Just a Year Ago

It was about a year ago that we found out we were pregnant. Isn't it amazing that with all the technology out there, we still don't know exactly when the moment of conception occurs?

Just a year ago we had no idea how eventful our lives would be and how much we would celebrate a year later.

Some of you are new to our story, some may have forgotten...when I was pregnant with Rachel at 20 weeks, I went in for a routine sonogram. It showed major problems with the baby. We were told that she would not survive. She might live a day or a week, but not very long, that she was probably already brain-dead. We were told that we would have to consider termination, that her condition was not compatible with life. We were told that I could carry her to term and then donate her organs to help another baby. We were told that these things happen. We were told that there was no hope.

But (isn't that just the greatest word in the English language??) that wasn't the case. Another doctor diagnosed Rachel's condition as Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. She would live. She would lead a normal life. She would walk and run and go to school. (You can go to our Caring Bridge site for the back story www.caringbridge.org/visit/rachelmischler)

Benjamin and I took a drive the other day and I stopped to get this picture.

Take a good look at it. What do you see? That's where John's brother Dan is buried. Take another look, what do you see, or rather NOT see? You do not see the name

RACHEL ELIANNA MISCHLER.

You see the place where my child is supposed to be buried. You see, that's what was supposed to happen. She was not supposed to live. She was supposed to die. She is supposed to be buried right there beside her uncle Dan. But, she's not. She is alive and healthy and fat and oh so happy. What you see there is an empty grave.

Just a year ago when I suspected I was pregnant, I had Strep Throat and a very high fever. No one will give me a clear answer, no one knows for sure, but all the books say a high fever could be a cause of Neural Tube Defects (Spina Bifida). I keep thinking that just a year ago, I was still innocent about babies and death.

In this past year, we have become acquainted with loss and death and hope and life. John and I talk often and remind ourselves of the magnitude of what has occurred, of what God has done. This is a miracle. Rachel is a miracle. God has done something way beyond the scope of our understanding and expectation.