Hope Victoria

My sister's little girl would have been 7 years old today. Although it's been 7 years I can still remember every detail of that horrible day. I had my college roommates down for the weekend and we got back to my house and there were 7 missed calls so I knew right away that something was wrong. I immediately called my sister and no one answered, called my parents and no one answered and then called my Grandma and she wasn't home. We were in the middle of a terrible snow storm and I knew that my Grandma would not have driven in this weather unless something was really wrong. So I finally got a hold of my Uncle and I said "I know something is wrong with Kim's baby, what happened?" He calmly said "I don't know if I should be the one to tell you this, but they couldn't find a heartbeat". My heart just sank and immediately I drove up the hospital. My sister was 28 weeks along and had lost the baby. I vividly remember walking into her hospital room and bursting into tears and giving her a big hug. I couldn't believe she lost the baby, after they had struggled for years to conceive and after the 3rd IUI she was finally pregnant. The next 2 days were kind of a blur as they prepared my sister to deliver the baby. They had to give her the gel pills to soften her cervix over the next 48 hours and then they would induce her with pitocin. I was with her in the delivery room when she delivered a perfectly healthy stillborn baby girl. The cord was wrapped around her neck 2 times which was the cause of the death - otherwise she was perfectly healthy. My sister did go onto to have 2 IVF miracles and now has a 6 year old boy named Chase and a little girl named Carly who just turned 1.

7 years ago I would have never imagined that I would have to experience that same tragic loss times 3. Hope, Alex, Michael and Faith are all buried next to each other and I have to believe that they are are in a better place than we are.

Tonight our family will meet up at the cemetery and release 7 balloons to honor Hope and wish her a Happy Birthday and then head back to my sister's house for dinner.