Asher Daniel Chappell

Quick Update for Today

We went in today for my amnio and were met by the genetic counselor to go over what exactly we could expect and so forth. We found ourselves engrossed in another discussion about hospice care or aggressive treatment and really it felt like we had been there a hundred times before. We believe God has given us a real ability to speak clearly with them and to respect their wisdom but let the ethics we have in Christ shine through as well. The counselor had an intern there with her and even though she sat back and listened, she nodded her head in agreement whenever we talked about cherishing this child's life and our ethical stances... I really feel like the Lord had her there as a silent encouragement to us as we talked boldly and clearly about our desires. I wonder who she is and if she'll talk about us to whoever she comes home to at the end of the day? We so desire to not only speak for our child but impact whomever we talk with.
We went in for an ultrasound and that went well (we had an amazingly sweet ultrasound tech). Again, we saw some of the same things but were encouraged by some great pics (our baby has quite a bit of hair). We were thrilled to see and hear the heartbeat (166 bpm) and to see our baby moving all over the place. we are reminded today what a blessing it is to have each day with our baby and to know that God has sustained this little one for 36 weeks now!
The Amnio went well and fast. The whole thing was mildly uncomfortable but I feel great and I am taking it easy today. We saw three tubes of fluid go off to the lab with so many of our hopes and prayers with them. We both feel a little down today. I guess knowing that we are going to know in a few short (but long) days is kind of final. There is hope no matter the outcome but it feels a little odd today. The initial results (fish results) should be to us sometime Wednesday or Thursday. This will tell us about Chromosomes 13, 18, 21, and X/ Y (Boy or Girl-yeah!!!). The full results will be final in about 2 weeks.
Please continue to pray for us to rest in Christ and for the health of our baby. Thank you to all of you who are praying and to those who have joined us in todays fast. We love you all so much.

Casey

Our Desperate Anticipation

God is good! One of the benefits of trials is that you get the Joy of seeing God more clearly than you may have before. This is true of us today. We have just come home from a blessed week of vacation and it was a great time for us both to relax, love each other better and more intently, and to focus upon God. In one of our conversations from the week a great truth was discovered about prayer. One of the reasons we pray more during a trial is that we feel the need because it is pressing in on us. But we are no less needy at any point in our life and should always desperately anticipate God to do great things and to come through for us, for we need him to. Our church, Treasuring Christ Church, is about to embark upon a focused time of prayer called "Desperate Anticipation" and it dawned upon us that this is exactly how we feel (and how we should always feel).
We are asking all of you that know us and are following us through this time, to join us for a day of interceding prayer and fasting. We are asking this of you but not expecting this of you. Join us as you can and desire. We are going in for an Amnio on Monday morning at 10 am and this will tell us so much about what we are facing. We will find out finally what we are having and it will also serve to tell us if there are any trisomy or genetic issues. We believe that it would bring God great glory to show his power off before us and the medical world that has given us little hope.
So we are asking God to heal our baby and we are fasting that His glory would be made known in this. We fast because we are desperate for God. We want to show him with the hunger of our bodies , not just that we want a healthy baby but that we are desperate for his presence and his power to be made known here. We are also asking God to help us and you that know us long for his coming more as a result of this trial. I want to thank you in advance for serving us with your prayers and joining us on Monday August 4th for this concentration on God. We love you all and are so thankful for the body!

Dan

Then I proclaimed a fast there at the river of Ahava,
that we might humble ourselves before our God
to seek from Him a safe journey for us, our little ones,
and all our possessions.
—EZRA 8 : 2 1

"Or who has first given to Him
that it might be paid back to Him again?
For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
To Him be the glory forever. Amen."

—ROMANS 1 1 : 3 5 - 3 6

Four hours at UNC

We were at UNC for over four hours today and my belly has had it's fill of being rubbed and that gooky ultrasound gel. :o)
I wish I had a bunch of new and updated information on the baby to tell you but really at each appointment they would scan and then say "it could be that the baby has a defect or it could be just the baby's position or that the baby is fine and we're not getting an acurate picture of him/her." Like, the baby is still measuring small but we were told it could just be that it's a small baby or it could be that it's growth is being hindered... so they usually present worst case and best case and how they really can't say one way or the other for sure.
Dan and I both agree that no news is better than for certain discouraging news.

