The date of my first doctor’s appointment was a day that my husband Chris and I looked forward to for almost a month. We were so excited to finally see a picture of our precious baby. I looked at the picture of my baby on the monitor and my eyes filled with tears. Our joy was short lived. Within a matter of a few minutes the nurse informed us that she saw something wrong with the baby, and we would need to speak with the doctor. The next hour was really a blur. The doctor told us that the irregularities led him to believe that the baby had a chromosome abnormality, Down Syndrome or Turners were the most likely. I was only 12 weeks pregnant.

The one thing I do remember is that Chris looked right into my eyes and said to me, “I don’t care what’s wrong with the baby, even if it has Down Syndrome I will love it the same.” I could tell he truly meant it, and he was speaking from his heart. Later that day we were able to meet with a specialist, and he once again confirmed that there was something very wrong with the baby. There was a cystic hygroma present on the back of the neck area. I was so surprised at the diagnosis. It never occurred to me that there could be anything wrong with my baby. I cried so much I could hardly function.

Chris and I traveled up to a larger town about 2 hours away to see another specialist. He was the best in our state. I was scheduled to undergo a procedure called a CVS, where part of the placenta is taken out to test for chromosome abnormalities. This procedure would tell us conclusively what abnormalities the baby had. We had read everything we could get our hands on about cystic hygromas. Overnight we had become experts on the condition. We learned that it is most often associated with a chromosome defect. The thickness of the hygroma indicates how severe the condition is. We met with the genetic counselor first. She explained the possible outcomes for the baby, and broke the news to us that the size of the cystic hygroma was a 7.7mm-8.4mm. Our ultrasound technician had twenty years of experience, and we asked her if she had ever seen a condition so severe, and she said, “No, not at this stage of development.” The specialist told us that in his years of experience cases like this had proven to be fatal Down Syndrome, and at best all he could give the baby was a 5% chance of survival. He explained that the hygroma had spread from the neck area all the way to the forehead and reached all the way down to the tailbone. He told me that within a matter of a few weeks the baby would die from all the excess fluid around the body.

Chris and I appreciated the honest answers that the doctor provided. I underwent the procedure, and the doctor told us he would call within 5 days with the results. Before we left, the genetic counselor asked us if we thought about what we wanted to do. She was asking us if we wanted to terminate the pregnancy. Chris and I never even spoke about it, but we both answered at the same time, “That is not an option for us.”

Chris and I were devastated, of course, but strangely we felt a peace thinking of our little baby resting peacefully in the arms of Jesus, and growing up in a place where he would never feel pain. I decided that the Lord needed our baby more than we did, and I could find peace in that. I prayed that the Lord would take the baby soon, so it wouldn’t suffer. Despite all the pain I was going through Chris remained strong and kept me encouraged. He kept saying that he thought a miracle was going to happen.

Once back in our hometown we met with our usual doctor. He was able to find a heartbeat, and so he did another ultrasound. The hygroma had grown even larger to between 12mm-14mm. The ultrasound technician also believed that she could see spinal ménages around the hygroma. This is another sure sign that the baby will die. Despite these findings the doctor was able to tell us that the test results from the CVS were back, and there were no chromosome abnormalities found. Chris and I were shocked. The doctor told us once more that the prognosis was still the same, but now we would have no clear cause of the hygroma and death. Later that day I found out it was a boy. That night Chris and I named him Cohen. We wanted him to have a name, even if he would only be with us for a little while.

Chris was by my side once more for what would be our happiest day. The ultrasound technician began the scan and her face suddenly changed. She realized that the cystic hygroma had shrunk to a small lump on the back of the neck. It had moved off his head and back completely. She began to examine his other internal organs and kept saying, “These organs are completely normal.” She found that everything in his tiny body was working perfectly.

The remainder of the pregnancy was an anxious time, but on September 7, 2005 Cohen was born. He has had some minor challenges already. He was born with two holes in his heart, and a geneticist we met with speculates that he might have Noonan’s Syndrome. We will have to wait until he is older for an official diagnosis, but his long-term outlook is good.

Through everything my husband and I learned to appreciate every child as a miraculous gift from God. Not a day goes by that I don’t think of what a true blessing it is to have Cohen with me today.