Peace be with you in 2012!

There are so many questions that run through my mind often. Like.....Will Adeline make it home from the hospital, EVER? Will she make it through her second and third surgeries if she does make it home from the hospital? Will we see her first birthday? Will we see her grow into a young girl? Will we be able to be a "normal" family again? Will Ellie suffer because of all the things we have to go through with Adeline? Sometimes these questions keep me awake at night and are so consuming I am not sure where the next step should be. I do fear the future sometimes. I think it is the unknown that gets me.

It seems like when we found out about Adeline's heart defect, everywhere we looked there was also a story about a child with a heart defect. I watched the YouTube video that Ben Breedlove, a boy with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, from Austin posted on December 18. He posted it just a week before he passed away from a heart attack on Christmas Day this year. He seemed like a pretty awesome kid. His love for God was something that couldn't be questioned, but he also had an amazing peace about his situation and his life on earth.

Hopefully all the fear we feel right now can be turned into some sort of peace before Adeline gets here. Peace is something I strive for in 2012!

Sweet Adeline

Naming a child is an important decision. For us, naming Ellie was really difficult and took us a really long time. It has been even more difficult naming this baby. Everything has been more difficult with this baby. We talk about her so often, Scott and I were ready to give our sweet girl a name. So it has been decided. Adeline it is. Adeline is after my mom's grandma and means noble. Appropriate we thought since one of the definitions of noble is possessing outstanding qualities. Our sweet Adeline is already a blessing!

"You are the flower of my heart, sweet Adeline."

I love that Phish, one of my favorite bands in college, sings "Sweet Adeline," a song from 1903.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McanIkZ98rU

19 weeks

On December 6, I went to my 16 week appointment to find out the sex of newest Baby P. I left there with a CD of the sonogram that would tell Scott and I the sex of our child, but I also left there with the devastating news that our baby had a possible heart defect. We watched the CD and found out that we were having a baby girl but were overcome with sadness about her heart. On December 7, we were referred to a perinatologist and found out that our baby definitely had a heart defect, and we needed to see a pediatric cardiologist. On December 8, we found out our sweet girl has Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome and will need 2, possibly 3, surgeries after birth. The first one will be 3-5 days after birth, the second one will be at 3-6 months and the third at around 3 years of age.

I am due May 23 so am 19 weeks pregnant today. As you can imagine, we are overwhelmed with information. A lot has happened in the last 3 weeks! In the coming weeks and months, Scott and I are going to share our story and struggles. We are putting our faith in God and praying for the healing of our precious baby.

Please keep us in your prayers!

Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.

Deuteronomy 31:6