Grace Is Coming Home Tomorrow!

Hope and Grace are 74 days old today, and they have already taught Jeni and I so much. The lesson that we have been taught, above anything else is that LOVE triumphs over fear. As I mentioned in a previous post, the light of hope always burns and can ignite the other lights in our life. And, the light of hope cannot exist without the grace of God. How fitting, when I reflect, that our daughters at such a young age are already living their names.

For those of you who have been following this blog, we learned that Jeni was carrying monoamniotic twins back on February 2nd . At that time, Jeni was about 18 weeks into her pregnancy, and we were told we that we had a 50/50% chance, at best, of these twins being born. This news crushed us, and the countdown to "the best case scenario" of hospital in-patient stay began. We went through tremendous worry thinking about whether or not these babies would even make it until then. I recall, once the babies started kicking, that I asked Jeni to text message me or email me during the day to let me know that they were ok. This time in our lives tested our faith- are these babies going to be ok? Are we even going to make it to in-patient care? Thanks to love, we did.

On the evening of April 10th, Jeni and I had some tasty soup complements of our friend Lauralee and the Caring Ministry at St. Christopher's Church. Jeni and I set up the hard plastic bed-side table in the antepartum unit at St. Joe's and enjoyed eating our soup and watching the Brewers game (ok, at least Will enjoyed the game, Jeni enjoyed the company and the soup perhaps a bit more than the game :) ). The babies were falling off their monitors a bit more than usual this evening, but our nurses told us not to be too concerned. While the birth story is still in the works (it has just been hard for me to formulate it into words the way I'd like), I will share that on the morning of April 11th, I received news that would push my faith, hope, love and joy to the limits and back... the twins were in distress and Jeni was about to give birth. The nurses and doctors at St. Joe's who were able to detect that Baby B (now known as Hope) had a fluctuating heart rate that would dip way down, then come up a little, and then dip way down again. Jeni's doctors concluded that they needed to perform an emergency c-section in order to save the lives of these babies.

On the morning of April 11th, at precisely 9:37 a.m., our daughters, Grace and Hope, were born unexpectedly at 27 weeks 5 days gestational age. I recall the event like it was a second ago holding Jeni's hand in the operating room, crying, praying, and thanking God for each other and for the opportunity to be parents. We cried and prayed and, above all, loved.

Then came life in the NICU, an experience whose rapid high peaks and swift steep valleys I wouldn't wish on anyone in the world. ET tubes, PDA's, CPAPs, infection, on feedings and off of feedings, tolerating cares, not tolerating cares... you name it, we've been there and done it, and despite the intense burning fear that engulfed our minds, we felt an endearing love in our hearts that began to spread from beyond Jeni and I and our immediate friends and family into our greater community. Thanks in large part to this blog and the monoamniotic.org site, the community that supported us began to span across the United States and Canada, and into places like Australia and Japan, among others. Our story was out there, people were (and are) praying for us and thinking about us, and, guess what... our love began to grow. Love triumphs over fear, and, I truly believe, due to the love of so many people we are able to end our story as NICU parents tomorrow.

Nurse Rosie, in her sweet, optimistic voice, declared that Grace was "ready to go home" and simply needs to await the arrival of her apnea monitor and a few small check ups tomorrow morning. After I get done teaching summer school, we'll have lunch and then fulfill the dream I've had for so long... bringing my family home.

So, in closing, to reference the Okkervil River tune that served as an impetus for Jeni and me writing this blog in the first place, "our life is not a movie, but maybe." To go along with that, we'll reference our wedding song, "Love and Luck" by Jimmy Buffett, "with a little love and luck, you will get by." Granted, those two artists are so different from each other, but hey, that's "Life with the Pipers" for you in a nutshell!

For those of you along on our journey, thank you for your love. It has meant more to us than you will ever know. Please keep the prayers and good thoughts comin'... the next chapter of our life begins tomorrow.






Grace's last evening in the NICU... she seems restless and ready to come home.





Grace stares at her friend Bucky Badger. She can't wait for Badger football games this fall with her UW-alumni parents.