Will you help support Addy’s legacy?

Your generous giving allows Abel Speaks to support families like ours. Thank you for your partnership as we seek to ensure that every family will cherish their child’s life and have hope in the midst of sorrow!

We had recently moved to a smaller house because “we had decided” that our family was complete. It’s funny, though, that’s how it usually works: just when you think you’ve made your plans, God comes along and humbles you with His mightiness. I found out we were having another sweet little one in July 2023. After having three healthy boys, you naturally wonder… Is this it? Am I finally going to get to buy pink things? Because we are not patient people, I waited until I was eight weeks and purchased an at-home Amazon blood test to find out the gender. I thought it would be fun to try and a good story if it was wrong. When we got the email with our results, pink confetti exploded on the screen. We thought, NO WAY! The test has to be wrong because we don’t make girls, but we were so excited in hopes that it was, in fact, true! At 11 weeks, I went in to do genetic testing with my OB-GYN. My OB wanted me to come into the office to go over the results, which I thought was strange since they usually just posted them online. I anxiously awaited the appointment, hoping to confirm we were, in fact, having a little girl! My OB informed me that, yes, she was a girl, and she had a 98% chance of having Trisomy 21, which indicates Down Syndrome and a host of other abnormalities that were flagged in the testing. Our world was turned upside down in a matter of seconds. At Maternal Fetal Medicine, they confirmed that she did indeed have the markers that aligned with Down Syndrome, and there were heart issues and potentially hydrops. All we could do was wait and see as she grew and progressed. In our devastation, we realized this isn’t what we envisioned having our little girl would look like, but all we could do was trust that God had a plan for her and for us as her parents. Our MFM doctor was wonderful and gave us hope that, yes, she might have issues that we wouldn’t be able to fully understand until birth, but these are all things they can handle. Although we were still terrified of the unknown, each week we became more comfortable with her diagnosis and excited to meet her. At 20 weeks, we went in for an echocardiogram to understand some of the heart issues going on. Addy Mae was wiggling around so much the nurse couldn’t get images of her heart at all. We rescheduled for three weeks later, after Thanksgiving, as we were going on vacation. I had a strange sense of peace walking into MFM for the second echocardiogram attempt. That whatever they told us could be wrong would be something we could fix, and she was going to be perfect. During the appointment, the nurse told us that she could not find a heartbeat. It’s absolutely the worst thing you can ever hear. I didn’t understand because, during all of this, I never felt like we were going to lose her. Now that I look back on that moment, I feel that the peace was coming from God telling me He had our little girl and that she was perfectly healed. I delivered our precious Addy Mae on December 7, 2023. We held her, told her how loved she is, and how we wished she could’ve seen her three crazy big brothers. God held us in those moments of unthinkable pain and provided the most loving family and community to comfort us. Thank you, God, for blessing us with Addy Mae. We are so proud to be her parents.

Abel Speaks is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and all donations are tax-deductible.

2001 W Plano Pkwy, Suite 3405 Plano, TX 75075

(972) 688-6405