Double Blessings

Little Georgie is one half of a beautiful set of identical twin girls who have been gifted by God to Garrett and Grace Bernardo. Young newlyweds, Grace and Garrett grew up in the same small town church. To their surprise, three short months after they were married they found out surprisingly that they were pregnant with twin girls.

From the beginning, they were told that the twins shared one placenta and immediately warned Grace that the pregnancy would be a difficult one. At twenty weeks, an ultrasound revealed that one baby was receiving more blood flow than the other. Grace was sent to UCSF for more testing, where she was warned that her pregnancy was high risk and that one or both of her babies might not make it because of the unequal placenta sharing. The doctors offered to terminate the pregnancy but Grace refused! Instead, she and Garrett chose to trust the Lord with the lives of these babies, who they named Georgiana or “Georgie” for short and Everly.  
      
Grace then began undergoing weekly in depth ultrasounds to watch for signs of distress. It seemed as if every week brought some sort of difficulty due to their shared placenta. At 31 weeks, the ultrasound revealed that Georgie had no fluid, and Grace was admitted to labor and delivery, where she was induced the next day. After laboring for many hours, Georgie's heart rate was dropping so the doctor took the babies by C-section. Against all odds, the girls made it, were placed in the NICU, and Garrett and Grace rejoiced in the Lord!
 
However, after a week in the NICU, the doctors discovered that Georgie’s kidneys were not functioning properly and the normal course of treatment (dialysis or a transplant) would be a difficult option. At 32 weeks’ gestation, (preemies continue to use their gestation age until they hit their due date) most hospitals would not treat Georgie or even if they would, they had no experience performing dialysis on a preemie. So, Grace and Garrett prayed.
 
After research, Grace and Garrett found that Stanford had successfully performed dialysis on a preemie. After much prayer, Georgie was transported to Stanford where they are treating her to the very best of their capabilities, and the family is praying that God will continue to have his hand on this little one.
 
Currently, these young, faithful parents are incurring a remarkable amount of expenses as one baby is in the Kaiser Roseville Hospital NICU and the other is 3 hours away at Stanford. If you feel led to bless them, your gift would be so very appreciated and make this time easier for them. Most importantly, we ask for your continued prayers for this young family.