“A mother’s treasure is her daughter.”
Nine months ago a little girl entered our lives. We decided to call her “Piper Montgomerie.” The very moment she came out, we knew very little of what lay ahead of us. We did however thank God for what lay behind us. What most of you don’t know is, when I was pregnant with Piper, it was an abnormal pregnancy to say the least. The short version of the story is that Gary and I were told at just 12 weeks pregnant that there was some concern in one of our ultrasounds. From that appointment we had to go to a specialist group for further ultrasounds and doctors appointments for months to come. We were told that Piper would not be “Normal”. There was presence of cystic hygroma and some other medical jargon. She was believed to either have “Down’s syndrome”, “Turner’s Syndrome”, or a “Lethal Heart disease” & would not survive after the age of one. During that same appointment we were encouraged of two things… one was to do some further testing to determine which of the three she would have which had risks of miscarrying, and the other was to consider termination. This was literally like a knife through our hearts. We had never been so uncomfortable and so hurt and feeling like we were in such a cold and dark place. Once we were able to leave that medical facility and sort out all the of the information that was just presented to us, we found our clear thoughts. Gary and I knew right away that we were uncomfortable with both choices that were presented to us. Those of you who know me well, know that I am usually taking the rebel route, if you tell me to go left I will go right. I think we caught that unit off guard when we presented them with our decision to do “nothing” (in their eyes…neither of their options) and just ride out the wave that we were on. But we knew that we were actively doing “something”, we were leaving it in the hands of the man in charge. Through our faith in God and the endless support of our family we prayed that God would have a hand in her health and reminded ourselves everyday that we were ready for whatever was in store for us and this child. We committed to love and care for this child in whatever way her health demanded.
As you read this you are probably thinking “Why didn’t we tell you?” Our decision to keep this to ourselves was not intended to hurt anyone’s feelings or to have people feeling “left out”. It was made to insure that we only had positive energy focused on the birth of our child at all times. We didn’t want to focus on the “What if’s & what might be.”
I am writing you all now to inform you that indeed “Piper” did not turn out normal. Instead, she turned out to be an “Angel” sent from above. She fought past every obstacle that was working against her and came to us with nothing less than perfection. I will never forget the moment when she came out and I couldn’t yet see her so I looked at Gary and said “How is she”, he replied “She’s perfect”. I have never had so much emotion rushing through my body at any one point in time. In the hospital the doctor’s gave her a 9.9 on the APGAR test and said “No one gets a 10.”
She has changed our lives & shown us love that we didn’t even know existed. She laughs religiously and has infinite amounts of energy. She lights up every room when she is in it. She makes it known that she is here and she is lively! People are drawn to her wherever we go. The gift of our daughter “Piper” has been the greatest joy we could have ever imagined and we look forward to every second with her. Gary and I race into her room in the mornings to fight over who gets to take her out of the crib first. As we get up to the crib and peek over she is looking up waiting for us with her huge smile and as soon as she sees one or both of us she starts to giggle. There is nothing greater than waking up to this every day! We are so fortunate. There is not one moment that is taken for granted with “Piper” and we thank God everyday for her.
Piper has so many funny quirks about her… when she plays she propels her arms so fast while doing a cheering scream that we swear she is going to fly into the air at any second. She imitates grunts and screams and copies anything that you do. She giggles with this amazing innocence, and when she cries she sincerely feels like her heart was just broken and you can see it on her face. She loves life and loves big and her heart is made of pure gold. Hopefully you have all been able to meet “Piper”… and if you haven’t you are in for a real treat!
Name Meaning:
Piper – Flute Player
Montgomerie – from the hill of the powerful man
We know this was meant to be… she is a girl that makes beautiful music from God.
With all of our Love,
Gary, Jaime & Piper Musselman
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