My Pain, My Joy

It was during my seven (7) months of pregnancy that I had come to know that my baby has a congenital defect. It was seen during the ultrasound test that she is hydrocephalic. When the doctor had told me the baby’s condition, it’s as if my whole world suddenly stopped. All those remaining weeks of my pregnancy, I had to undergo serial ultrasound and was really shaken to find out that her spine is curved. Worse came to worst, my baby's back is not fully developed when she was born and she needs to undergo immediate operation to close her back as well as to insert a shunt on her head.

Life has not been that easy for us, but there is a life that has to be carried on. Though doctors told me she wouldn't have a good mental development, it was unfair for my baby not to let her given a chance to see the light of this world. God is the only One who could get back what He has given.

My daughter has been diagnosed with myelomeningocele or arnold chiari malformation II. My little cuddly baby who was only 5lbs more had undergone two (2) types of operation when she was barely a month old. One in the head for the shunt and another on her back to repair her lumbo-sacral. As she was growing, there is no trace that she has mental retardation as what doctors had insinuated when she was still inside my womb. Now that she is four (4) years old, it pains me to see her moving from one place to another though with some limitations, because she wouldn't be able to walk due to damaged nerves in her lower extremities.

But in all of these, I have been thankful to the Lord for the special gift He has given us. We have given her the name Emily Faith Princess, after my name and because through faith, impossibilities had become possibilities.Though there are therapies and medications needed for her to stay healthy, she’s giving us joy and laughter. That baby girl who has limitation in her movement never give us limitation for the joy , the sweetness and embraces she's always giving us.