We met with the Neonatologist today and we spent the first 20 minutes on why we it might be "best" to choose not to have our baby be put on a ventilator if it has a Trisomy. For some reason she kept describing how "uncomfortable" it is for a baby to have that tube put in them. But we kept saying that as parents we sometimes have to do things that might be uncomfortable for our child but would always be done for their best interest. We really had to stress to her (and hopefully she understood) that we will fight against all odds for this child to live however we understand that we can't fight against God who will ultimately decide if this baby lives or dies.
I think I was just caught off guard by how overboard she went in just addressing intubation when I feel like that is one of the smaller bridges we'll have to walk over in our child's treatment.
But God really gave us the words to say and even gave Dan the chance to share how it's hard to hear them say that putting a life giving tube into a child might be uncomfortable but yet they wouldn't hesitate to counsel a woman to tear her baby apart in the womb before 20 weeks if she decided that due to the Trisomy she wanted to terminate her pregnancy... he asked her, "how is that not uncomfortable for the baby"? She admitted the inconsistency in the counsel and I think was a little more understanding of where we were coming from after that.

We have some pretty sweet ultrasound images that I will post tomorrow. It's always great to see this child move inside me!

Thanks for praying!

what tomorrow holds...

Tomorrow we have several appointments at UNC so I wanted to just let you know what we're doing tomorrow and what to pray towards.

We have an ultrasound at 10:00 * pray that we'd be able to see growth and even better images of what he or she may be dealing with as far as physical defects. Also that we'd be able to enjoy watching our baby move and show us more of who he/she is.

Then we have a heart echo at 11:00 * pray that the baby would be in a position to be able to see the complete heart and be able to further see if there are any heart issues that he/she would need treatment for post birth.

After that we will meet with a Cardiothoracic NeoNatal Surgeon. * pray that we would first and foremost represent Christ in meeting with all these people. Also that we would trust Christ most and not put our hope in these individuals. But pray that Christ would work through these doctors and that they would treat this unborn life with respect and that they will be desiring in using their skills to help this little life.

Then we will meet with the Neonatologist to discuss the treatment of our baby after it's born. This might be interesting because usually it's a discussion of option A (with Trisomy) or option B (no Trisomy) and the treatment in their eyes is usually very different as we've mentioned before. * Pray that we'd be bold in our stance for life and that we would make it very clear that this baby's life is more important than our comfort or long term inconvience. That they would hear our heart in that we want to know our baby as long as we could and that we will fight the medical odds that are stacked against this child but that we know we can't fight against this child's Creator and that ultimately we know that it is He that will sustain or take this baby's every breath.

So, lots to cover but I know there are lots of you praying out there.

Thank you and we'll keep you updated!

Love, Casey

we had an OB appointment today and though we had to wait an hour and a half it went well. Everything looks normal as much as normal everything can be. heartbeat is good, glucose test went great, proteins in check, baby is moving lots. (still breech but I think he/she is most comfortable that way!)

we didn't get an ultrasound today because they were short tech's. So we'll have one friday with our heart echo.

We'll keep you updated!

A Quick Update...

Today we went to UNC and received great care. We met with Dr. Bogess (she was great). We did receive an answer to prayer, being that they were very willing to respect our wishes as far as the vast majority of this goes. We were thankful to hear her recommend a C-Section as the type of delivery in order to protect the Ompohalocele and give the baby a better chance. She still was not very optimistic about the long term prospects but she said it could give us more time. We were also pleased to hear that The decision not to have an amnio for now was fine and that they would proceed fine without it. There would be no need to really have it prior unless we just wanted to know, because the Baby can be stabilized (hopefully) and the doctors could take 48 hours to test for the chromosomal abnormalities that they suspect. The Omphalocele can be medically stabilized without surgery for a time and then we can proceed to the next most life threatening issues which would be lung development and the suspected heart defect. I know a lot of details... We also met with a pediatric surgeon and toured the NICU (all very helpful).
So all that said we are really not all that encouraged by the prognosis and we are tired of the term "lethal anomaly" but we did get many answers today and they did take us seriously. We did hear some really good news-a strong heartbeat!! The Doctors and the center at UNC are just incredible. Our Care coordinator Maya is just fantastic at her job, we are so thankful for this much. We are strong today and I think very hopeful. Hope is scary because it increases the pain if it doesn't end well, but hope is worth it. We have a more abiding hope that is Christ and that surely helps to put this in perspective at least today. thank you for your prayers... Pray that this would not be a chromosome issue and that these other issues can be dealt with and isolated pray for our witness to the staff, doctors and nurses at UNC and for physical strength..We love you all so much!

Tomorrow to UNC...

We wanted to have everyone pray as we go to the actual Maternal and Infant Health Clinic at UNC tomorrow. We are going to be meeting with a MFM (Maternal Fetal Medicine) Specialist, as well as tour the NICU and visit with another Pediatric surgeon. We are apprehensive about this because, as Dan mentioned, it is so hard to hear the things that are being said about our baby. We are trusting God to give us a standing before the Doctors to hear us out and listen to our desires to fight for this precious life. We have run into the ethical battle so many times and those who desire to give life value based on its "quality" not creation. This we will fight, as a matter of God's glory in the creation of all life and the life of our baby! We will post to let everyone know how things went, we appreciate your prayers so much!

Casey