A Few Updates & Something Special

This has been a busy week of making appointments and learning about what the next (hopefully) 10 weeks will involve. I spoke with the Maternal-Fetal Specialist at the Prenatal Wellness Center in Charleston earlier this week. I will go to them on the 26th of this month for an ultrasound and to meet with the specialist that will deliver our daughter via c-section. He will provide my OB here with a schedule/recommendation of the care and procedures that I am to have done on a weekly basis to chart my progress through the remainder of the pregnancy. I will not see him again until I am ready to deliver! I am praying that we get a date or at least a close date at the appointment on the 26th. Many of you have asked when she will be born and I would love to have a little better answer!

Also, I begin going to the OB next week for growth & weight check ultrasounds. It has been quite a while since I got to see her precious little face so I am really excited about that! We have had a lot of tests but almost all of them only look at her heart so Scott and I are both looking forward to seeing the rest of her. I pray that we are pleasantly surprised by how big she had gotten.

Something else that has been wonderful for our family is that South Carolina is finally starting a Saving Little Hearts! A friend of mine, Julie Miles, sent me the info that she saw as she was looking at some things on HLHS. Julie's son, Ethan, also has HLHS so she is involved in getting a support group formed in North Carolina, too. So, I contacted the director for SLH and the first meeting is this Saturday. Saturday is also my wonderful husband's birthday and the day we have been planning to go out of town for a few days but we are definitely making the first SLH meeting! The meeting is at noon in town so we will go to it for a little while and then head off to the beach from there. The director told me that there will be several other families there with HLHS. I am really looking forward to meeting someone in person that has been where we are. I don't really know how to prepare myself for this. Part of me is thrilled and the other part is a little anxious...please pray that Scott and I have strength and peace while we are there. God has assured me that we will be so blessed by it. I have felt such a sense of peace and warmth through talking and emailing the other heart moms. I am sure that meeting them and their children will be amazing.

Finally, the most special thing that we would like to share is that we have named our daughter!!! Her name is Annabelle Lynn. She is named after three incredibly strong women...my mom, Scott's mom and my materal grandmother. We kept going back to that name as "the" name and then I looked up the meaning a couple of weeks ago and found that it means Gracious and Merciful Beauty! How perfect! Annabelle has already proved herself through her name. A name that we truly felt God gave us to give to her.

Thank you for your constant prayers and support. We believe in miracles and believe that Christ will perform one on our daughter. We don't know when or how but we know that He will.