Friday, October 31, 2008

How Jackson Riley Gamble became our Miracle Baby




It was October of 2001, Madelyn would have her 1st birthday in a month. Bill and I started to talk about beginning the adoption process for our second child. Knowing it could take a while we wanted to plan the the time between our 1st and 2nd child to be 2-3 years. We decided on an agency, but thought it best not to begin any paperwork until the first of the year, as the holidays are always so busy.

Well in November of 2001, I was having "that feeling" and asked Bill to buy a pregnancy test - (I don't know why it is that he always bought the tests). It was negative - not a disappointment, but it was a surprise.

We traveled to North Dakota to visit my family - I still was not well. In December, I asked Bill to buy another test - he thought I was nuts. This one was so positive - it changed before I stopped peeing on the stick - and I did it in the afternoon.

Since I already knew the answer, I let him go in and check on it. Sure enough - we were having a baby! By the time I finally got into the doctor, we found out that we were pregnany all the way back in October - Before Maddy was even a year old.

It was during this pregnancy that we found out that Jackson was very sick, one of his kidneys were not operating and had not developed properly and there was a problem with his other one as well. We had ultrasounds 2-4 times a week everyweek.

Additionally during one of my visits we found out that I had cervical cancer - not something you want to hear, but certainly not when you are pregnant.

I was able to carry him to term. He was born July 16, 2002. He had a kidney removal surgery at nine weeks. He has since had 3 more surgeries and is doing great. I had to have a hysterectomy to cure my illness. But all is well now.

Praise God that we had Jackson when we did, had we not - he would never have come into this world.

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