Duc in Altum

As I mentioned, my wife and I learned yesterday that our unborn child was at risk for neural tube defects. We spent a restless night in which we really did not know what to think. We accepted His Will no matter what it might be, but we prayed that our child was healthy and the test results were incorrect.

My wife was not able to sleep, and I slept for a few hours before waking up in sometime in the dark hours of the morning. We talked with each other and prayed silently. We besought our Lord to help our child. And I know that I asked our Lady of Guadalupe and many other saints to intercede for us. We both were able to sleep for a few more hours, but I rose not knowing whether we would be able to have a sonogram today or whether we would have to wait until Monday to learn if there was any truth to the test results. The prospect of a long weekend of uncertainty weighed heavy upon me.

Praise be Jesus Christ, today, right after I posted a Good Friday message, we received a call telling us that we were able to have a sonogram performed by a doctor who would be able to see us just before he left for the weekend. It was a long and quiet drive to the hospital as my wife offered up our silent prayers to Him who alone was in control of the entire situation.

Thanks be to God, the sonogram indicated that our child, who is sixteen and half weeks old, does not show any signs of neural tube defects. In fact, everything checked out fine. When the doctor told us the news, I was so happy that I almost cried, and my wife was numb with relief. We kept asking the doctor if indeed there were no signs of what the screening test had indicated. And he kept replying that he saw no evidence. All the other signs that the doctor checked showed healthy development. There is an indication that our child's arms are not up to expected growth, but we know that we will simply entrust that concern to our Lord and the intercession of His saints.

Finally, to complete our early Easter joy the technician told us that our child is a girl! We had wanted to know, and we did not think that we would know until we could have a scheduled sonogram in the middle of May. This was a great good that God brought out of the horrible news that we heard yesterday--God gave us an early sonogram that showed everything is fine and we learned that we have a little girl. Thanks be to God for His infinite mercy!

We drove back from the hospital in such relief and joy we again did not know what to think. This time it felt so much better to be bewildered because this time it was our amazement in our God Who is so good. On this day of fasting, we had a taste of our Lord's infinite mercy which He extended to all on Good Friday two thousand years ago by offering Himself as the perfect sacrifice for our sin.