger. As we progress there will be specific ultrasounds that are done at certain weeks of the pregnancy. We appreciate and covet your continued prayers for this precious life that God has blessed us with. We will rejoice in everyday that we are given with this child.

Here is the best news that we found out today. We are having another daughter!!! Her name is Hope Asaiah which means: trust in the future Yahweh has made. God had given us this name months ago (about 3 months before we knew we were going to have another baby) and we are confident in who we can place our trust in! Now we can specifically pray for Hope by name!!!

Much love,
Andy and Jenn