Our Family Begins

Ryan and I were married in March 2004. Time passed quickly and a couple of years later we knew it was time to start our family. Except, no baby came. After two very difficult and emotional years of trying to concieve we were blessed with a miracle. We first welcomed Baby Mullen on January 30, 2010.

As you can all imagine we were thrilled to finally have an addition to our family. Our first sonogram was Febuary 9th and we found out that Baby Mullen was 6 weeks along. She was the most beautiful tiny blob with a pulsating heart.

Again we had a sono only two weeks later. Our OBGYN, who is extra cautious, wanted to make sure she was going to stick around.

Now she was two blobs with one tiny little arm sticking up. Amazing progress for only two weeks!

Another sono was done on March 17th for our 11th week checkup. Everything looked great and after a lot of reassurance from our physician we were finally started to feel some of the anxiety eased.

April 8th was D-Day (Diagnosis Day). I woke up for work at 5 a.m. and found some spotting. I called the doctor's office and they recommened that we come in for a check up and sono. After 4 tense hours of waiting we head in for a sono. We were so excited to see the progress the baby had made. When the sono started we instantly started smiling and talking about the baby's arms and legs kicking and wiggling. Her heart was pounding away and we could palpate the love growing between us and our little baby. We didn't have any idea that the sono tech wasn't looking at wiggly legs and arms or even her heart. She was looking at her head.

Dr. Sheridan was wonderful when he broke the news. He came right out and said, "there's a problem with the baby's head. It's too small. It's looks like the baby has anencephaly. I am so sorry." I didn't even know what anencephaly was but I knew it couldn't be good. I made him write it down on a piece of paper and explain everything he could so I knew exactly what I was going to deal with. He told me that he wanted me to go see a peri-natologist as soon as possible to confirm the diagnosis.

The rest of the day was agonizing. I didn't know what to do, should I be sad or hope for a miracle? Many friends and family came to our aide that day. They sat in my living room and shared my tears. I am so thanful for you all that helped us that day. We couldn't have made it without you all.

The next day we saw Dr. Loo with St. Luke's peri-natology group. We had a level II sonogram and again we saw the same beautiful site as the day before. My mom came with us to the sono for support and to see the baby. I told the sono tech that I wanted to see her head, I needed to see it for myself. Dr. Loo confirmed our fears, he said it was classic case of anencephaly. The next thing out of his mouth was, "A common option is to terminate the pregnancy." We knew that termination was not an option.

Every life is precious and has meaning. God blessed us with this little life and we are determined to enjoy it and rejoice in His blessing. We are only now beginning to discover how meanful her life will be to us.