Nothing short of a miracle.

Conversation with random strangers:

Them: "Oh! Your baby's so cute! How old?"
Me: "Thank you. She's 10 months."
Them: "Was she premature?"
Me: "Yes."
Them: "Well, she'll be fine. She'll catch up in no time. My (insert relative here) was premature and he/she is 6 ft tall now."


You have no idea how many times I have heard this at the grocery store, at Walmart, etc.  Honestly it gets old. I know that these people that they have no idea about Wendy's abnormalities because she looks healthy. Sometimes they will notice her feeding pump but most of the time not, because I try to run to the store in between feeds. But I get so frustrated with people saying "Oh, she'll be fine." because we don't know what the future holds. Sometimes I just want to scream, "She was born without an anus, she needs 2 more surgeries, she has kidney reflux, gastrointestinal reflux, intestinal malrotation, microcephaly, and she can't eat by mouth!! What part of that is fine!?!" Usually I just smile, nod, my head and walk away.


Even people that know Wendy's story, don't fully understand what a miracle it is that she is here and doing so great. Miracle. That's the exact word her geneticist used. There are 25,000 genes in the human body. Each of the 23 pairs of chromosomes have a certain number of genes. There are people who are only missing a few genes that are wheelchair bound, have to use a ventilator, or have other health problems that are much more serious than Wendy's. I looked at Wendy's report of her translocation last night and saw she is missing 73 genes from her 7th chromosome. Yes, 73! That's a lot. 17 genes copied from her 10th chromosome are in place of some of the 73 missing. That's why hers is called an unbalanced translocation because even with genes from another chromosome being duplicated and in place of the missing genes, she still has 56 empty places.

I just wanted to share this with you all, so you all can understand how lucky Wendy is and how blessed I am that Wendy is doing so well and that she is even alive. My precious girl is definitely here by the grace of God.