Monday, January 26, 2009

Mix of Emotions

Losing Peter was a very sudden. We were half-way through the second trimester. We were half-expecting we might lose him in the first trimester, but didn't think anything like this would happen in the second trimester.

Grace was experiencing some bleeding on the Wed before New Year's. We called the doctor, but she didn't seem to think it was too serious and said you might have a couple episodes of that and to come in on Mon. We went in on Sat and she said we were dilated 5 cm and that we were going to lose our baby.

That first night in the hospital was the most difficult. Babies are not considered viable until 24 weeks gestation. We were at 21 1/2 weeks. We did not have any contractions, but part of the amniotic sac was already out of uterus. The doctors were saying its only a matter of time b4 Peter would be delivered and would not survive after wards. The doctor's wanted to induce labor, but we were not comfortable making that choice at the time b/c we felt like we were choosing life or death. At this point only a miracle could cause the sac to go back in the womb and close the cervix.

That night I was praying, "God if possible, take this cup away from me; not my will, but your will be done." I did not want to go through the pain and suffering of delivering our child, knowing we would lose him.

In an unexpected mix of emotions, I found myself overcome by grief, but at the same time saying, "thank you God" over and over.

Peter Gabriel Hsu


We will be having a service and burial for our beloved son Peter Gabriel Hsu on Fri afternoon, Jan 9th 2009. Grace was pregnant for 21 weeks 4 days when Peter was delivered. He weighed exactly 1 pound, and was 11.5inch long. He lived about 2 hours after birth.

We named Peter after Psalm 18:1-2:
I love you, O LORD, my strength.
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer;
my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge.
He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

Peter, in Greek is petra, which means rock. The Lord is my rock. Then we were looking for a Chinese middle name that meant strength. However, we couldn't find anything. While we struggled through this, Grace witnessed an angel twice the night before the delivery. Our son is the baby angel in the heaven right now; he came to the world, went to the heaven to be next to God and he is the purest of all. When Oliver thought about the name Gabriel, we both felt the name is so right for him. Later we looked up the meaning of Gabriel, which means God is my strength, which is what we haven been looking for all these time.

New Baby

Before Grace became a Christian, she once went to a fortune teller. The fortune teller said she was not suppose to have any children, but b/c of her husband, she would have one child.

Grace and I have been trying to get pregnant for a while, but were not able to. What the fortune teller had told her was weighing on her heart. I really felt led to have our small group pray over us and break this pronouncement/curse the fortune teller had put on us, for our God is greater than any fortune teller or evil spirit behind the fortune teller.

That same month we conceived and Grace was with child.