Raising God's Rainbow Makers: Birth of Child #3 - Shane (Mahlou)
Precerpt (excerpt from book prior to publication): Raising God's Rainbow Makers (Mahlou) Shane almost didn’t see the light of day. After Noelle’s birth and diagnosis of spina bifida, Donnie and I were told we had a 40% chance of future children having major birth defects. That number hung over us like a storm cloud. As my pregnancy with Shane progressed, the legal limit for abortion in Massachusetts loomed closer, and the doctors grew increasingly anxious. If a serious defect was detected, they advised termination. Their logic was clinical: we were already navigating one high-stress child-rearing situation. Why risk another? But the test we needed—the alpha-fetoprotein analysis—was only available in New York at the time. And wouldn’t you know it? The equipment broke down. Temporarily, yes, but long enough to rob us of the chance to know whether Shane had a neural tube defect. We were left to make a life-altering decision without the one piece of information that could...