**This post has been republished from our personal blog, KnowingNorrah. Two disclaimers: the view points in it are my own and not necessarily the opinion of this site. And – as we have all discussed and even recently posted about, the odds of WHS may be even slimmer than the “1/50,000” currently cited in medical literature. Enjoy!**
The odds – the likelihood of a thing occurring rather than not occurring.
Historically, I’ve been someone that for whatever reason has had the odds stacked in my favor. I enjoy a good competition. I love to win – and for the most part that is what I do. I get a kick out of drawings, raffles and contests because more often than not, I win a prize, my name is picked, or I end up getting something for nothing. I have at least 8 four-leaf-clovers taped to the pages of my journals (the most recent of which I found when I was pregnant with Norrah) and I have found several others over the course of time that I have given away to my husband, my friends, strangers even. I don’t know why but I just win things; it is something that Ken and I often joke about. Put me in a room with ninety-nine other people and I will be the 1 out of 100. That’s what we like to call “Lauren luck.” It is eerie at times, but I have always sort of cherished my relationship with “the odds.”
When I was pregnant with Norrah and doctors said it was possible that our daughter had a chromosomal disorder called Trisomy 18, I have to admit that my mind went to the odds. The odds of carrying a child with Trisomy 18 is 1/6,000. Most people would conclude “oh, that won’t be me, the chances are so slim, why would I be that one when I am young, healthy and invincible?” But, I pondered the fact that I am often “that one.” I had the notion that someone, somewhere was going to be that one out of 6,000 and I had as good a chance as any… maybe even a higher chance considering my relationship with “the odds.”
As most of my blog readers know, Norrah was born seemingly healthy. We were told by a NICU specialist (who was called down to our hospital room at my request) that Norrah most certainly did not have Trisomy 18 and she didn’t appear to have any other genetic conditions either. In his words she was a “normal, healthy baby girl.” Of course, over ten months later we would come to find out what I had known all along; Norrah was not chromosomally normal. Norrah has Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome a chromosomal deletion that affects 1 out of 50,000 live births. 1/50,000. The odds.
Of all of the things that I have won by chance, of all of the odds that ended up on my side, of all the raffles and drawings that pulled my ticket or called my name, the greatest of odds was being that 1 out of 50,000 and having the blessing of calling my precious Norrah Zion “daughter.” The truth of the matter is, I don’t really believe in chance. I believe in a sovereign God. I believe in His plans and purposes. I believe in His favor and His loving kindness. I believe that He designed me to be Norrah’s mommy and He designed Norrah to be my daughter. I believe that my family was meant-to-be and I believe that though I seldom have all the answers I can rest in knowing that there is a bigger, better plan unfolding than what I can fathom. I believe that it is my calling, my destiny, to be that 1 out of 50,000 and to parent a sweet child with Wolf-Hirschhorn Syndrome. Though I pray that Norrah experiences healing on this side of heaven and though I yearn for her to live without pain, delay or defect… I wouldn’t have it any other way than for me to be her mother and her to be my child.
In my opinion, the odds… they’re still very much in my favor.
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Love it. And you!
Unlike you, I have always been the one that has never won anything in a raffle or a contest. I can look for hours and hours and not find a four leaf cover. I still have not really seen a real one. The odds were never in my favor when it comes to things like that. However, i was always the one to get picked out from a fishbowl of names to go first for our speech class, always the first one picked to do a report/presentation in front of class, the first name to be picked to answer a question during graded recitations, the first one to be asked if i was involved in a fight in school, or if i had anything to do with the vandalism, etc. But really, that was never me. I’m just a silly clown, never was I a troublemaker. I still am that person.
However, like you, i was chosen to be that 1 in 50000. And eversince then, i suddenly became lucky with raffles. i just recdently won a gift basket, and I also just recently won at a BINGO game in church. The odds seem to be turning in my favor, ever since Isabella. So, just recently, i’m trying my luck in the California Lottery… maybe just maybe i will the lucky one in a million.
This is why
I love this! And you write beautifully! I wish I could put my thoughts into words as eloquently as you do! 🙂
LOVE IT! Well said.