So, Here Goes....

I am going to attempt to put into words what our rollercoaster for the last 24 hours or so has been... so bear with me. I know many of you have already gotten the "word", so THANK YOU for walking this faith journey with us already. For those who are just reading this, well, here goes... and I'm sorry it'll take awhile.
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First of all, we are JOYFUL beyond belief to announce the upcoming arrival of our new DAUGHTER... Brooklyn Hope Beaver. It makes me smile just to see her new name, so I colored it! :) Reagan got to see her on screen with us yesterday, and it was fun to hear her start to talk about her new baby sister. The alarming news came after, although the second-girl news might be called "alarming" to some degree in David's world. :)
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We could tell by the faces of the tech and the radiologist at the ultrasound that something was up, but he wouldn't tell us. Literally, didn't speak a WORD to us other than that he was making at appt with my OB for the same day (yesterday). So they send us straight to my OB with no news at all, but we did go ahead and make arrangements for Reagan for the day. (Thank you SO much to James, Mary, and our awesome family to coming to our rescue!) We sit and wait at my OB's office for awhile so they could squeeze us in, and she finally comes in to break the news... she had spoken with the radiologist and he saw multiple abnomalities with the baby. From what he told her, she said the pregnancy may not be viable, and it was evident that Brooklyn would not survive her issues. She made us an appt with the perinatologist for 4pm yesterday (it was about 11am at the time) and said we would love him and he would explain in more details what we were looking at. I love my OB, and at this time I am crying, she is crying and hugging me, David is crying. We've been given the worst news ever and have to wait 5 hours for it to all be hashed out again. So for that span of time, we made some hard phone calls, and then sat and hugged and prayed and cried and hugged and prayed and cried until it was time to go back.
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By the time we saw the specialist, it was 4:45 and I was dreading it. Seriously, I am very pregnant and emotional anyway! But, our prayers of those yucky hours were instantly answered... her issues were not nearly showing as bad as the radiologist had seen. Was he wrong that morning? I don't know of course, but I am saying God changed it by his grace. Period. Anyways, to the details... Brooklyn does have spina bifida. Our new doctor is certain she will survive this, but she will have a rough road ahead with this condition. Bless her heart. Ok, so. Lord willing, I will be able to carry her to term, then she will immediately have surgery on her spine to repair the issue after the csection. She also is showing fluid on her brain, and they will need to put in a shunt for that. But he is also confident that the shunt will be no problem for her at all, and she will have perfectly normal brain function, IQ, etc. There is no way to predict what kind of physical impairments will be a result of the spinal issue, if any. BUT, he kept telling us he was "cautiously optimistic" for her outcome... that it was about 50/50 that she could come out of this a perfectly healthy, normal kid (her particular spinal "thing" that I don't know the medical term for was one of the best kind to have... I mean, if you gotta have it). The other 50% would mean she has some sort of physical issues that could be a broad spectrum of things. And we can deal with that if/when it comes, but we are praying for the first!!! In the word of sweet Linda F... "we'll take that 50% and add God to it and then see what happens!!!" :) Heck yeah!
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So, by the time it was all said and done, spina bifida and all that entails was good news! Much better than the first news. We were given Hope in those hours of prayers yesterday afternoon, so Hope was added to her name yesterday. :) We have a long road ahead of us before and after she is brought to our family, but I am thrilled to know that God has gone before us on this road. My emotions are beyond nuts right now, but we're ok. We ask (beg) for your prayers for Brooklyn over the next few months. I believe with ALL my heart that God can heal our girl. He. Can. So that is our prayer. However, we also know His Will is beyond us, so if that is not His perfect plan for Brooklyn, then I look forward to knowing all He will do through our girl and her challenges. David and I ask for your prayers as well... this was obviously not our ideal plan, but we ask for courage and wisdom and strength and peace to take the place of our fears.

Thank you ahead of time for your prayers. There are things short and long term to pray for specifically:
1) that God heals this baby!!!
2) the amnio test results from yesterday come back perfectly, and there are no more complications than what we already know
3) for our doctors, my OB Dr. Wynne, specialist Dr. Kirshon, and Brooklyn's surgeon we haven't met yet
4) for Reagan, that normalcy will continue to surround her as much as possible
5) for continued peace and comfort for all of us

I will update of course as much as we find out along the way, but will also continue to blog as much of normal life too. I mean, Big Sister Reagan will still have some great stuff to document!! Again, we are so blessed to have so many prayers for our family. It has made me ask so many times "how does someone without Jesus do it?!" We are thankful for our Great Physician and for our fabulous Christian community... may you all be blessed by our sweet Brooklyn Hope!! :)
Love- D, J, & R