My PASSION Magazine

Two words that I'd never heard of
or cared about in my life until they
were my life. Well, my son's life, to
be exact. Trisomy-13 occurs when an
extra DNA from chromosome 13 appears
in some or all of the body's
cells. The cause? Unknown. What
about the prognosis? More than
90% of children with trisomy-13 die
in the first year.
Welcome to what is probably the
saddest column, ever. But don't lose
all hope; there are some bright parts
to this story...
Ba-dum-ba-dum-ba-dum…. the baby's
heartbeat was coming over the
sonographers’ speakers loud and
clear. PHEW. Baby? Check. Heartbeat?
Check. Fall in love immediately?
Check. There is nothing like seeing
that little gummy bear wiggling
around on the screen for the first
time! It stirred every emotion possible
within me all at once. Excitement
- we are having another baby!!
Terror - we will have a toddler AND
a newborn at the same time!! Anxiety
- please let us make it through
the first trimester!! And then back
to excitement again. Thus, the crazy,
emotional roller-coaster of pregnancy
began.
Fast-forward about two months
and we were well in to the second
trimester, woohoo! We'd shared the
news. A few days before Halloween
we found out that our little pumpkin
was a boy. We were starting to warm
up to the idea of having two kids exactly
two years apart, though it was
still a bit terrifying.
I was scouring Pinterest for the latest
DIY projects for baby boys, like
how to make bow-tie onesies and
mustache pacifiers. Much different
than the cutesy, girly things I was
used to! And I just couldn't wait for
April to get here.
And then, at our 20 week ultrasound,
our happy-go-lucky pregnancy rollercoaster
crashed to the ground and
burst into flames with the news that
our baby boy had trisomy-13 and
wasn't likely to live. IF he were even
born alive.
Anguish…….Heartbreak…..Sadness……..
Grief…. Distress. and
Sorrow. All words one
doesn't typically associate
with pregnancy.
Except us. We went
from dreaming about
what crib bedding to
pick out for his room,
to praying that he
would even make it
home from the hospital.
It was the most awful
turn of events to ever
have to experience. We
were told statistic after
statistic...one in 10,000
babies born in the US
will have trisomy-13 -
only 10% of trisomy-13
babies make it to their
first birthday - congenital
heart defects occur
within 85% of babies -
median survival is 2.5
days...If there has ever
been hell on earth, this
was it. It was every
parent's worst nightmare
come true. And
it was absolutely horrendous.
I have called myself a Christian for
over half of my life. But it wasn't until
I learned that my son might die
that it finally "clicked". When the
grace and mercy of Jesus is all you
have to hope in, something changes
in your soul. I managed to keep myself
from barreling into a downward
My Passion - Issue 1 - April 2015 | 7
Baby Jack's
Story
By Brittany Liberatore
spiral by walking so closely with the
Lord that I could hear his sandals
hit the ground with every step. I put
every ounce of faith and hope that I
could muster in to believing that our
Jackson could be healed by the One
who caused the blind to see, made
the deaf hear, and allowed the paralyzed
to walk.
What was healing a little trisomy-13
to the Great Creator? Nothing. I
knew with every fiber of my being
that if God could part the Red Sea,
then He could also heal my baby and
give him life. What I didn't realize
when I embarked on this journey
of faith was that I was the one who
would receive the healing.
As my husband and I walked this
journey, we learned so much. I will
be sharing with you in the next couple
of magazine articles about our
experiences with Baby Jacks.