Wordless Wednesday's getting wordier

It was my hope to convey she's watching Cinderella in her princess dress. Yes, I did make it. Those were curtains from a box of material. Ok - think about those hanging in your kitchen? Totally sure why I made into a dress up dress. Ugh - kitchen curtains like that - probably matched the big flowered wallpaper too? Vinyl seatcovers and bad linoleum anyone???

And just a quick thought about Joshua. If you'll notice - in some of the comments, there's a woman named Maria D. who's 27 weeks pregnant with Elijah. Elijah has a severe encephalocele like Joshua's. And she said today - the cele is growing and she's not happy about that. Maria - this is not condemning, just conveying my story ok?

At 28 weeks (must be when they can finally compare stuff???) the doctors said it was growing, I could definitely see it for myself though, and it was depressing. I'd been praying it would "grow back inside". No such luck for us...

But (I think it was my midwife who said??) that means his brain is growing! You don't want him to sacrifice any brain tissue! I think that's part of why Joshua did so well - his brain was all there! Of course it wasn't all working together, or doing its job. But I'm convinced he wouldn't have made it as long as he did if there was less brain, pieces missing, smaller cele... all of that. His skull measured small from the first scan, so there was never enough room for all of his brain inside - so if the cele had not grown, he'd have been missing portions.

I got to a point that I was glad it was bigger. I knew the outcome was going to be bad, no matter. So its not like a few more centimetres of cele was going to change his diagnosis. It just meant his brain was all there - that he was growing like normal - that he was a baby - not a mutation.

Xo Marie - praying for you. It's a sucky road to walk - but it had precious rewards. Even if that's only holding him for a few hours (whether he's here or not) it'll still be a precious reward.