Friday, September 18, 2009

Blood Test Results

The wait is finally over, for the blood test results at least. The nurse at the fetal medicine specialist's office told us that the blood test results coupled with the sonogram images indicate that we are at significantly increased odds of having a baby with Down's Syndrome. I never thought that would be good news, but I was actually relieved when I heard that. First, it is our understanding at this point that this is not a definite diagnosis. We know that we serve God who trumps any diagnosis. Secondly, compared to some of the other possible diagnoses, this one gives us hope that we will actually get to bring this little one home. Please continue to pray for the baby that God is knitting together even now--for health and good development. Pray for us that we would be faithful to follow Him every step.

I'll continue to update you not only with medical news but news of our family as it pertains to this little one. Our next appointment with our midwife is Thursday, October 22. We will probably have another sonogram around the halfway mark in my pregnancy (early November) to check the baby's development. We should know more about our little one then. For now, we wait, expecting great things of God.

Thanks for praying,
Amy Joy

Wednesday, September 16, 2009

Journey of Faith

First, I want to again express our profound gratitude for your friendship and prayers! Knowing so many of you are praying for us is a true blessing!

Many of you are waiting for this post so that you know how to continue to pray for us and our little one because we were supposed to get the blood test results today. Unfortunately, the results were not available yet. Having to wait impresses upon me that this will be nothing if not a journey of faith. We pray that He will strengthen our faith (Luke 17:5) and help us in our unbelief (Mark 9:24). Will you pray with us as we wait that our little one would be healthy and that we would continue rest in His extravagant love for us?

With gratitude in my heart,
Amy Joy

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Just Enough Light for the Next Step

Thank you so much for your prayers! We have appreciated knowing you are praying for us. Many of you have sent such kind and compassionate words of encouragement. Thank you for your friendship and upholding us in prayer.

I apologize that I was not able to sit right down at the computer after the sonogram to update you. We’ve had a very busy last two days just taking care of some of the necessities of life. So thanks for your patience.

The maternal and fetal medicine specialist confirmed on Friday that our baby has an excess amount of fluid in its brain and spinal column. So our next prayer request is that this fluid would return to normal levels. He also explained to us several reasons why we might be seeing this excess fluid, but at this point we don’t have a definitive diagnosis. We had a blood test run that might shed some light on our baby’s situation. We’ll know those test results on Wednesday. At this point, we would love it if you would continue to pray that our baby would be healthy and fully formed. We’ll keep you updated as we find out information but this will be a journey. It may be six weeks or more before we have any answers.

I want to assure you that any answers we do receive will not affect whether we choose to carry this baby. We decided several years ago to allow God to plan our family and that we would be honored to carry any child that He entrusted to us. So the answers we might receive will just help our caregivers to know better how to treat us especially if we enter a high-risk category. Would you pray for our caregivers that God would impart His wisdom to them? We are so thankful for the people in the medical community we have journeyed with so far: for our midwives, who love moms and babies, and desire our very best; for the sonographer at the Catholic charity who accepts referrals from local midwives so that she can offer more sonograms to other moms who might be considering abortions with the hopes that seeing their babies will help them make a decision to choose life; for Dr. Magee, the maternal and fetal medicine specialist, that showed such kindness and compassion while offering us the information on the possibilities of what our baby might be experiencing. He really practices speaking the truth in love. I’m grateful for people who even if they don’t know Jesus allow me to see Him better. Please pray that we might be able to encourage the believers we meet and show Jesus to those who don’t know Him as we are on this journey.

We are believing God to be big, to delight in accomplishing what only He can, to confirm that things are not always as they appear to our eyes. Yet we know in this journey that while He may indeed delight in revealing His supremacy (Psalm 77:14), He may be asking us to rely on His sufficiency (2 Corinthians 12:9). Our prayer is that whatever journey the Lord is asking us to follow Him on that we would be found faithful. Right now we don’t know anything about the road ahead. He’s giving us just enough light for the next step.

With a grateful heart for your prayers and friendship,
Amy Joy for all the Olivos

Where the Journey Started

Excerpt from an email we sent on Thursday, September 10, 2009:

...We feel so blessed to be in a place to call home since we are expecting another little one in March 2010. We covet your prayers right now for this little one. We went to the birth center yesterday for my first prenatal visit. The midwife told us that my uterus was larger than she expected for 12 weeks (3 months) so she sent us to have a sonogram. The sonogram revealed that our baby might possibly have a cyst in the forehead region so we have been referred to a maternal and fetal medicine specialist for a high-powered, high-tech sonogram. We have an appointment for that sonogram tomorrow (Friday, September 11). I really have no technical terms to share with you or any other information or possible diagnosis other than this. So we would appreciate your prayers. I will send out an update as soon as we have more information. Thanks for standing in the gap for us!

Love,
The Olivos
Layne, Amy Joy, Katy Jayne, Connor, Jordan and Baby Olivo