celebration.

Just another reminder that this evening is Gabriel’s celebration.  We are so excited to celebrate his life and are so thankful to have people who have been supporting us through this whole journey be there with us.  We are really excited to see y’all and say thank you for loving us, thinking about us, praying for us, and blessing us in so many ways.  And in case we don’t say those things today [which we probably won't], please know we want to say those things and we mean it so much.

You’re probably sick of hearing this, but the information again in case someone needs it:

7 pm.  Fellowship Church.  And I forgot to mention before that we’ll be having a brief receiving of friends starting at 6 pm.

we’re celebrating.

Just wanted to post real quick to remind and share with anyone who hasn’t heard that tomorrow is Gabriel’s celebration service.

 

 

Tomorrow — Saturday, May 18th, at 7 pm at Fellowship Church — we will be celebrating Gabriel.  We’re looking forward to celebrating his life, how he’s changed us, and all the joy of our sweet baby boy.

 

 

We hope to see you there!

many many thanks.

I didn’t think I’d be writing on the blog again so soon.  But yesterday I needed to write.  I needed to document our day so that I can always look back and read what I wrote on the day we buried Gabriel’s body.

 

In 3 hours, it will have been 5 days exactly since we met our sweet boy.  Crazy thing is that exactly 5 days ago I was just getting to the hospital.  But 5 days ago, we got our much anticipated moment of meeting Gabriel.  We held him in our arms.  We watched him and loved on him.  He was with us, and he was alive.  We are so thankful for that.  We want to share that our prayers were answered to meet our baby boy alive.  We want people to know that.  Yet, it would be a lie to say that we weren’t so so sad that he isn’t here with us now.  We so badly wanted him to be the baby that keeps going.  The one who defies all the odds.  We wanted a million moments to snuggle him and kiss him.  We wanted to take 10,000 pictures of him.  We wanted to bring him home.  We wanted minutes and we got hours, so we are so thankful.  But we also wanted a day, a week, a month, 99 days.  But none of those would have ever been enough.  We have hundreds of thoughts running through our heads.  Emotions that go up and down and back and forth.  Things I do want to share eventually.  But for now, know that we are so thankful, so blessed that our baby boy was alive with us.  We will never forget how it felt to hold him in our arms, yet at the same time, the details are already starting to fade away and the exact feelings of it all are getting fuzzy already and it’s terrifying.  Know that we are thankful that our baby never suffered here on earth.  Know that we are learning that as God tells us, there is no difference between an hour and one thousand years.  Know that we are comforted.  Know that we are aching.

 

And know that we are so thankful for you.  We have felt so loved and cannot imagine getting through this without all of your love.  Our words could never be enough to express how deep the gratitude and love runs in our hearts for you.  But in our weak attempt, we say thank you.

 

 

We do have some information we’d like to share.

 

 

We will be having a service celebrating Gabriel’s life next Saturday, May 18th at 7 pm at Fellowship Church.  We would love, and be very honored, for everyone to come celebrate his life with us.

 

 

We have been asked about where donations can be made in honor of Gabriel, and we have that set up now.  We are so incredibly touched by this and are so blessed that Gabriel’s life continues to bless others through memorial gifts.  Thank you for honoring our son in that way.  Please send memorial gifts to Soar Youth Ministries.

Soar Youth Ministries is a Christian after school and mentoring program serving at risk youth in the Lonsdale area.  They seek to make the love of God credible to hurting children through relationships grounded in Christ.  More information can be found on their website at soaruponwings.com

*Please be sure to note in the memo line that the donation is for Gabriel Morgan

Donations can be mailed to:

SOAR Youth Ministries

1317 Connecticut Ave. NW
Knoxville, TN 37921
(865) 544-5881

 

 

 

 

 

today.

Today we buried our baby boy.

 

Today we laid his physical body to rest forever.  Today we said goodbye to his body.

 

Today was a beautiful day.  If you’ve been reading our story, you know how much I’ve talked about rain.  After we found out Gabriel’s diagnosis, it rained for  nearly 2 weeks straight.  It seemed like every time I was going to the doctor’s office it would rain.  It rained so much during our pregnancy.  We always assumed that it would rain on this day as well.  But today started out beautiful and got even more beautiful.  The sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, the sky was blue and the clouds perfect.  It was the most beautiful day.  And we were so surprised.  And then we realized the significance behind it all.  Gabriel was sick and it rained and rained and rained.  He is now healed, and on the day that we said goodbye to his earthly body and  celebrated his life in Heaven, the sun broke through in an amazing way.  We know that today especially, God is celebrating having our Gabriel in Heaven with Him.  We know that Gabriel is healed.  That Gabriel is peaceful.  That Gabriel is not suffering.  We know that sunshine and beautiful weather are probably nothing compared to God’s glory that Gabriel is seeing in Heaven.

