If you have read almost any of my past posts you might have realized that I love plans and when something comes in and changes those plans it can take me a bit to refocus. Now certain situations I can roll with easier but in this example, it took me a while to wrap my head around what was happening. 

In July of 2011, my husband and I found out we were going to have our first child. We actually got to announce it to our immediate family at my birthday dinner, which was really exciting. It was going to be the first grandchild on my husband’s side and the second on my side of the family. And as you are with first children, everything is new and exciting. I vividly remember the first time hearing the heartbeat, in that cold Doctors office I was just a few weeks along and we heard what sounded like a horse galloping. After that appointment, we received more information on exactly how far along I was and when we would be able to get an ultrasound to find out the gender. As we discussed before I love a good plan and getting to plan for a girl or a boy halfway through the pregnancy gave me plenty of time to decide how I would want the nursery to look. 

The day finally came where we would find out the gender and my parents even came to visit to be a part of the celebration. My husband’s family lived nearby so everyone came to the appointment. 

There was excitement in the room as we waited to be called back. Finally, after what seemed like forever they called me and my husband back to the room. The ultrasound tech proceeded to search to get a good image to find out the gender, but the baby was not cooperating. We tried rotating from side to side and nothing. So she said let’s take a look at everything else and come back to check again. That’s when something changed. The tech was very professional and as first-time parents, we didn’t know what to expect. She took a few pictures and then asked us to follow her into another office room because the specialist wanted to talk to us. Being my first pregnancy I didn’t know how exactly the appointment would go but I could tell something was different and off. As we walked across the office to a consolation room we passed by the waiting room door that had a long, skinny, rectangle window and I caught my mom’s face as we walked by. In some cases, this may not mean much but my mom works in the medical field and specifically in women’s health. So she knows the ins and the outs of that world. In that one glance, she knew something was off and I sure went into “what if” mode. I could guess the time between us passing that small window to when we came out seemed like forever.  

My husband and I sat down and the specialist came in. She started off by explaining that our precious baby I was carrying had a single umbilical artery. I had no clue what that meant. Let me break it down for you- “Instead of three vessels in the umbilical cord, the baby’s cord has only two: one vein and one artery. Two-vessel cord — also known as single umbilical artery (SUA) — occurs in 1 percent of singleton pregnancies.” -from whattoexpect.com 

She went on to say that in some cases this can result in low birth weight or it could affect the child’s development and they could have an additional chromosome, which would result in a down syndrome child. So not only did we not find out the gender at that appointment we found out that I would have regular appointments with the high-risk doctor. As she was talking I felt as though time stood still. I tried to take it in but had a hard time. After all this information was dropped in our laps we were free to go. 

Walking out into that waiting room filled with family was so hard, they were waiting to see if we were having a boy or girl. And I had no answer to give them. The door felt extra heavy as I opened it. Everyone with smiles of excitement (besides my mom who knew something wasn’t going as planned) waited for us to share. We tried to regurgitate what had been said to us. I honestly don’t remember what I said, but I remember how I felt. We were thrown a curveball and I just wanted to sit in a dark room and cry it out. We prayed a lot during that pregnancy and I stressed a lot throughout the rest of those weeks until she was born. The good news we did find out a few weeks after that bombshell of an appointment that we were going to have a baby girl! 

But that isn’t the end of the story. I’m thankful to report we had a beautiful healthy baby girl and this year she turned 8. She loves school and has a bunch of friends. I received a letter from her school today that brought me to tears. As I am writing this the email popped up so I took a break from writing to read the email. It stated my girl is being placed in the high ability learning program. This means she has demonstrated high levels of performance in a subject area and their goal is to challenge her educationally. Talk about an emotional roller coaster, the emotions that came flooding back as I was reliving my first pregnancy to the excitement of seeing her succeed above and beyond we could have imagined. 

Sometimes unexpected things happen and change the plans you have made, but for me, I put my trust in God. When I get to see where God has brought us from to where we are today I feel very blessed. 

I pray that this blog today was an encouragement to you and can help in your daily life. Always know I am available to pray with you or just be someone to talk to when life gets hard. E-mail me at megan@churchanywhere.us if you need prayer! 

Talk to you next Monday!