In The Beginning....

Derrek and I met in 1990, while in High School. I knew when I met him that something
was different about our friendship. We became very close friends, even referring to each other
as best friends and spending a lot of time just hanging out together. We didn't begin to officially date until about 5 months later, and the rest is history!

Derrek graduated in 1991 and enlisted in the US Navy, while I still had one more year until
graduation. We kept in touch via telephone daily, and he returned home several times that year, for a few weeks at a time. I graduated in 1992 and had thought little about College given what Derrek and I felt was inevitable... marriage!

We were engaged on December 22nd at 10:30 pm. (isn't it funny how girls remember those things) Our plans for our wedding started off for July- then June - then May, and finally moved all the way up April because Derrek's vacation was continually in question.  
We set a date... April 3,1993.

After our wedding, I moved to San Diego where Derrek had been stationed
and was for the first time, on my own! Scary, but exciting. Derrek and I had so much fun
living in California, being newly married, and no kids. We would drive up to Los Angeles
every weekend to see local Christian shows and concerts then after a long drive,
make it home and back in bed in the wee hours of the morning. Boy, did we have fun!

In 1995, Derrek was discharged from the Navy and we moved back home to Washington State.
It was completely natural to go back home to Washington.
We had no job lined up, no housing, but there wasn't any other option in our minds.

After moving home in June, Derrek found a temporary job in the construction industry,
until he was able to find something in the industry he trained for in the Navy.
We found a cute little house to rent and started to settle in back home again.  

One morning in November.... we found out were we going to have a baby.
WOW! We had been trying for over a year, to no avail and had really lost the expectation
every month. Now, our lives would change again! This time, more than we could have ever imagine.

During those nine months, we had moved twice and Derrek was laid off. It was rough.
Not really a change we had expected when we returned to Washington.
My pregnancy was normal up until about the 7th month. Then we noticed my
blood pressure was going up. We were prepared for possible Toxemia.

In early June, I was put on bed rest, then within a week, admitted to the hospital.
After giving me meds to slowly induce my labor, I began to bleed heavily.
I suffered a Placenta Previa, where the placenta tries to deliver before the baby,
which would cut off all blood and oxygen to the baby.
So, between my blood pressure, and the placenta previa, the delivery was very traumatic.

Life changes...

Tyler Martin was born on June 25, 1996. He seemed healthy for a few hours...
Then we realized something was wrong.

Unfortunately, I was very sick because of the C-section birth and meds to keep
my blood pressure down, so I wasn't able to see and/or comprehend Tyler's presence
until the following day when he had tubes coming out of him from what seemed every angle.
He was then transferred to the local children's hospital the next day where he tested positive for Hirschsprung's Disease. By his 3rd day on this earth, he was in surgery
and I was discharged from the neighboring hospital.

It was so difficult to comprehend what was going on at that point. After a traumatic delivery
that I was still reeling over, to adding a new member to our family, everything was so surreal.

Tyler did well after surgery and we took him home with his new Ileostomy.
However, it was all short lived. Just four weeks after we arrived at home, Tyler become
dangerously sick. He was losing so much blood from his ostomy that he required 5 transfusions.

We didn't return home for almost two months. And then it was with a central line
and 24 hour TPN. Within a few weeks we were on our way to Boston Massachusetts
for special testing to find out how bad Tyler's bowel was.

After the results were read, we really didn't expect him to ever be able to eat again.
His bowel was just so unstable. But we put our trust in God that he would sustain us
through whatever His plan included.

Through many hospitalizations, sometimes several times a month, Tyler slowly began to respond to drip feeds through the tube in his stomach. There was really no reason why
he would be doing so well, but he was. Clearly, God was in control.

Over the next few years, we went through many surgeries and procedures
including an attempted pull through, trying to make Tyler's life as normal as possible.
But eventually we just had to sit back and realize that his bowel wasn't ready for normalcy.

When we found out I was pregnant again, we were both very excited and yes,
a bit apprehensive given our first experience with a baby. However, the doctors reassured us
that it was extremely rare to see two children in the same family with HD.
So we felt confident that our next child would be healthy.


When Emily was born, she was more beautiful than we could imagine!
We, of course were a little apprehensive when she didn't poop right away, but doctors assured us that it can take 24-48 hours. She passed her meconium at 36 hours, so we felt better.

However, within a week of being home Emily started to have trouble. She finally got to the point where we had to give enema's to make her poop. She was diagnosed with Hirschsprung's on December 24th 1999. Yes, Christmas Eve.

We were devastated and hurt knowing that our beautiful little girl would have to be cut and hurt just like Tyler did. We prayed earnestly for God to give us strength. He did.

Emily did very well. Our doctors were unbelievably warm and understanding. It was like she was their child too. We are still so grateful for each one of them.