Letters to Oliver

My Dearest Oliver,

I must start by saying how much I love calling you by name. Mommy and Daddy fell in love with your name when we first heard it. Your full name is Oliver Thomas. You are named after your late Pop Pop, your great grandfather, and your Papa. You see this has been a long time coming.

You will soon find out that you are outnumbered. On Mommy’s side of the family, you are our first little boy. You are blessed to have a Big Sister and 4 female cousins, Julie, Kayley, Ally and Rylee to love you and play with you. Mommy is also 1 of 3 girls. Don’t get your feelings hurt if Papa doesn’t know quite what to do with you at first. He has never had a boy. He will learn though, and love every minute of it. You see….you are our gift….my baby boy.

But on Daddy’s side of the family, you fit in just right. Grandma and Granddaddy are blessed with 4 granddaughters, Carly, Katie Beth, Kendall and Zoe and 3 grandsons, Ian, Tucker and Carson….until you. You make things perfect! Don’t worry….I know all these names are overwhelming, but you will love them all and they will love you.

Oliver, you are coming into a world of love, hope and compassion. So many people, from all over the country, are thinking and praying for you….they love you, too! God blessed us with you in May 2010. You were a complete surprise to Daddy and me when we found out we were pregnant in June, but you brought so much joy to us from the start. In July, we had our first doctor’s appointment. We saw you for the first time….it was love at first sight. You were wiggling around and your heart was beating so perfectly. Dr. Pohl let us know that you had some extra fluid within your skin and that he wanted to make sure everything was okay with you. I then went to see another very nice doctor, Dr. Read, who is really good at helping babies like you. He told us from the start that you had a 98% chance of leaving us. Mommy and Daddy have hope in the 2%.

Every week, we get to see you. We get to hear your perfect heartbeat. I am starting to feel you move around some and it just makes everything seem so much more real. You are almost 18 weeks old right now, getting so big. We went and saw Dr. Read again to check out everything going on with you this past week. We found out you were a boy….Our precious Oliver and we found out some other things going on with you. Your doctors are worried….Your Daddy and I are praying hard for you….many are.

Mommy had some tests run to learn more about you. Daddy and I want to know all we can about you, Oliver. We want to know the best ways to take care of you and we want you to be the happiest boy in the world. We got some really good news this week. One of the tests run on you was called the FISH test. I will teach you all about fish….maybe we can even go to the aquarium! Well, this test, it looks at 4 types of chromosomes in your body, chromosome 13, 18, 21 and your sex chromosome. This test would tell us if you had a condition called Trisomy 13 or 18 or if you had something called Downs Syndrome and confirm that you are our little boy. We got the results on August 18th and they all came back normal. Daddy and I love you so much and we were so happy to hear this. We will have all the results from your test in a couple weeks. We can’t wait to learn more about you! You mean the world to us.

I want you to know we are doing the best we can. We say many prayers for you often, you are always on our minds. Saying we love you, just doesn’t seem enough. One of my really good friends has been praying for you, too. God put on her heart to tell Mommy something that helps me get through my days.

We even boast of our affliction, knowing that affliction produces endurance,

And endurance, proven character, and proven character, hope

And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the holy Spirit that has been given to us.

Romans 5:3-5

Daddy and I have hope for you that no doctor can change. We love you so much. But our God, your heavenly Father, who gave you to us, loves you more. He chose Daddy and me to carry you, to help you grow, to love and nurture you. God made you just the way you are for a reason....one that might be hard to understand, but His reasons are perfect. We will love you and do everything we can for you all the days of your life!

My little boy, I love you and I can’t wait to meet you!

Mommy