Evelyn Ginnell Earl -June 8, 2012

At my regular 18 week doctor appointment (I was actually 2 days shy of 19 weeks), the nurses couldn't find a heartbeat with the dopler machine.  So they sent me to get an ultrasound, again.  This has been the normal proceedure for the last 3 appointments, so I didn't think anything out of the ordinary, especially since my placenta was anterior - meaning that it was thicker and harder to penetrate from the belly side.  However, the ultrasound showed that our baby was gone.  There was no heartbeat or movement anymore.  I was very shocked and heartbroken.  It didn't seem real.  They called Dan who happened to be at home watching the kids and he came over right away.  We were told that I needed to go to the hospital and be induced to deliver the baby because my health would be in jeopardy if we waited too long.  Because I was half-way through the pregnancy, I would need to go through all the same proceedures that a normal delivery would require.

We were still in shock as we scheduled our hospital visit.  We wanted to attend Elliott's kindergarten graduation the next morning, so our appointment was for after the ceremony.

Our appointed time was on June 7th at 11am.  We got there and had another ultrasound right away to make sure there was still no movement.  We were praying that the dr's ultrasound machine was just malfunctioning the day before.  But sadly we found the same results.  So I was given a pill to start labor.  We ended up doubling the medication because my body was not ready to have my baby - we didn't even know if baby was a boy or girl at this point in time.

At 2:38am on June 8th our precious daughter, Evelyn Ginnell was born.  She was perfect, even down to her tiny fingernails!  She was 8 inches tall and 4.9oz.  The dr. told us that we could spend as much time with her as we wanted, but that as long as I was ok I would usually be discharged within 8 hours.  We spent every moment with her that we could.

 Evelyn's hand on Mommy's hand.

 A blurry little foot.  Her little toes were so cute.

 Evelyn's hand on Daddy's finger.

We found a lot of resemblences to our family even though she was so little.  She had my high forehead, Dan's shaped eyes but with my blue eye color, the big Earl feet, and the "froggy" belly that all the kids had.  Dan even said that her little bum looked like our kid's bubbly bums.  :)

 I think the hardest part was having to leave Evelyn at the hospital knowing that we'd never see her in this life again.  We are so grateful to know that we will see her again though, and that she can be a part of our eternal family.

The kids have been ok through this whole time.  Donovan and Elliott have had a bit of a hard time because they knew more of what was happening, but they are doing ok.  We have had wonderful friends and family watching out for our kids and us.

On Tuesday, June 12th, we had a private family graveside service for Evelyn.

 Evelyn's little casket.

Our two little girls.

Even though we know where Evelyn is, it is still hard to not have her with us.  We are still having a tough time with all that has happened, but we are doing ok.  Every day gets better.  We are so grateful for all the support and kind words that have been given to us.  We are determined to be better people and do all we can while on this earth to be worthy to live with our little girl again.  We love you Evelyn Ginnell Earl!