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Wednesday, November 15, 2006

In the beginning...

Welcome to our special page for our special little girl! Throughout the entire pregnancy I have been filled with an overwhelming amount of emotions, some of which I must apologize to my husband...haha!! When we first found out that a baby would be coming into our lives well honestly I was scared, Jason was happy, and Gracie was super excited! I was scared because we had just gotten engaged, this was not planned and that is not how we expected things to go. But as soon as we told our families I was relieved of the scarey parts and now I was excited. I have wanted to be a mommy for a while and now it was going to happen.
We immediately got married and then we went to our first doctors appointment. It was absolutely amazing, we heard the heart and we found out we were 7 weeks along. Our due date is January 30, 2007. What a great way to start off a new year!
So the doctor visits begin...
September 11 is a day many of us will never forget, but to Jason and I it changed our lives in more ways than others. We went in for a follow up to the AFP test, which tests babies for abnormalities. We were going in for a level 2 ultrasound, to further look into what may or may not be wrong. As soon as the tech started looking at our baby, she detected a few indicators of what is known as Trisomy 21 or more commonly Down Syndrome. We were overwhelmed with several emotions, mostly sadness and a sense of helplessness that I cannot describe. At that point we had no clue the sex of the baby but because we had been given what at the time was devastating news we decided to find out...IT"S A GIRL!!! That was something we were and still are extremely excited about. The doctor then confirmed what the tech had seen and we scheduled to go back for an amniocentsis, which will give us a definite answer to what we think is her condition.
The amnio came and went and the results came back that our little girl, Gabriele Sheridan Acker, has Down Syndrome. We cried because of course you want nothing more than for your child to be healthy and "normal". Well that is when we started doing research, there are a lot of great organizations to help with this. I immediately wanted to be educated and know about the development and challenges that we will face.
Not a day goes by that I do not still fear a bit of the unknown, but what I am sure of is that God never gives us more than we can handle. I believe that Jason, Gracie, and myself are a strong, stable family and we will give Gabriele the best love and support any family could provide.
We are blessed now that we have been chosen to take care of such a special child. I just hope she realizes how many people love and support her already. This is going to be an amazing journey and I am just so excited that we will get to share it together.

3 comments:

Fred Acker said...

Does a Father/Father-in-law's heart good. :-)

erica said...

Gabriele,

you are the luckiest little girl in the whole world. When I met your mommy, it was at career meetings in Kearney, Nebraska and it was love at first sight. Your mommy has a nurturing and fun spirit and I felt her goodness from the first moment I met her. We talked for hours, laughed until we cried, and danced all night long---yes, this was in Nebraska! Anywho, from that first little bit of time together, I knew that we would be forever friends...because your mommy is very special and so are you. I was so excited when she meet and fell in love with your daddy. She talked about him all the time and knew that he would be your daddy someday. Gabi, your daddy is too cool for school! He is intelligent and a fantastic conversationalist. Currently, I am receiving relationship counseling from him. If you ever need a guy's opinion, call your daddy. I want you to remember that I am here for you always. I can't wait for you to come visit me in Atlanta! We will go shopping for hours and eat at the "Collard Green Cafe". It's great soul food and I know that you will love it! You are loved and admired by many...especially by that beautiful big sister of yours. Gracie has an amazing energy and her presence would put a smile on any sad face. So see, you have everything you need...including an Auntie that loves you more than you will ever know!

Be good my darling,

Auntie Erica

Tami said...

Hi Gabriele, this is from your Aunt Tami! So I must admit that I know very little about taking care of babies, so your going to be my little guinea pig. You and your mother will be teaching me everything I need to know!

So while I'm not real good at that kinda stuff, I will be very good at taking you shopping, buying you clothes, and teaching you all the fun things there are about being a great girl!

I can't wait to meet you. I know with your mom & dad's great looks, you are going to be so beautiful. I can't wait to see you in person!