One for Sorrow, Two for Joy

“I have a nickname for Maggie, we can call her Our Little Magpie!” – Our eldest in our 6th month of pregnancy

Magpies are not typically associated with joy. Some poems have detailed that the number of magpies you see secures your fate or your child’s. The original 18th century poem is too macabre to share but a more recent one is a bit more Mother Goose-ish. One magpie means sorrow, two means joy, three means girl, four means boy… so on and so forth. The image of the magpie is also used in sacred art. One painting of the nativity has a magpie perched on the roof above, a hint at the passion of Jesus and the sorrow that Mary would endure in seeing her son’s pain.

I don’t believe in coincidences, to me everything has meaning, whether we know it at the time or not.

Today we had Maggie’s blood drawn for her genetics test. The results will tell us for a fact if she has Apert Syndrome and will set in motion her plan for treatment. If you look up Apert Syndrome you will be taken to pictures, stories, medical journals all discussing the ramifications of this rare genetic syndrome. Her main symptoms that will need to be treated are syndactyly on her hands and feet, midface retrusion, and craniosynostosis. Syndactyly means that she has webbing and bone fusion in her hands and feet. The webbing of her hands make them look like “spades”. Her toes are fully webbed and she has an extra toe on each foot because 10 baby toes are adorable and 12 is just that much cuter. Midface retrusion means that the middle of her face is more inset than it should be and therefore her eyes seem to be much larger, when in fact its just that the eye sockets are not surrounding them as they should, it also means that her nasal passages are tighter than normal. These two aspects of Apert Syndrome will need to be addressed at some point, but craniosynostosis is the most pressing issue.

Apert Syndrome causes certain cells to become bone too soon hence the syndactyly and midface retrusion but it also effects her skull. This means that the sutures in her skull have closed too soon and are not giving her brain enough room to grow. In all likelihood Maggie will be having her first surgery by the time she is 6 months old, this will be done to reopen a closed suture and prevent any complications to her growth and development.

With this ahead of us, it would be easy to stick to “One for sorrow” instead of “Two for joy”, but that would be foolish. Carlos and I know that God is not limited by sickness and death. Yes, traditionally the magpie has pointed to pain and sorrow and no doubt, this pilgrimage will have its share, but after suffering and death, there is resurrection and joy. Each day since she has been born, we have rejoiced. No time in the NICU, and she stayed in the room with us, REJOICE! Her heart and kidney exam showed no major abnormalities, REJOICE! She is eating, pooping, sleeping like any newborn baby, REJOICE! She chuckles in her sleep, REJOICE! (I am not making this up, someone other than me can verify, and it wasn’t gas!) She has the softest hair and skin imaginable, REJOICE! We can hold this beautiful little bundle in our arms, REJOICE! So many places to have joy and so we firmly believe what the scriptures tell us,

“For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” Matthew 18:20

Our Maggie is not alone, she is surrounded.