My Second Miracle Son

Yesterday at church we had some wonderful talks given to us in Sacrament Meeting by a family in our ward. They shared some very personal experiences that they went through when one of their daughters was born, which reminded me of what our family went through with our son Damon.

I married my husband at the age of 25--"old" if you were born and raised in Utah, "normal" everywhere else. We wanted to have children right away, but that was not God's timing for us. Our son Ethan arrived after we celebrated our fourth wedding anniversary. We were so happy! We didn't want him to be an only child, and we planned on having a big family. We tried for many years to get pregnant. We had all the tests done, went to specialists, who told us nothing was wrong with our "equipment" but they didn't know why we couldn't get pregnant. It was a difficult time for me. Everyone around me had no trouble at all having children. I felt so alone in my struggles. It's hard when people keep asking you when you are going to have more children. Their questions aren't mean to hurt, but they do.

We quit our jobs in Utah, packed up our little family, and moved to Hawaii to see if we could get my husband working on his Masters Degree at the University of Hawaii. It was a great plan, but God had a different plan for us. It was there in Hawaii that we learned we were expecting again. Although we had no jobs, no insurance, no nothing, we were so excited to be given this little miracle.

Being pregnant is always a tough experience for me. I am extremely sick for at least the first trimester and usually the second as well. It was no different in Hawaii. We made it to the 20 weeks where they do the first main tests on the baby to see how the fetus is doing. We had our ultrasound done, and they told us we were expecting another boy. They did a lot of tests and measurements to the baby before they called the doctor in to talk to us. Apparently, the baby was showing signs of being Down Syndrome. They perform some kind of test where they measure the thickness of the babies skin at the back of the neck and ours came out irregular. I remember they had us schedule an appointment with a genetic counselor so we could discuss possible outcomes.

We went to that appointment where they sat us down and explained to us all the possible things that could be wrong with our baby. Then they told us that we could to take the risk and have this baby, with all of it's problems and complications, or we could abort the baby and be done with it. I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that families are eternal. We knew the risks, but there was no way I was going to abort my child. We had prayed for so long for this miracle to happen; we would love this baby no matter what the outcome!

I think the doctors were a little surprised by our answer. They decided because I was so "old" and the baby was having signs of complications to take more tests. I thought it ironic that the place that they sent our tests too was the University of Utah. We then made the decision to move back to Utah so that in case we needed the extra help we could go to the U of U hospital.

Damon was born late in the evening on 7 May 2011.  His temperature had dropped, and they took him away to warm his little body up, but that was the only problem that he had. He was a very healthy child. The first thing our doctor commented on after he was born was the size of Damon's foot. The doctor told us if he lived up to the size of his foot, he was going to be one big fellow.

 I am so grateful for the knowledge that I have that families are eternal. I can't imagine not having Damon in our family. He is a very special son and our miracle!

Look at my baby now!