A Beautiful Story....

I would like to share my neice's new blog with you.

 In this blog, she will take you along on her journey to have another child through the beautiful world of surrogacy.

I will warn you though, you better have a box of kleenex

nearby!

 

Betsy, Craig & their sweet daughter Elizabeth

 
 Our story begins back in the fall of 1988 when we first met in kindergarten. Little did we know that when Craig played Peter Rabbit and I played Mother Rabbit in the kindergarten production of the famous Beatrix Potter play, we would someday be high school sweethearts and now happily married for over eight years.
We both grew up in large families, so we dreamed of having at least two-three children. We were delighted when I became pregnant with Elizabeth in the spring of 2009. I had the most wonderful pregnancy I could ask for. I felt amazing the entire time and couldn't wait to meet our new bundle of joy. I ended up going eight days over for Elizabeth, but she was well worth it.

For having such a "text book" pregnancy, I expected my delivery to be the same; sadly I was wrong. After a long labor, I finally gave birth to a healthy baby girl. With both sides of the family there to welcome Elizabeth, Craig and I both thought it was the happiest day of our lives. Within minutes, our world was turned upside down, facing something new parents shouldn't have to.

I unexpectedly started to hemmorage and had to be rushed into emergency surgery. I had a condition called placenta accreta, where my placenta grew into my uterus and would not detatch after labor. In order to save my life, the doctors told my family he would have to perform a partial hysterectomy, give me 10 units of blood, and fly in platlets from Eastern Maine Medical Center. Due to the amount of blood I lost, the doctors were worried about organ damage, specifically my heart, as well as kidney failure. In order to help my body recover, they placed me into an induced coma and put me on a ventilator until they felt my body could handle functioning on its own again, if at all. To the surprise of all the medical staff, I woke up with nothing more than a very sore abdomen. My family wanted to wait and tell me about the hysterectomy after I had time to recover a bit, but minutes within getting my ventinator tube removed, a nurse informed me what had happened. Of course I was upset at the thought of not being able to carry another child, but at that point I had enough faith and strength to say "thank you" to God instead of "why me?" I also knew I needed to focus on my recovery and finally get to hold my baby girl, Elizabeth. Read more of their story here.

Blessings,
Julie