Wednesday, April 15, 2009

9 years ago yesterday.....

I recieved a phone call that would FOREVER change the course of my life...

And that of my unborn son....

Wanna hear about it?


9 Years ago I was 19 weeks pregnant with my second child. My first pregnancy had gone TERRIBLY wrong, and my daughter Taylor died at birth after a full term pregnancy. So you can surely imagine the devastation I felt when at 18 weeks along into this pregnancy I found out that I was carrying a child with a sever birth defect. I felt like the world had been pulled out from under me, and that my Lord had forsaken me. I will tell you now, the world went on, and the Lord was with me every step of the way. But it was never easy! And the agony that I went through during this coming week 9 years ago still haunts me today!

I was BLESSED beyond words to have an AMAZING Doctor, Dr Cedars in San Luis Obispo. This poor man has had a very tough job in my life! He was the Doctor that had the incredibly hard job of telling me that Taylor had died, then just a short time latter he was the one to diagnose my Nathaniel's birth defect. I can't tell you how my heart stopped when he looked at me and said "Gretchen, I have some news for you." I KNEW it was not good news.... and it wasn't. My unborn child had a sever birth defect commonly called Spina Bifida. I personally knew very little about Spina Bifida, but I can assure you I QUICKLY learned A LOT about it in the next few days.

In the first weeks of April 2000 I went under MANY tests, and talked to many local Doctors. All of whom were laying out a life of doom for myself and my child. Many were pushing termination at me, but I could NOT terminate my pregnancy, not after what I had gone through with Taylor. Dr Cedars seemed to be the only one that understood where I was coming from and my conviction that the Lord had given me THIS child for a specific purpose and reason. And Dr Cedars was the one who made THE CALL, the one that changed the course of everything!

Dr Cedars had attended a convention and an acquaintance of his had told him about a BRAND NEW surgery that was just starting to be tested on unborn babies with the exact birth defect that my child had! He knew next to nothing about it, but had the name of three hospitals for me to call that might know more about it.....

Be sure to check back to hear what I learned in the next few hours...

1 comments:

April Kennedy said...

Gretchen.....I love your story so far. And I actually know the rest. Believe it or not....we have met before! At UCSF....we had Blake there for clinic when he was about 6 months old and we met you in the hallway outside of our rooms. You told me your story and we chatted for a few. I am almost positive it is you. AND......that is why I wanted your email address...to tell you that we have met before! I do want to chat more through emails and I definitely can't wait to hear the rest of the story! Crazy huh!