Late Night Thoughts

Just something that has been running through my head the last two nights before I fall asleep...

Everything we have is a gift from God, given to us to give back to Him. Sometimes I think we get proud with how much we give to God but forget He gave it to us in the first place! This applies to our children too. I think that's what I hold on to tighter than anything in this world. My kids. They are the most precious gift given to me other than my own salvation. So, God has been reminding me the last two nights that I am to give them back to Him. Not just Baby Hope, but Taylor and Macy too. They are His! I give them to Him knowing He is a good and sovereign God. It feels good to relinquish control over the thing I hold dearest! :) Thank you God for blessing me with three sweet babies and a husband who loves You, our kids and ME!

Third Pregnancy

Somehow all three of my pregnancies have been different. Different amounts and lengths of sickness, different cravings and different highlites! I had gone about ten days without morning sickness but this morning... bummer, my streak ended. :) This time around I have been craving massive amounts of fruit. Here are some things that I consume alot of...

New Picture

May 7, 2010 - I had a wonderful morning! We had a Level 2 sonogram scheduled early this morning, so the four of us got to see Baby Hope. We really liked the Dr. who did the sonogram. He seemed so positive and upbeat, which matched our spirits. :) Hope was moving everywhere just like she has during all the other sonograms. Other than her arms and legs which are short and the bones curved, she looks completely healthy! The Dr. could only get one good 3D picture of her because she just wouldn't be still. She's a wild child already! But the one picture we did get was GREAT!! She's such a little cutie.



Josh and I had a refreshing time in Birmingham this past weekend. We attended The Church at Brook Hills and were blessed to sit under some incredible teaching from one of our favorite pastors, David Platt. I just love how God works things out! Sunday morning the sermon was on the Psalm 23 passage, The Shepherd Who Satisfies. It was a sermon Dr. David Platt had prepared especially for those going through hard times or who are hurting. HELLO!! :) All I can say is that it was perfect. God planned for us to be there and the words spoken were meaningful, accurate and a salve to my heart. If you have some time, I would really encourage you to listen to the message we heard.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/chapter-16-the-shepherd-who/id319699838?i=82896850



Taylor and Macy are talking about Baby Hope more and more these days. Macy calls her "Hote". :) And Taylor has been asking me quite frequently if the baby is ok. He is so caring! They love the picture we got of her today...

Hope's Diagnosis

We are currently in Birmingham, AL visiting with some friends of ours. I was wanting to update everyone before we left but ran out of time.

4/28/10- I got a call from my doctor mid morning. She let us know that Hope's diagnosis is Thanatophoric Dysplasia. It's the diagnosis we expected but was hoping it wasn't. It is a severe form of dwarfism that as the doctors put it, "isn't compatible with life". Normally under these conditions, when a baby is diagnosed with TD, they usually live about three hours after birth. We will just proceed with the pregnancy as normal and will still have Level 2 sonograms monthly. Our next one is at the end of this week. It's really good to know what Hope has but also hard now that it's a for sure reality. Doesn't change anything in how we are feeling and are responding though. We are still full of joy and God is still supplying an abundance of strength. God has an incredible plan for our family and we don't want to take one opportunity for granted. He will use us through this and in this!

Hope moves and kicks so much. I love that feeling! She is a blessing to me and I am reminded daily of the privilege I have to carry her.

My friend Amy Crawford has begun a prayer chain for us and baby Hope. I know MANY of you are praying for us and if you would like to be a part of the prayer chain and have a specific time slot to pray, you can contact Amy at jwcrawford74@yahoo.com.

the beginning of the journey

I'm not really sure how to start this blog. :) It's my first! I've been wanting to start one up for a while now but like with alot of things I put it off. This isn't just going to be a blog though, I want this to be an inspiration, a treasure and one day a fond memory. This blog is dedicated to my sweet baby girl, Hope Isabella. I wanted to write about her and about our family as we grow and learn and love through this journey.

Dec 28th, 2009- I had this feeling I was pregnant. We were heading to Branson in a couple of days and I wanted to find out if I was before we went so that I could share it with all of Josh's family at the same time while we were there for New Year's. :) I took a test and I was overjoyed to see that it was positive!! Thank you God for the blessing of another baby!

It was so much fun to tell family and friends the wonderful news of another addition to the Reasons family. I had a sonogram right away since we weren't sure of gestation and wanted to nail down a due date. I got to see the little "bubble" in my womb that was my precious baby being formed by God. He knew His plan for her life before He formed her!

Psalm 139:13-16

For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

March 29, 2010- We scheduled a sonogram when I was 18 weeks. I was so excited to find out if we were adding another girl or another boy to our family. SERIOUSLY... it was better than Christmas, I was just giddy with excitement. Josh, Taylor and Macy and I all got comfy in the scan room. Then there it was, the beautiful sound of our baby's heartbeat! There on the screen we saw our gift from God. The sonographer asked Taylor if he saw the baby on the screen that was in mommy's tummy? He said "hmmm... yeah, well I have popcorn in my tummy". So Funny! She could sense my excitement about finding out if we're having a boy or girl so she said "ok, are you ready?". I said YES! She typed out something on her keyboard and told us to look at the screen and then the words popped up... "I'm a girl". :) A GIRL! I loved knowing that.

Then she began to measure everything and chart it all. After a little while she spoke softly to me and said that she was concerned with how the baby's femur was measuring. She told us that the limbs were measuring 4 weeks behind, which might indicate a form of dwarfism. I was emotional and somewhat shocked. Never had it crossed my mind that something like this might come up. I just don't think that way. Instantly though like a wave, God gave me peace. It was going to be alright no matter the outcome. My Dr. scheduled us an appointment for a Level 2 sonogram with a specialist. She warned me before we went that it's their job to give the facts and that they're very "doom and gloom". Even with that warning my heart wasn't prepared to hear the Dr. tell us that according to what he saw it looked like our baby has one of four conditions, two are considered to be fatal. WHAT?! Again because I don't think like that, I was shocked. It hadn't entered my mind that she might not live. Josh and I had about a week before this to process and be content with the challenge of possibly having a child with dwarfism. But now they were telling me she doesn't have a good chance of surviving. Somehow I still had God's peace. My mind was spinning but when you've experienced the "peace that passes understanding", it takes over. The Dr. told us we would have the option for termination. Again WHAT?!! We had just seen our active, whole baby girl on the screen and he asks us that?? Josh calmly told him that it would never be option for us and we would not even consider it and we were seeing this all the way through. Thank you God for a husband who gets it and YOU!

The next step was to decide if wanted to do the amniocentesis or not to better help determine what our baby's diagnosis was. After praying and talking to each other about it for a few days, I talked to my Dr. and talked to a nurse friend. We decided it was something we wanted to do. If there is even a small chance that she has something less severe and we can help her in any way... we want to be able to do that. The test was done last week and now we are awaiting the results.

I want to share with you what God has taught us so far and what He has done in my heart. First of all God is sovereign! He is in control. His plan is ALWAYS the best and better than we could imagine for ourselves. Even though we can't see the outcome, we know He is going to use this for good. And He already has! Our baby's days were numbered by God before He gave her life. I TRUST HIM COMPLETELY! Our goal in all of this now, is to step by step through this journey, to give our awesome God the glory. We pray that God sees our hearts and knows our desire to glorify Him.

Hope Isabella Reasons