It continues to be an up and down week. On Wednesday Debbie and her daughter Sydney from church brought us a meal and spent some time with Alexandria. It didn’t occur to me how teenagers think about Alexandria’s condition until Sydney was holding her. When I was kid plenty of adults died, but no children, and definately no child I had ever held in my arms. With Gabriel we know that he doesn’t really get it, the impact isn’t there, yet. Teenagers have the ability to grasp mortality… I never really thought of the conversations that probably occur before people bring their children here. I bet those aren’t easy.
On Thursday Harry and Gretta came to pick up Aden and Gabriel for a few days. Kim saw her doctor and among other things had a discussion about birth control. Kim told her that I’m not looking to have any additional kids and looking to have surgery to prevent it… (why don’t I want to type the word vasectomy? Interesting…) Anyway, her doctor told her that doing so would probably not be a good idea at this time. We’re emotional (I’m emotional) and it’s not the best time to make that decision. I just don’t ever see my decision changing. I can’t see another child go through this. I just can’t risk it. Kim’s been researching a mutation around the MTHFR gene and how women with this mutation can have occurances of Trisomy 18, but it can be countered somewhat with high doses of folic acid. We’ve had the genetic testing and Kim and I checked out “ok”, but we did not have a test for this specific gene. Either way, even if we did test positive for it, I still do not see any situation where I would chance this again.
Today a friend of ours, Lindsey, came over to meet Alexandria. She worked with Kimberly, and later with me, at Meijer. She gave Alexandria a large wooden letter “A” that she’d pasted pictures from our facebook site on, it was very touching (picture to come). She also brought a bunch of fabric and she and Kim made Alexandria a TuTu. 🙂
We want to thank you for the opportunity to meet your sweet baby Alexandria and to spend time with your family. You wondered about the conversations that I may have had with Sydney coming to visit. I must tell you that she asked to come, and the conversation was simple…a family in need of prayer support and care, a baby girl – a gift of God, in need of love and compassion. Sydney has a loving heart that reaches out to all children and the visit to bring a meal supports our desire to serve others.
In Christ, Debbie & Sydney
Thank you, it was great to have you here as well as everyone else who has helped us out. 🙂