My Grace I Give You

Our oldest, Grace Ashley, was born March 26, 2000, a normal, beautiful, 7 lbs, 7 oz. little girl. It wasn't always that way. Early on in Amanda's pregnancy, the doctors were saying that Grace was not gonna be okay.

At 11 weeks gestation, an ultrasound picked up an abnormality. It showed an abnormal nuchal translucency reading which pointed to a possibiity of having a child with Down's Syndrome. This meant a host of complications, such as heart problems, developmental delays, and other physical, emotional and intellect challenges.

One so-called medical expert said our baby might not survive a day past birth, in that her heart might not be strong enough. Another advised us on abortion. This, in a Baptist Hospital? I was not preparted to hear this. Grace was our first child, so all this was quite a shock.

We asked that our church pray for us and asked advice of some parents who were members. One was a doctor and the others were a couple who had a child with Down's Syndrome. In fact I had taught this boy in our Youth Group. They both were very encouraging and helped us so much! We saw God is in control and that we were stewards of whatever He gave us. It was such a blessing to see it that way.

Another blessing was that we realized the amount of support we had and that we would be able to handle (with God's help) whatever came across our path. we would never consider abortion, but do understand the tremendous concern and worry young parents may have when faced with such a situation.

Well, a few months went by, more specialists saw Amanda and more powerful ultrasounds were conducted. Over time, the abnormality disappeared and everything appeared normal.

Later, I found out that there is a false positive chance of 5%. That means that 1 out of 20 times a parent is given the potentially bad news that there child might be different... oh what a word! And yet we perservered and did not give in to the temptation of aborting our child. How could we?

I sometimes wonder how many parents make that decision, based on incomplete evidence. How many couples, and even single mothers, who may not have the support systems we had, the faith we had, even the positive thinking I had, how many, make that choice, to abort a baby that might not be absolutely... perfect?

This is a question I will consider on another day, another post, another time. Please leave your thoughts and comments and questions.

Well Grace today is a tall, sensitive, bright and creative young lady. She is aware of this "miracle" that occured even before she was born. She knows that God has a special plan for her life and we look forward to her doing great things in Gods Kingdom. Amen!