I created this website to tell people our story and to educate others. Also, creating this website lets us document our lives for our friends and family!!

The union of two hearts!!
In February of 1998 I started dating my husband, Ferdinand. We instantly fell in love with one another!! We were inseperable!! Approximatley 9 months later we were engaged to be married!! He proposed to me in a deer stand of all places!!

We were engaged for about a year and a half before we got married. We set our wedding date for May 6, 2000. We have had many good times and I'm sure those times aren't over with!!

We moved into our house the summer before our wedding. It was a real chore to fix it up!! It is a 1930's farm house!! We even had to put in plumbing!!

Finally, May 6, 2000 arrived!! We were happily married in Waterloo, Illinois at the St. Paul, United Church of Christ at 2:30 in the afternoon. Our reception was held at Turner Hall in Columbia, Illinois. The monday following the wedding, we hopped on an airplane and headed for Mexico!!

Fetal Surgery
Traveling to Nashville, Tennessee to have fetal surgery on our unborn child was the worst feeling in the world for me!!! I was so scared!! I had so many feelings that it was driving me nuts!!

Once we arrived in Nashville, we checked into our motel. This was on a Sunday. Then, Monday arrived. On Monday we met with many different doctors and I also received a steroid shot to help develop our child's lungs, should he/she be born at the time of surgery. On Tuesday, the same routine of doctors and shots came, however, I also had an MRI done. It wasn't too bad!! Wednesday brought an all new meaning to fear!!

This was the big day!! I was admitted into the hospital in the morning. I sat in the hospital bed all morning, receiving IV after IV and a couple shots. At approximately ten minutes till one they wheeled me down to surgery room. This surgery sounds complicated, but yet, only took an hour.

To perform this surgery, they performed a c-section, delivered my uterus, made an incision into my uterus, drained most of the amniotic fluid, moved our lil one around, stitched up the Spina Bifida lesion on his back, stitched up my uterus, syringed the amniotic fluid back in, stitched that hole up, placed my uterus back in me, and then stitched me back up.

After this surgery, I had to wear an IV 24/7 that pumped a medication called Terbutaline into me that helped to prevent me from going into premature labor. I also had to monitor for contractions 2x's daily!! This was a rough pregnancy!!

This surgery was performed at 24 weeks gestation and at 33 weeks gestation, our son, Donovan was born!!

I highly recommend this surgery to fix this birth defect prenatally!! It may prevent alot of medical problems for your child. I know it did for our son!! His brain malformation was reversed and also, he should be able to walk!!