The Rush's: our Story
Hey everyone, meet the Rush's! Our little family began August 11, 2012 when Jacob and I got married. It was an AMAZING day we still wish we could live a few times over! We knew from the beginning we wanted to have a family, and were eagerly anticipating that time in our lives, though it hadn't quite come yet!
The summer of 2014 was the worst time we had experienced in our lives and marriage thus far. We experienced multiple job losses, having to move because of the job loss, extended family crises and the failure that ensued when trying to purchase a home for our family. It was just disappointment after disappointment. The shining moment of that awful summer, though, was finding out we were pregnant! I found out in August that I was expecting and couldn't have been happier! After a few weeks, we told our families and they were ecstatic as well! I TRIED not to go overboard buying baby things, but couldn't quite help myself! Did we know the gender? Nope! So I just bought things for both!
I began appointments at my OB/GYN around 8 weeks and had a couple of ultrasounds. At the appointments I had had so far, the doctor used the words "perfect" "strong" and "fantastic" when referring to our growing bundle.
On October 16th, 2014 I began bleeding around 4am and didn't get in to see a doctor until around 9:30am (after multiple phone calls and debating whether or not I should go to the emergency room). We were so scared we had lost our Judah. As soon as we had the ultrasound, though, we saw the heartbeat and our squirmy little moving around like we hadn't seen him do before! As it turns out, I had a subchorionic hematoma (a blood clot) which explained the bleeding. We left that office so relieved and happy that our Judah was alive and kicking (literally!) The Nurse Practitioner I spoke to informed me that I would need to see a specialist in about a month, to make sure everything looked good. I didn't think much of it and went about my day.
Later that afternoon, the specialist's office called me and requested an appointment for the next day, Friday October 17th. Of course I agreed. Jacob had to work, so I called my mom to see if she would come with me. I assumed they wanted to see me to establish a baseline for my blood clot in order to monitor progress. I was just happy to get more ultasound pictures!
As the sonographer performed the ultrasound she was making small talk and was very nice. After a few minutes the doctor came in. He spoke straight to the sonographer and they were whispering back and forth. I heard her say, "They didn't tell her anything about it." At that point my heart sank to my feet; I knew something was more serious that I had been told. The doctor introduced himself, and took control of the ultasound. He found the correct angle and showed me my child's face, which kind of looked like a skeleton still at this point. He said, "Rebekah do you see this dark space here?" I agreed that I could see it. He continued, "This means that your baby's neural tube did not close in the first couple weeks of conception, and it won't close." I was shocked. I asked what that meant and my mom grabbed my hand. He said, "Your baby has been diagnosed with a condition called Anencephaly." I didn't know what that meant, and he went on to explain that my child would not have a brain, a skull or a scalp because the neural tube did not close properly. I started to cry and asked what the options were. He told me I could carry to term, that I would more than likely not miscarry, or I could terminate the pregnancy, but either way, my child would die.
At this point, the ultrasound was over, and I was flooded with just about every emotion imaginable. Thank goodness I had my mom there with me, I don't know how long it would have taken me to be able to drive home if I hadn't.
