Sad day

today was the worst day of our lives. our little Charlotte Jean has passed away. during our visit with dr. wood this morning, he was unable to find a heartbeat. he told us not give up yet but immediately sent us down to ultrasound for a check. our sweet tech, kathy, also knew immediately that there was no heartbeat and our baby girl was no longer with us. peter and i chose to be induced ASAP so as not to prolong our waiting any more. we called our family and everyone has made the trip here to be with us, a trip that i am sure was extremely difficult for them. i was admitted at 1pm and they started me on a drug to begin softening my cervix at 2pm. so far, the staff has been great with us and we were given a very large private room. the last 12 hours since the drugs were started havent been bad...at least they havent been too bad :) i have a lot of cramping, especially in my lower back. to spare you all the gory details, my doctor has decided to begin giving me the meds orally so as not to put me in any more pain. this could be a very long process because my body is not ready to give Charlotte up (and neither is my heart!). when my nurse (third of the day...all have been SUPER sweet and so awesome to me) came in for my 2am check i had now progressed to between 1 and 2cm and Charlotte's little head has come down, but i am not opening yet. still not sure how much longer...we were told it could be anywhere from 24 to 36 hours total. i do want to mention something pretty awesome. i know that there are so many of you praying for us...THANK YOU! as mentioned above, we are now being treated by our third nurse, Jackie. if you know me, you know that i have never met a stranger! :) turns out Jackie just graduated from our little christian college, Cedarville University, and knows my best friend and her family very well! i had just gotten off the phone with my bestie and had to text her back to let her know the situation...small world! to make things even better, before Jackie left for a little bit she asked if she could pray for Peter and me...that gives me chill bumps thinking about it! what an awesome mission field God has given to these nurses, and praise Him for nurses like Jackie who are not afraid to show their faith in our Great Physician!

i am not sure that i will be posting again before everything is over and we say good bye to our baby girl. please continue to pray for us! please pray that peter is able to rest for the next few hours. please pray that my body will respond to the medication and that this might be a somewhat "easy" labor for me. please pray as we prepare our hearts to say good bye to our sweet Charlotte Jean, that God will lead us through this horribly sad time. thank you again for all the prayers and support! 

blessings, ALo