Many of you may know the details of our story already. However I have been writing things down since we found out about our sweet baby boy and I feel I should share my heart throughout this life changing process. I am not much of a writer and I tend to be all over the place at times. I also am not one to start up a blog to share with the world about the storm we are walking through, but I have been encouraged by so many stories that people have so courageously told that I thought maybe someone might be encouraged by ours. My hope in this is that the truth of Jesus and His promises would become more real to people as they have for me. I'll start from the beginning from when we first found out the news.

At 20 weeks the doctors told us we were having another baby boy with a serious heart defect. So serious and unusual that there was no name for it. So many issues with his heart development, that the doctors had a hard time seeing/making sense of the defect he had. The pictures they drew of his heart had scribbles, erase marks, and white out over what they thought they saw but couldn't make out for sure. It was one of the longest days of my life.  We were so sad and afraid for his little life. We had no idea what this would mean for our life or his. The doctors sent us up to Columbus to go forward with mine and Jacob's care. Each doctor consulted other doctors and were very compassionate with us because of this severe and unusual heart defect. They all apologized and said this is a lightning strike of an occurrence, sometimes the heart just doesn't develop correctly for no reason at all, assuring us it wasn't anything we did.

We felt sad, scared, not sure what life with our other son Connor would look like once Jacob was born. Jacob would need several open heart surgeries, as a newborn, at 6 months, and anywhere from 2-4 years of age. Each time we visited the doctor the diagnosis changed. It was hard to be mad at the doctors, it was far from a normal heart..even a heart with defects. They told us terrible news then the next visit they told us very hopeful news to the next one devastating news. Each time we had to
adjust to the new diagnosis. It was difficult to process everything because we had no certainties about what really was going on with our baby. But our hope is in Christ and knowing the truth that He is good no matter what circumstance you are in is something we have held very tightly too. We have said we believed these promises for years and now more than ever we are faced to walk in that truth. We believe they are true and we are encouraged and empowered by the truth in Romans 8:38-39. "For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."