Purpose

I've enjoyed telling everyone all about our recent adventures, but here is a post about moving forward.  

"To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven."

-Ecclesiastes 3:1

I think the biggest part of moving forward would have to be getting closure.  We did not get any closure with Hope, mainly because we weren't sure what was going on and all of our doctors thought it was a fluke, a one time occurrence.  When we found out that Ben had similar issues, we knew we wanted to get closure and, more importantly, answers for the future.  Well, we finally got some (sorta).  

When I was pregnant with Ben, we started meeting with a geneticist, Karrie, at the IU Prenatal Diagnosis Center.  (In case anyone ever has to go there, they are AMAZING.)  Karrie is great and helped us to plan out our "testing plan" for when Ben was going to be born.  We had paperwork attached to our files at IU and Memorial, just in case he was born there early.  (We had a delivery scheduled at IU in December.)  There was one scenario we didn't plan on.  Evansville.  However, Brady and I had an extra set of the paperwork in our overnight bag for when we went to the hospital.  I consider that good planning on our part.  Ben was born at St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville, and Dr. Hughes was able to collect cord blood for testing. 

Fast forward to the end of January.  We had an assessment with KateCares.  After meetings about our cases (They collected all the notes from appointments with Hope and Ben.), they came to a tentative diagnosis.  Our families and friends have already been notified of this, and one day I might be willing to share it, but I'm going to keep it a bit more private right now.  (Or at least until we know for sure what it is.)  

The passage above from Ecclesiastes was sent to Brady and me by his cousin, Kasey, and his girlfriend, Elaine.  I have always liked this passage and I always thought I understood it, but I don't think that I really understood it until now.  Some people may wonder how I have been able to see the 'reason' behind all of this, but here is what I have come to the conclusion of.  Hope was sent into our lives, and her life was very brief.  I believe she was sent to us to be more thankful for what we do have in our lives.  On the other hand, I believe that Ben was sent to us to let us know that we do have a genetic issue  with a recurrence risk.  He let us know that it is okay to pursue adoption, should we want to, and that again, we should be thankful for what we have in our lives.  

We are thankful that we do have more information now.  We have been blessed with doctors who want us to get an answer and geneticists who are willing to do anything for us to get us that answer.  We keep praying that we continue to be blessed and one day we have the family that we long for.