WOW! It's Been A Long Time!

It's been a while since I've posted on here. Well it's a new year, and I have to say the past year has defiantly been rough. First in November 2007 I delivered my first daughter Carly 12 weeks premature. We were in the NICU for 4 long months. We had many ups and downs, but we managed to enjoy every second we got with her. In March of 2008 Carly suddenly passed away from a heart defect. This was such a hard time as we thought she would be coming home soon. We had just had a meeting 3 days prior talking about her coming home. Well only 2 weeks after Carly passed away my little brother was in a severe car accident. He drove a mustang convertible. When her wrecked his car flipped and tossed him 40 feet across the street and landed him in a small creek. He was found by the EMT in a coma. He was rushed to a local hospital to be treated. The local hospital was unable to care for his level of injury, and he was air lifted to Carolina's Medical Center. He was in the neurosurgical intensive care unit for about 3 weeks where he remained in a coma. He was eventually moved to rehab where he finished out his 2 month stay in the hospital. He had to learn how to walk again, talk again, think again, and even had to learn how to eat again. At first the doctors weren't sure if he would even survive. And then when they thought that he would they said that he would have to have 24 hour 7 day a week nursing care. Well God truly had his hand on Josh. He's walking, talking and just being Josh again. He still has problems with his memory but he's getting back to his normal self. Well 2 weeks after Josh had his wreck I became pregnant again. You all know about my pregnancy. You all know how it ended with Hannah's stillbirth at 32 weeks. Yet another bump in the road I travel. Well I have to say that God has truly carried me through this past year. He's given me all the strength and courage to carry on. Having this preemie clothing drive in Carly's memory has really helped me with dealing with my daughters death.

I'm finally back in school. I've been in school since 2006 part time working on my nursing degree. I never really knew what field of nursing I wanted to go into until I delivered Carly. Now I know that I want to and feel lead to be a NICU nurse. So I'm back in school and it's still part time. But soon enough I will reach my goal. I know it will be a full filling career. I really look forward to working with premature babies in the future.

Now for some more news. I got Hannah's autopsy back a few weeks ago. The cause of death came back undetermined. That was heartbreaking to hear. I was really hoping for some answers. Well the more I search and look over things I found out I had the same infection in my placenta with Hannah as I had with Carly. I also found links online linking this infection to stillbirths. So I'm hoping to go back to my MFM soon and talk these things over and see if there is anything we can do to possibly have the chance of having another baby but healthy. So everyone please pray that something can be figured out.

Last but not least, Ryan and I have set a date to get married. After being together for nearly 6 years we are finally getting married on the 14th of February. This was short notice decision that we made but it will be sweet and simple. I'm so glad to be moving forward. We've been in counseling still yet and are learning to love each other on a whole new level.

Well to everyone who reads this I wish you all a very happy and blessed new year.

Rachel