August 24th is when I first heard Amanda's story. We have a group on Facebook for MOPS and she made a post on there. This is her post that she shared with us:
"This week has been a tough one. At the beginning of summer we learned that despite me getting the paraguard placed shortly after meghan was born I became pregnant. With a successful removal and numerous ultrasounds following we thought we were in the clear. I was given the option to abort this baby but trusted God had a plan for this child and even though with the high demands of Meghan and my other three children I put my full trust in God. My pregnancy has been uneventful and as I looked forward to finding out if our baby was a boy or girl my excitement grew.
We opted for the screening test to screen for genetic disorders. It came back positive for trisomy 18. But I was assured by many those are typically false positives.
I promptly made an appointment at u of m for a level two ultrasound last Monday where we received the devastating news our baby has what is called Limb Body Wall complex. In our baby's circumstance that means he has a small head, tiny chin, his heart fills his very small chest cavity, his lungs are not developed, all his other organs have formed outside his abdominal wall. He has severe scoliosis, and two club feet all of this is due to a lack of umbilical cord forming. This is not a genetic disorder but rather a anomaly that happens 1/40,000. There is no cure and it is 100% fatal.
Again given the choice to terminate him I am choosing to carry him as long as God allows. His heart beat is strong and he loves to put his precious hands on his cheeks. I may go to term which will be January. I have to believe God chose me to be his mother for whatever little time I have with him. We were able to find out through a blood test he is a boy.
Please keep our family and my other kids in your prayers as they are very sad we won't be able to bring him home.
Please keep our family and my other kids in your prayers as they are very sad we won't be able to bring him home.
Owen Isaac Plunkett"
She also posted this picture of him
After I read that post my heart just broke. I just thought how strong of a person she was. To be honest, I really don't know what I would do in that situation. I don't know if I could have the strength that she has and not going into a deep depression. For her instead of thinking "why me?" she decided to put her sadness into something to help others. Let me tell you, I know I would have had the "why me?" moment. Eli has his condition that I have cried and prayed over and even then I have asked "why him, why me?" and then put all my time and energy focusing on what I needed to do for him. I haven't even thought about how many other babies are affected by crainiosynostosis and what I can do to help them. Amanda was not like me, her heart flowed outward to help others. She has become an inspiration to me and I hope now that I can have my heart flow more like hers instead of just focusing on my issues.
Amanda started a page on Facebook called Owen's Gift. The link to it if you want to find out more is https://www.facebook.com/owensgift after finding out that precious little Owen wasn't going to survive outside of the womb she started to think about other families that have to go through the same thing. She was worried about what to dress little Owen in, if he came early. She was lucky to have friends that know how to knit and crochet and could make something for him but she started to think, what about the other moms that have to go through this? That's where she came up with the idea of Owen's gift where people can make and donate handmade baby items to be given to grieving families.
Please if you can go to that page to find out more and if you can help out at all Amanda can add you to a group on Facebook too. I have been praying for Amanda and her family from day one. I couldn't even imagine going through what she has gone through.
On December 5th little Owen was born. She made a post on our MOPS group a long with the Owens Gift group and page. It read "Owen Isaac Plunkett went to heaven at 12:52am. Shortly after my water broke. After a very hard labor and delivery he arrived into this world at 5:59am. Surrounded by love. He is 3 pounds 15 oz and 13 is inches long. And Amazing. Thank you for support." I cried for most of that day. My heart just weeps for her and her husband. Here are some beautiful pictures of Owen that she has shared:
He is so perfect and just a gift from God. He has touched so many lives around him. Amanda was telling me that its amazing how perfect he is for how sick he was, I couldn't agree more. He is one gorgeous angel! Since Owen's passing this family has been on my mind a lot. Its hard for me to write a lot of blog posts but it is a sort of therapy for me. Today I decided was the day I was going to post about this and with Amanda's blessing I am so glad I am able to. With everything that is going on in our daily lives I just pray that each of us can take the time to think of others.
Peace and Love,
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