[tri-med] The long update on Baby Faith

Here is the longer version of our experience with Baby Faith (Trisomy 13).
I will also send an email with a few photos, because I don't think I did
that yet. The days seem to blur together and it is hard to remember what I
have done. Anyway, thanks for all your support.
Wendy Hagen (mom to Faith 12.11.02-12.15.02, wife to Shiloh, child of God)




As some of you know, my computer crashed while I was in the hospital giving
birth to Faith Hagen, who was born on 12/11/02 at 5:39pm. She was 4 pounds,
4 ounces, 15 1/2 inches long and over a month early. (see the email below,
which a few of you have already received. I have added the song my brother
sang at Faith's memorial on Wednesday. I wrote the words and he composed th=
e
music).=20

So about the computer - after hours of hard work by Shiloh and a million
different disks (as Shiloh puts it, we thought the whole hard drive was
"hosed"), and a borrowed external hard drive, etc. - the IMAC is back and m=
y
email group list was saved!

On Wednesday, we had a beautiful memorial service for Faith. God gave Shilo=
h
and I the strength to both share and even allowed some humor to surface in
spite of the sorrow that we are experiencing. One of Faith's nurses, Kathy,
shared about the impact that Faith made in the hospital. My sister-in-law,
Erin, expressed her love for Faith. Our former Pastor Karl, gave a message
about the good news of Christ offering salvation to all would believe in
Him. We concluded the service with "Heaven is Your Home", sung by my
brother, Cameron. A friend of ours had some doves released while Cameron wa=
s
singing.=20

Each day the pain seems to subside a little, although we miss her and love
her more than I could have ever anticipated.  I guess that is the gift of
being a parent. Thank you to everyone for all your support, prayers and
concern. It was evident throughout our whole journey that God's people were
praying. Of course, we would have loved Faith to stay with us longer, but
overall, we could not have asked for a better experience in terms of the
labor (the epidural was soooo good), time spent with her, her quality of
life, doctors & nurses and the unity that Shiloh and I experienced.

God has truly blessed us and we will never be the same.

I will send another email with 2 photos attached (so if you are a hotmailer
or yahooer this email will not get sent back for being too big for your
account).

God Bless,

Wendy (and Shiloh)

P.S. Oh, and consider this your Christmas card. Needless to say, we did not
get around to sending any out this year.
Jesus came to this earth to give you true peace and real life. I hope you
know Him. If not, I hope you seek him this season.


Dear Friends and Family,
=20
Sorry I left you hanging on my last email. Our computer totally crashed. I
cannot even get to my email list. So I have composed a new group list for
Faith based on your replies to my last email, Palm Pilot, memory, etc. I am
missing about half of my contacts so this will have to do for now. If you
know anyone that should be on this list -
please feel free to pass this along. Some of you know a bit of what has gon=
e
on because of phone calls and such. But here is the full scoop:

On Wednesday, December 11, 2002 we went to the hospital around 6:15am. My
contractions were about 7 minutes apart. I contracted away until around noo=
n
when it was time for the epidurel, which I highly recommend. I was only 2
centimeters dialated, but the contractions had been going strong since 3 am
so I was ready. I got stuck for several hours at 4 centimeters so Doc
decided to give me a little petosin. 45 minutes later I was pushing. 9
minutes later our beautiful daughter came into this world.
She came out with a faint cry. I was so glad just to even hear that.
However, everything went downhill from there. She could not really breath
well and we thought we were losing her. The doctor stimulated her and gave
her oxygen, but it did not seem to work. So he gave her to me to hold her
and we looked into each others eyes. Then Dad held her. The doctor saw that
she was fighting so he said, "Let's try to give her some oxygen again." So
back she came. My family came in and everyone held her. We shot video and
took a lot of photos. They cleaned her up and wrapped her omphalocele (wher=
e
her insides were outside of her stomach). We decided to have her stay in th=
e
ICU nursery through the night so they could monitor her breathing and such.
She did fine through the night.

We spent every second we could with her. Now the days are all a blur and
we had very little sleep. Our family got a chance to hold her and get to
know her. Shiloh and I enjoyed holding her skin to skin against our chests.
Most of the time she just slept peacefully. Like most babies, she did not
like being disturbed by a diaper change or transition, etc. But overall she
was very comfortable. She received fluids and nutrition through an IV as
well as antibiotics to keep her omphalocele from getting
infected.=20

She was with us for 3 days, 20 hours, and 1 minute. Then she went to be wit=
h
the Lord in heaven on Sunday, December 15th at 1:40 pm. She died in her
Daddy arms with Mom there beside her. On her last morning she started to
seem a little uncomfortable so we had the nurse give her a shot of morphine
to take away any pain that she might have had. She died because she just
stopped breathing. She did not make a come back as she had done several
times before.

We are so thankful that we had that time with her. It was amazing. She
brought us so much joy and now we are experiencing more pain than we ever
imagined. The Lord has brought us this far and now will carry us through.
Please pray for our healing as our
hearts are so broken. Shiloh and I seem to have break downs at different
times and are there to support one another. It has brought us closer
together. The Lord has been so faithful to us through it all. We had
excellent doctors and nurses. She lived a good life -  better and longer
than anyone expected. Thanks again for all your support.
God Bless you,

Wendy (and Shiloh)

"Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not
seen."  Hebrews 11:1

Heaven Is Your Home
(Words by Faith's Mom, and music by Faith's Uncle Cameron)

I remember the day we found out you were coming

I remember the day we found out you=B9d be gone

And each day now I wonder when you=B9re going

And some days I am barely holding on

So for now I cherish each movement

That tells me you=B9re okay

And for now I=B9m clinging to our savior

As he walks me through each day

=20

Cause I know the God who created you

I know the God who wants to make you whole
I know the God who awaits you
And I know that Heaven is your home

                 =20

                  Chorus

Jesus told me Heaven holds thee

Heaven is your home

Jesus above me, Jesus loves thee

Heaven is your home

=20

Cause Jesus told me Heaven holds thee

Heaven is your home

Jesus above us, Jesus loves us

Heaven is your home

=20

I=B9ll remember the time we shared with you

I=B9ll remember the moment we knew that you were gone

And now I know who is holding you

And giving me the strength to carry on

Faith, we will always cherish you

And we know that you=B9re okay

Now we=B9re desperate for our Savior
=20
I know the God who has rescued you
I know the God who has made you whole
I know the God who now cradles you

I know that heaven is your home

=20

                  Chorus

Cause Jesus told me Heaven holds thee

Heaven is your home

Jesus above me, Jesus loves thee

Heaven is your home

=20

Cause Jesus told me Heaven holds thee

Heaven is your home

Jesus above us, Jesus loves us

Heaven is your home

=20


                  Building ___ooOOoo__ Rainbows
                       www.trisomyonline.org
                  Families Helping Families On-line

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