Bittersweet

So we're in the house. Can't wait to post on it, can't wait to share pictures, can't wait to...well, finish getting set up, but whatever. Also can't wait to have a housewarming party so all y'all can come see this puppy...but it's going to have to wait. There are more important things.

So here it is, and I'll say it once here so I don't have to say it again.

My sister is 30 weeks pregnant with their first baby, a girl who will be named Annabel. A month or so ago they discovered the baby had dwarfism, and a week or two ago now found out it is a rare and fatal form.

Last week she had an amnio and is currently awaiting the results so that they can schedule her to be induced. She has a serious excess of amniotic fluid (which Annabel has not used, hence the non-development of her lungs and other internal organs) and it is dangerous for her to attempt to take Annabel full term, which she likely will not make anyway. She will be induced either this week or next and deliver little Miss Bananabel, who will not live more than a few moments outside the womb, if she even emerges alive. She has some deformations and is not compatible with life, and we're all worried about what might happen to mom...though we know what will happen to baby, and we're obviously heartbroken.

Tomorrow, by the way, is my sister's birthday. She should receive the results of the amnio tomorrow and be able to schedule the induction for the first available opportunity.

So I am not planning a housewarming party, and I am not dancing through the large and spacious building we now call home; instead I am preparing my children for sad grandparents and no new cousin and a devastated auntie and uncle. And I'm sad, surprise, surprise, because we're having to look into funerary arrangements for the special soul entrusted to our family for the few precious moments we'll have her.

Annabel has had quite an effect on us, and she isn't even here yet, but she will be, all too soon, and then she'll be gone. And we will love her as though she remained among us, think of her often, and hold her in our hearts to and beyond the end of time.

If you have any extra prayers lying around, please devote them to Kate & Victor and their precious Annabel Katherine Flores, and if you're not the praying type, please keep your fingers crossed. All of them.

Much obliged. More soon. Let's hope it'll be happy.