{Our Beautiful Cayman Cindy}

{Cayman at almost 3 years old}

I started blogging when I was seven months pregnant with my daughter, our little miracle Cayman.

An ultrasound performed at 20 weeks gave us the very unexpected news that we would be caring for and raising a child with special needs, in addition to the scare that she might not even make it to birth.

She was diagnosed with a serious brain condition called Hydrocephalus, where the ventricles inside her head were filled with an abundance of fluid due to Aqueduct Stenosis, a narrowing of the body's natural drainage canal.  All that fluid was compressing her brain  and further damaging it.  Bimonthly we went for ultrasounds to "watch" the fluid accumulate.  Treatment for it can only come after birth in surgery for a shunt placement.

By 36 weeks gestation the ventricles within her brain measured 38 mm and 42 mm. Normal size ventricles inside a baby's head typically measure less than 10 mm. The comparison of those numbers gave us a greater understanding of the critical state our daughter's brain was in.

Given the poor prognosis of the severity of our baby's condition, doctors gave us the option to terminate the pregnancy.  The presentation of that option took our breath away and I fought to get it back while I sat there staring with wide eyes full of fear in the doctor's office.  To make such a decision is too large for anyone to possibly know what can come of a journey God has destined.  We are not left completely disarmed. Faith in the Almighty God, the giver and taker of life, became our standing grace in such a decision.  And so we walked out of the doctor's office with the immediate choice that we would leave such power to the His All-Knowing hands.

{At Birth}

And on March 8, 2008 our beautiful Cayman Cindy was born - alive, crying, and breathing on her own!  We embraced our miracle! 

As a newborn fresh out of the womb her head circumference measured 48 cm, the above average size of a two year old's. At birth the MRI scan revealed the tiniest strand of brain visible.

Other malformations have been found as well such as:

• the absence of the middle portion of the brain (Absence of Corpus Callosum)
• clefts in the brain effecting both cerebral hemispheres (Schizencephaly) 
• one kidney (Unilateral Renal Agensis) 
• stomach malformation (Duodenal Atresia)
• a heart defect (Right Aorta Arch with a Vascular Ring)
• skeletal deformities effecting her thumbs, forearms, and ribs
• an incomplete formation of her eyes (Colobomas)
• abnormalities of her middle and inner ears resulting in a moderate hearing loss

{7 days old, recovering in the NICU after two surgeries}

After Cayman was born I continued to blog her story. I wrote about each hospital stay; each surgery (there's been fourteen); I wrote about some of the fears we have experienced as her parents as well as the miraculous milestones she has accomplished, and the joy she brings to our lives.  I titled the blog "The Beautiful Cayman Cindy" because her life is exactly that...beautiful. It has not always been an easy journey but it has been continually and completely worth it!

I merged all those posts with my new site "Live Life in Wonder".   If you're new here, you can read those postings from the beginning by going to the sidebar and scrolling through the drop down menu of the "Blog Archives".  Not that I expect you to though.  Geesh I sure can write a lot!!