The Waiting Game...

First off, I want to thank each and every one of you for your kind words of encouragement and sweet, sweet prayers for our little girl. They mean the world to us. And believe you me, we have felt your love and support.

The last two days have brought with them a whirlwind of emotions. When dealing with the unknown, it is hard not to let your mind wander. We think the worst, but hope for the best. We are now praying the next 7 days go by quickly. We have at least a million questions for our new doctor and we are (im)patiently waiting to meet him.

Today we went for our amniocentesis. It was nerve-wracking to say the least. But we were able to see our sweet little baby girl again. It's funny how one glimpse of her can immediately push away our fears.

She was a little goof again today. I didn't feel her move all morning long. But as soon as our tech applied pressure for the ultrasound, she was kicking and waving her little arms around like crazy. She hates that stupid thing.

She was moving so much, I got a little worried she would move right into the needle. But, my goodness, as soon as the needle entered her little home, she went perfectly still. She didn't even move an inch. It's so fun [and therapeutic] to see her little spirit and personality already so strong.

Our doctor asked if we had any questions and I had to laugh. Nope Doc, can't think of anything! The biggest question on my mind dealt with her omphalocele. After hours and hours of research, we have found there are several levels of severity with this condition. Sometimes the little baby's entire insides can grow on the outside [like the liver, spleen, intestines, etc]. This is the one thing we were praying against. Our prayers were answered today when our doctor said he was pretty positive the only organ outside of baby girl's belly is her intestines. The recovery is still long and hard, but it requires less surgery. We were also worried about her little heart. Apparently, babies with her condition have severe heart problems. We don't know 100% on this, but her little heart seems to be healthy at this point.  This is great news and it was exactly what we needed to hear today.

After hearing this, Jake and I both felt a new level of peace in our situation. We even took a moment to sit and feel baby girl kick. She makes us laugh, which is exactly what we need.

We still don't have answers on her cleft lip, or the chromosomal issues that may be present. But we are taking one day at a time. Well, we are trying at least.

We know the calmness we have felt today is an answer to the fasting and praying you all have done for us. We greatly appreciate each and every one of you.

We are probably in for more than we know, but today we are calm. Today we are happy. And today we are finally taking a moment to enjoy the news that we have a little girl in our future.