Here is what I posted to Facebook today bc I'm too exhausted to type it again. Thank you everyone for your prayers and thoughts.

I don't really know how to write this. Or if I should.

First, let me preface this by saying this is going to be long... and emotional... and take every bit of me. I'm sorry that for some of my family and friends this isn't how I wanted to tell you, but I've had a horribly long weekend and telling this story once will be much easier. I also ask that you give me and my family some time to breathe. And finally, if you have one ounce of negativity, please take that shit elsewhere.

When Georgia was at Tanner, I asked for a chromosome test to be done to rule out anything like down syndrome. The pediatrician on call said that they test takes two weeks, and our pediatrician would follow up with us. We haven't heard anything, so I called my pediatrician on Friday (Dr. Tega at PrimeCare Pediatrics) around 2 and left a voicemail. I tried again at 3pm. No one called me back. I also had gotten letters from the Georgia Department of Health for my daughter's disability, saying my pediatrician had referred me I was so confused. What disability? She's just small? So I had questions about that as well. Plus I wanted her hip sonogram results. I hadn't heard back so I called Tanner for her chromosome results. They told me that they had sent the results to my pediatrician on Tuesday and that they would have my pediatrician call me. An hour goes by, a receptionist from Dr. Tega's office calls. She says, your results came back and Georgia tested positive for trisomy 18. She kept talking but I interrupted because I don't even know what that means. She gets snotty and tells me to look it up online and to call Emory's genetics department. What the fuck... I immediately run to Patrick and type in Trisomy 18 into my Google search bar. "Not compatible with life. Very rare." I call Emory. It's four on a Friday. I can't get anyone on the phone and I'm in tears as Patrick and I search the Internet. "Only 10% of newborns diagnosed live past one year." I'm hysterical and Pat is on the phone calling our pediatrician... calling Emory... calling CHOA. No one will give us any answers and Dr. Tega won't even speak to us. The receptionist keeps saying he'll call us, but flash forward to today, 9am, and none one calls. I get on the phone and try Emory again. No one picks up. I call Dr. Tega's office and lose my mind. How can you tell me something like that over the phone? And tell me to look it up online? This is literally the worst news you could give give a parent and this man won't even speak to me. I call Tanner and beg for someone to help me. Emory calls but won't give me the results. Finally Dr. Tega himself calls. I expected an apology, but this man has no remorse. He then LIES to me and tells me that Tanner just sent the results today and he doesn't even know what they mean... they're just a little slip of paper. I flip out. I hang up on him. Then I packed up my daughter and drove to Tanner Medical Center myself.

Let me interrupt this messed up horrible story to say thank you to Patrick's cousin Lauren, who got us an appointment with the pediatrician she works with tomorrow, so someone can go over these results with us. Mind you, the reason I had to go to Tanner to get her medical records is because Dr. Tega's office told me they would charge me $25 and it would take 48 hours. Tanner gave them to me for free and in ten minutes.

I waited until we were in the parking lot to open the envelope. She has full trisomy 18.

My heart is broken.

William Shakespeare once said it is better to have loved and lost, than to have never loved at all. My love for my daughter is beyond words, and absolutely nothing could change that.

I don't have any answers to what this diagnosis means. I don't know how severe it is, or what her prognosis is. All I know is that my daughter was not meant to survive, but she did. My daughter is here with purpose and a meaning and even if all I get to do is love her, no matter how much time that is, I will cherish the smell of her hair and her fingers wrapped around mine. I refuse to become bitter or angry angry or weak because she refuses, and so does her father. They say God does not give you more than you can handle, and I cannot think of two people more perfectly chosen to be Georgia's parents. Our love brought her here, and I know it will keep her strong.

I hope each of you reading this finds inspiration in my daughter. I hope someday when you are tired and weak, you think of how this tiny human fought to be here, just so I could love her. I literally planned on being her mother my entire life, and God answered my prayers. Who am I to question the path He had given my family? Thought she be but little, my daughter is fierce. And she has given me more in the last five weeks than I could have ever deserved.

I hope tonight you say a prayer for my daughter and my family. But please do not feel sorry. Patrick and I have such faith. She is going to be fine because she is strong and perfect. I couldn't ask for better luck.

#georgialynn #babyminor #georgiaonmymind #trisomy18