 

Today was hard.  Today was a beautiful day.  Today we had our family gather around us and say goodbye to our baby’s body.  We had an intimate gathering at the graveside where wonderful words of hope were spoken, a song of great love and hope was played on the guitar, and where my husband stood and spoke in honor of our son.  It was perfect.  Then everyone left except for Tommy and me and we sat by our little baby’s casket as the breeze blew in, listening to the birds chirp, just us for a short while.  Then the men came to bury his body and we stood at a distance and watched until they were finished.  His body rests peacefully now.  His soul is with our Father.  He is dancing with Jesus in Heaven.  Thanks be to God.

 

 

Thank you.

Thank you to all of you who have kept up with the Morgan family’s story. Thank you to all of you who have been praying and sending thoughts of love. Thank you to all of you who have reached out with support and have been so eager to help in any way. This is Lindsay writing for Lauren once again. Lauren wanted me to share the beautiful details with you:

 

Gabriel Patrick Morgan was born on Sunday, May 5th at 6:28pm.
He was 4 lbs 3 oz. and 17″ long.
Lauren and Tommy got to hear him cry a few times and watched him take some deep breaths. He passed away nearly two hours later at 8:25pm.

 

They are working on lining up arrangements for where they would like memorial gifts in Gabriel’s honor to go. We will let you know more details soon.

 

So many of you have generously offered to help in any way that you can. Everyone is very thankful for that. Some dear friends from Lauren and Tommy’s small group have set up a meal schedule if you would like to help out. The website is takethemameal.com and there is password information that we are happy to give you.  If you’re interested in helping out with a meal and need that information please email me @ lindsaykgranger@gmail.com.  I will give you the password for that.

 

 

Thank you again. Lauren and Tommy feel very loved during this time.

Tommy’s sister took these pictures of Gabriel on Sunday. Wanted to share a few with you…

Wholly Healed

I am so thankful to be able to write this post to update you once again. I have had the privilege of watching my sister and Tommy walk down the path that God has led them.  I have watched as they have opened their hands to His plan.  And today, I was able to watch as they met and loved on their new baby boy, Gabriel Patrick Morgan.  He was born earlier this evening, and Lauren and Tommy were so thankful to be able to hold their angel in their arms.  True to character, he was much bigger than we were expecting.  And stronger.  And even more beautiful.  Gabriel was with his family here on earth for several minutes.  Several sweet minutes.  I do not actually know how long because we were all so caught up in the moment.  But Lauren and Tommy got to see and hear and feel the life in their boy.  And for that we are beyond thankful!  His heart slowed, and his breaths stopped, but please do not be discouraged.  Do not think that your prayers were not heard.  Not answered.  Because they were in the best way.  Sweet Gabriel is now wholly healed.  I am so encouraged by friends and family who have shown such love to my sister and her family.  I am continuing to pray for Lauren and Tommy and Jack… for comfort, for peace, for joy, for hope.  And praying with a grateful heart that we got to meet Gabriel and that he is now wholly healed!

Baby G Day

the day has come. This is Lauren’s sister writing for Lauren…. Because she and Tommy are in the delivery room! She wanted me to give all of you who have been keeping up and praying all this time an update. They went in to the hospital earlier this afternoon. Everyone is doing well… Gabriel’s heartbeat was strong in triage earlier this afternoon. They are prepared and ready to meet their boy. He is on the way. we will keep posting. And praying. For Tommy, Lauren, Gabriel, and Jack. Praying that more brilliance would be added to the glory of God today.

 

knee deep.

It’s Friday!  For awhile I found myself surprised that I still get excited that it’s Friday and the weekend is coming up since I’m a stay-at-home-mom.  My weekends are pretty similar to my weekdays — except, I finally realized the big reason why — Tommy’s home on the weekends.  Weekends are way better.

 

So we are knee deep in asthma over here.  Or I guess I should say reactive airway disease, since that’s the correct terminology.  Unfortunately, it looks like Jack is taking after me and all of my asthma issues as a child.  Jack’s allergies started bothering him a week ago, and just like anything he got this winter, it turned into a nasty cough.  So after waiting for a few days for the allergies or cold to pass, it was obvious that his chest was in bad shape.  He scared us pretty good Wednesday night and Thursday morning with what we figured were asthma attacks.  He’s had this ongoing cough, but he was having these fits where he would cough constantly, not really able to get breaths in.  Scary stuff.  Thankfully we already have a nebulizer at home for breathing treatments, so we were able to give him breathing treatments to give some relief.

