July 8th...update #4/23 weeks

Dear Family,

Saying "thank you" during this time in our lives feels so insufficient, but we express it the best way we can. We are blessed to have you in our life and our prayer is that the Lord might speak to you through our testimony. So, thank you for sticking close through this chapter. The love and support that you have showed has help to sustain us.

I've struggled to write an update over these last few weeks. Putting words to our situation has been difficult, but we know that we need to ask for prayer at this point, so here we are.

I'll tell you what we know so far. Test results have come back and showed that our baby has Turner Syndrome. According to the doctor, this is just an isolated chromosomal issue that is highly unlikely to repeat in future pregnancies. The fluid has increased on the heart and lungs. We nearing our 4th week of waiting since we were made aware of the situation. We are doing as well as we know how. We know that our God is sovereign. We know that our family loves us. We know that our family prays for us while we wait. We know that our God will receive glory from this situation, and we know that we will continue to believe in the power of the cross even though we feel weak right now.

There is something else we know. We are having a girl. We believe that this little girl is loved by its Creator. We do not know why she is facing affliction, but we have to trust that she is loved. While we know that she was sent to us, we are very confident that she was made for God. This is hard for me to type, because I feel angry that she will not necessarily bring us any joy. We ask all the questions that maybe you have asked in the valley, but we believe that God made her, and He accepts her.

We've given her a name: "Glory". We read Psalm 29 and are comforted. We are doing our best to ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name and worship the Lord in the splendor of His holiness" (verse 2). While this is hard to do during a trial, we believe that the Lord will give strength to His people, and the Lord blesses His people with peace (verse 11).

We saw the doctor again this morning at 9:00. We are very fortunate to have such a wonderful group of doctors and nurses taking care of us. They say we have a fighter as the heartbeat is still very strong. Our next appointment is a sonogram/check-up with the high-risk specialist, and we're scheduled for Monday July 20th at 9:30. Meanwhile we're resting in the comfort of Romans 8:28

"for those who love God, ALL things work together for good for those who are called according to His purpose."


Love,

Zeb & Ally