Today we saw a geneticist in Salt Lake City.
We are seeking a second opinion, not because we think the first was wrong.
We want to have another set of eyes look at Bradley and see if they see anything they understand.
I took these pictures of Bradley when he was only 4 days old and I left them with the geneticist.
These four pictures represent a very innocent time for us.
A time when I thought he was very small, but possibly very typical.
He really is a beautiful boy!
And they asked what we were hoping to accomplish with seeing the genetics team in SLC.
And I told them I really want to know if anything else is expected to happen with Bradley.
I don't need a cure.
But I would like a diagnosis. A prognosis maybe.
We hashed over everything that has happened to Bradley.
All the sadness.
All the pain.
These are pictures from before anything scary happened.
Beautiful boy.
Beautiful soul.
And the geneticist in Salt Lake couldn't think of any syndrome
that sounded like anything Bradley is exhibiting.
He said he would see us in a year if we wanted to come back.
He told us he'd take an x-ray of one of Bradley's hands.
He told us to follow up with Morris when she is better and said he was sad to learn she is sick.
And he said he is sure Bradley's health problems are related to something in his genes.
He said we could do genome sequencing.
He said everyone has genes out of place, when they are sequenced.
He said it would be hard to pin it to one that was out of sequence unless we had another child,
who had the same health problems,
and we sequenced his genes along with Bradley's and compared them.
I thanked him and we went to have the x-ray of Bradley's left hand.
And as the x-ray tech took the picture of his tiny bones,
my heart sang with delight to see such a beautiful hand on the screen.
I asked if that was the cutest hand she had ever seen.
She chuckled and said it was.
And tonight I looked at all of my babies sleeping
and I feel so blessed to have each one of them in my life.
I really am a lucky woman.
Even if the doctors never understand why Bradley is they way he is, I DO!
He is in our family for a reason, that is so far from his diagnosis or prognosis.
We don't really need it.
I am grateful he was placed so perfectly in our family.
That he was entrusted to Me and Tom and Madeleine and Jacob and Charlotte.
That we all get him so we can learn to be better people.
More patient. More loving.
And especially more patient!
