Dear Friends,
We would like to say thank you for the immense amount of love, support, messages, and prayers we have received over the past few days. We are very blessed to have so many people that care for us, our baby, our families, and who are willing to take this journey with us. Despite the difficult news, God has given us an immense peace that surpasses human understanding.
After many conversations and much prayer we have decided to fully embrace our baby and our role as parents. Although we know that our baby will have a short time physically on this earth, we are deciding to use the time from now until delivery as our time to be parents. We are going to try and give our baby as many experiences as possible now, since we will not be able to after it is born. We are planning on reading and playing music to it, taking it to places that are special to us, going camping, feeding it special food (Bethany has already feed the baby cotton candy!) and allowing our family members special times to bond with the baby. Although in some ways we feel this approach will be very difficult, we also feel that in the long run we will leave with no regrets knowing that we loved our child as much as possible and spent as much time with it as we could.
Until we find out the gender of our baby we have decided to temporarily name our child Amalya (a-MALL-e-ya) which is Hebrew for “Work of the LORD”. We strongly feel that this child truly is a work of the LORD and want to be reminded constantly of that fact as we continue on this journey.
Please feel free to ask us questions about Amalya when you see us, or send us messages. Our desire is to treat Amalya as a typical child, although he/she is not physically present with us yet. We are asking that our friends and family do the same.
Please continue to pray for us as we know parts of this journey will not be easy. We are also needing wisdom and knowledge as we work with the doctors to create an action plan to give Amalya the most time possible on earth after we deliver. We are also hoping to participate in some research studies to help the medical community better understand this rare disorder. We will be meeting with doctors again on April 9, for a second ultrasound and follow up appointment. We will continue to update everyone as we receive information.
With Peace,
Eric and Bethany
It is our prayer that we stay faithful to our Lord and Master Jesus Christ as has blessed us with the gift of a child. Mathew 25:23 “His master replied, `Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness!” Even if God chooses not to bless us with any more children, we wish to be faithful parents to the one he has already given us, and share in His joy over Amalya.