On our blog, I had given ten suggestions for helping people navigate the transitions of life. Number 10’s suggestion was to laugh every day. And that brought a private note from my friend Anne.
“This reminded me of something I did thirty-three years ago,” she said.
Anne had been pregnant, almost in her sixth month, when the doctors diagnosed the baby with a condition called anencephaly. The news was devastating.
Anne explains that for a fetus to be “anencephalic” means no brain or the brain grows outside the skull. Of course, it’s incompatible with life. Anne explained that it forms very early, often before the woman even knows she is pregnant.
They had named the baby girl Amy. They often prayed for her–still in the womb, of course–along with her two older brothers.
“Such babies are often extra active in the womb,” Anne told me, which only adds to the mother’s pain and the cruelty of the condition. Even so, Anne says, “I relished each time Baby Amy turned or kicked since I knew my time with her would be limited.”
As if that wasn’t enough…