Janary 12, 2016; 20 weeks

Rose,

On Tuesday January 12, 2016 we went in for my 20 week ultrasound to find out your gender. We were so excited to find out you were a girl! I’d been trying so hard not to hope for a specific gender so I wouldn’t be disappointed if you weren’t a girl. So I was very happy to hear that you were a girl!

At the ultrasound they looked for a while at the rest of your anatomy to make sure that things were looking good and that you were developing properly and on schedule. The ultrasound lasted for a while, they looked at you for about an hour. It sure was fun to get a look at you when we could see more than a little blob. We went back out to the waiting room until my doctor could meet with us. Dr. Kelly told us that there was an abnormality with your heart. They couldn’t get a good enough look at it to be able to tell what exactly what was wrong, so they decided to send us to NW Perinatal Center which is where they send ladies with high risk pregnancies. I was told that I should get a call later that day from the office there to schedule our appointment.

As we left (I had your dad and grandma Giles with me) I immediately started texting family. I asked that you be kept in prayers and that we do a family fast the next day. You sure have a lot of people that love you so much already!

Dad had picked me up at work and we left for your appointment from there, so we headed back to pick up my car. As we pulled in to get my car work my phone rang. NW Perinatal could fit us in first thing in the morning. Our appointment would be at 8:20 the next morning, and it would be 2+ hours long. I decided since we were at my work anyway I would just go in to talk to my manager about taking the following morning off. She was very understanding and I let her know I would be in as soon as I could after the appointment. I was stopped by sweet coworkers who wanted to know your gender, and a few of whom I explained the situation to since I wasn’t planning on coming back in to work after the appointment and got a few questions about things.

When we were all home together that evening, Grandma asked if I would like her to stay for the appointment the next morning. I did. Dad took the morning off work as well. All night I just hoped and prayed that whatever they were seeing would be common and not a big deal. I hoped that you just had a heart murmur, or a hole in your heart. Despite all the fear, Dad and I were very calm that night, and I know we had peace from all the prayers that people were offering on our behalf.