Vickie Morgan and her partner Josh had a wonderful relationship and were simply enjoying life with their son when they found out they were expecting again. Things were near about perfect and with an impending visitor coming in from North Carolina, Vickie scheduled her 20-week ultrasound a little early so they could have some privacy from her mother-in-law.

The scan showed a list of abnormalities and doctors at Maternal Fetal Medicine in Portland, Maine swarmed the room suggesting medical termination. Vickie asked the gender of the baby so she could at least pick a name for the baby they wanted her to say goodbye to.

The gender could not be determined so early and the couple assumed they were having a girl and picked the name Grace. Vickie had often seen families with children who had special needs and said “there but for the Grace of God go I” and apparently hers had run out.

After a non-invasive prenatal testing called the MaterniT21, Josh and Vickie found out they were in fact having a boy who had Trisomy 13 which shows up approximately 1 in 10,000 babies.

The strain on their marriage and their relationships with family and friends reached a breaking point over and over again. Navigating medical opinions and the stigma around children and people with special needs was at times, too much to comprehend.

This story cowritten by Vickie and Josh Morgan is one of hope and healing, pain and recovery. It explores the fractured relationships and brutal reality that expectant parents face when making life altering decisions that are often misunderstood and sometimes not supported by loved ones.

It’s a prenatal guide that goes so far beyond ‘What to Expect When You’re Expecting.” It’s one brave couple’s account of how they handled challenges they never could have imagined.

Parenting