Answered Prayer #1

May 27^th was a day of answered prayers.  I had my appointment with the high risk OB, Dr. Carpenter that afternoon.  I hadn’t seen him since the NT scan.  My regular OB, Dr. Faro, sees me the weeks he does not, and they make a wonderful team.  Unlike Dr. Faro, who is overflowing with engagement and compassion, Dr. Carpenter is very matter of fact.  He doesn’t give anything away with tone or facial expression, so it took me a minute to absorb what he was saying as he examined the baby on the screen.  What he was telling me was that there did not appear to be any excess fluid in the baby’s body.  The hydrops was gone!  Completely reabsorbed!  Remember prayer #1: (12-15 weeks)?  Answered!  Next, he started looking at the cystic hygroma.  He took multiple measurements, and they ranged from 3.4 to 3.7 mm.  Prayer #2: Answered!  The cystic hygroma had done quite a bit of shrinking!  I shared with him that this was exactly what we had prayed for, and that I knew many other people were praying.  He almost smiled.  The med student in the room observing actually did smile.  Then, Dr. Carpenter said, “So much for the good news.”  My heart sank.  He explained that we have a new potential problem, a membranous insertion.  I still don’t completely understand what this means, other than that it can cause problems with the baby’s growth later in the pregnancy.  She’s perfectly on track growth-wise right now, but we need to start praying that she stays that way.  Dr. Carpenter also reminded me that our baby is still not healthy or out of the woods.  He did confess, however, that she has a better prognosis than the 1 in 3000 survival rate we were previously quoted.   Thankfully, God is not limited to medical statistics, however advanced.  As I’m learning this – I mean REALLY learning it, not just Sunday School lesson learning – I’ve stopped obsessing so much over the data.  I’m thinking that that 1 in 3000 chance was just a perfect opportunity for God to show how big, how powerful He really is.  I can’t wait to see what He shows us of Himself in the weeks to come.   Can you?