 

So after those attacks we took him in to our pediatrician.  He said Jack was wheezing pretty badly and confirmed reactive airway, like we were thinking.  He gave us a prescription for oral steroids and a new rescue inhaler, so now we’re in business.  Last night, after just one dose of the steroids, was so.much.better.  For the first time this week Jack didn’t wake up at 430 this morning struggling to breathe.  Win for the Morgan family. Our pediatrician wanted to see Jack again today before the weekend hit, so we went in this morning.  He said he doesn’t think he’s out of the woods yet but that he did seem improved.  I’ll take improved!  When we go back for Jack’s 2 year check up [what?!!!] we’ll talk about starting him on a maintenance inhaled steroid to keep him from having these bad flare ups.  I’m thankful that our pediatrician is waiting a month to see how Jack does in between before putting him on something every day.  Tommy and I have been worried all winter about Jack having asthma and needing something, but we also don’t want to be quick to jump on daily medicines.  They’re a great gift and I’m so thankful for modern medicine, but no meds are totally benign so we’ll see.  We’re also very thankful for our pediatrician who takes great care of Jack, prays for our family, and has offered to come see and take care of our Gabriel when he’s born.

 

So this weekend we’ll be continuing to dig our way out of the asthma hole we’ve been living in for the past week.

 

 

Hope you have a great weekend!

it’s may.

We have made it to May, y’all!  There have been a lot of times where I didn’t think we would.  Where I didn’t think we’d have Gabriel in the month of May.  He’s due this month!!  It’s amazing.  We’re over the moon.

 

 

 

May is my favorite month of the year.  The only time of year that rivals it is the holidays.  May is the best.  Even as a kid, it’s exciting.  It’s the first really warm month but it’s not too warm.  It welcomes in summer.  School gets out.  And it’s my birthday month.  Then in the past several years, May has gotten even better.  My husband’s birthday is April 30th — the perfect way to kick off my favorite month.  We got married in May!  Then we had Jack in May!  Not just May, but it’s all one week.  Then when we found out we were having Baby Morgan #2 in May, it got even better.  The same due date for both of my baby boys, which also is my birthday.  How could I not love this month?

 

 

So happy May, dear friends!!  May this be the best May yet!!

36 weeks.

Monday we had our 36 week doctor’s appointment.  It was our last growth ultrasound with Baby Gaby!  Unbelievable.  I thought I’d be really sad about that, but it feels OK and we were excited to get to see him dancing and squirming away on the screen one more time.  Boy is active.  Always has been.  So thankful for that.

 

So the information from the ultrasound…

Our Gabriel is looking good!  We saw him practicing breathing — which was so exciting to me.  The ventricles in his brain, which were enlarged with fluid when we got his diagnosis, measured normal on Monday.  Awesome news.  There was an increase in fluid in the back of his brain, which hasn’t been there before, but it’s all part of the T18.  The amniotic fluid level also measured normal.  It’s greater than average, they called it “subjectively increased”, but technically falls within the normal range of levels.  So I was thrilled.  No wonder I’ve been feeling better lately.  And super exciting news is that Gabriel had great growth!  They estimated that he weighs 4 pounds, 3 ounces.  We were so thrilled!

 

Our appointment went well and we got things lined up so we’ll be ready to go when it’s G day.  Our nurse practitioner wrote our orders and went ahead and sent them over to the Labor and Delivery floor so that they know what’s going on with us.  After the appointment we had a meeting with a woman at the hospital to show us some of the rooms so we could choose where we’d like to be to deliver Gabriel.  We’re getting the treatment like I’m Princess Kate [or something like that].  We also talked with a L&D nurse about our birth plan to make sure everything looks good.  We are good to go!

 

At our appointment we learned that we’re making some progress towards labor.  Good to know all of the contractions I’ve been having are doing something.  So it could be a couple of weeks or we could have him soon.  We’ll see.

 

I was sharing with our nurse practitioner how they say that trisomy 18 babies don’t move much but that he’s always been so active, and I’ve always felt him a lot.  She said trisomy babies also don’t gain weight, and he gained weight like crazy in between our last ultrasounds.  She said “I don’t think he got the memo that he has an extra chromosome.”  Music to my ears   I hope he keeps missing that memo.  She calls him the little engine that could.  I like that.

 

So that’s our update.  We’re hanging out, enjoying our time, and waiting on Baby Gaby.