Testimony to the Power of Prayer

Hello, please forgive the length and generic style of this update but I wanted give everyone we have been asking prayer support from the latest information. If you have time, please read. If you do not have time, you can skip to the last paragraph for the latest prayer support requests. In any case we want to sincerely thank you for your prayers. This is update is only possible because of our collective faith in our Father.

About 4 ½ months ago Jackie went for a basic sonogram appointment with her Perinatologist. He is a high-risk doctor she sees due to age and past difficulties maintaining a pregnancy to term. That being said, he has been and is an amazing doctor who helped us bring our second son (Ryder) into this world. During this appointment he noticed an abnormality around the cerebellum and referred to us to National Children’s Hospital in Washington DC to get an MRI. On this day I began sending prayer requests. After 1 week we went to get the MRI of the baby’s brain. On the same day of the MRI we met with genetic counselors and neurologists who confirmed our fears about what our doctor saw in the sonogram. Our baby girl was missing the right cerebellum and vermis along with a malformed left cerebellum caused by a stroke in utero also called an infarction. The prognosis was sketchy at best and our conversation with the doctors started with survivability and ended with us defining quality of life in our terms and us deciding we would fight for her. I continued to ask for prayers from everyone. After a few weeks we went for a 2nd MRI to see if we could see more of the brain since the last one still had blood and swelling from the damage caused by the stroke. The MRI was much clearer, and it confirmed she is missing her entire right cerebellum, and the vermis is highly suspected to also be completely missing in addition to a portion of the left cerebellum. We had a Zoom meeting with the doctors afterwards and spoke about what we saw and the worst-case scenario for her prognosis, and it is terrifying. Jackie and I were already in love with our daughter and again not going to give up on her or the opportunity for God to give her and us a miracle. In addition to all of this, her growth had been significantly delayed, less than 10% in all categories and less than 6% in some at 26 weeks. The rest of her brain and body are normal suggesting this was an isolated incident and not connected to any chromosomal or genetic abnormality, which was the positive piece from that MRI.

This past Friday Jackie went to see her Perinatologist for another level 2 sonogram. Our little girl is now 5lbs 3oz and is in the 20th percentile. Now the amazing part is the brain imagery using an ultrasound. It Shows her left Cerebellum as within normal ranges, and her right cerebellum only showing about 1/3 damaged. Also, there is much more of the vermis than what was shown before. Our doctor is incredibly smart and talented, but he had little explanation. It was missing and there was no brain tissue there for the right-side cerebellum to grow from. This is all incredible news and a miracle in the works. Please keep praying!