Box 5971
Jacksonville, FL 32247
For those who desire to donate, please send via paypal to benkatierice@gmail.com
or thru our GoFundMe Acct at www.gofundme.com/f3a2n0. Please know all donations go directly to Ben & Katie Rice. These funds help Katie work part time so she can be involved with Ansley
in her Therapies & numerous appointments. If you have ANY questions, please email us at benkatierice@gmail.com
***For the new followers, this is Ansley's story***
One Sunday morning I was sitting in Church with my grandparents and I
leaned over to my grandma and pointed at (who i now know as Ben) this
boy and whispered to my Nanny "I'm going to marry him." Ben and I met in High School on a Missions Trip to Mexico. My good friend was dating Ben's brother. We met, fell in love and the rest is history. Giggle. We dated the majority of our high school years. Afte I graduated Ben
and I KNEW we were ready to get married. Ben popped the question in
August of 2006. June of 2007 we were Hitched! We decided early on in our Marriage that we wanted to start a family
pretty soon.I knew I would have some troubles, as I don't have very
many periods (1-2/year). So we decided in 2008 to try and start a
Family. After about 6months of "trying" (giggle!) we sought help thru
my OB who then immediately sent me to a Reproductive Endocrinologist
for further testing. I was then diagnosed with PolyCystic Ovarian
Syndrome (PCOS). Basically my body holds onto sugar 7x longer than it
should. It then creates to much insulin which creates little cysts on
my ovaries. My cysts were covered. The first RE told me "don't even
try, you will never get pregnant." The second was more optimistic "You
will be pregnant in 6 months, I guarantee it." So we were SO excited. Pumped. I mean, we were going to be pregnant in 6 months!!! Well 6
months came, and went. Then a year, then 2 years.. then 3,4,5&6. We tried
all sorts of things to boost me up, but it didn't work. I would
occassionally ask Ben what he thought about Adoption and he said it
wasn't for him. So i would drop it. I prayed and prayed God would
either give me a miracle pregnancy or change Ben's mind. One
afternoon, Ben came home and started talking about Adoption. I pulled
out my secret folder of information I had been gathering. So we went
thru all of our training, got our Home Study and waited. We then found
out about a little boy who had Cerebral Palsy (God was working on
us!!!) and we thought he was the ONE, God had other plans. We sent our
Home Study to every agency/attorney in Florida. One afternoon I got a call from a local Agency that said they may have
a Birthmom for us, I immediately called Ben and our family and asked
them to pray. She asked us to get them our "LifeBook" we made so she
could present it to the Birthmom the next day along with 5 other
families. Needless to say it was a very restless night. The next day
we got the call saying the birthmom CHOSE US!!!!!! Agh!!!!!!! We then
went thru the Pregnancy along with her (and Case workers/Attorney),
she was in jail the majority of the time, so we met her once, the week
before her planned CSection. We set up our Nursery, got everything
prepared, had a baby shower, packed the diaper bag. March 25th came
and we were so excited. Ben, myself and our Families headed out to the
Hospital at 5 A.M. for Csection day. We couldn't believe THIS was the
day we were starting a family. We were SOOOOO excited. So ready. The
Csection was scheudled for 7:30, so we knew we should hear something
30mins-1 hr later. An hour went by, then 2. We thought maybe she was
still saying goodbye. Then a Nurse came out and got our CaseWorker. We
knew something was wrong. The CaseWorker came back and said the BM
changed her mind (I literally can't stop crying even writing this!). We fell. Hard. I ran into the restroom just to have a moment by
myself. I sobbed. I was in shock. Our CaseWorker told us to stay in
the area in case she changed her mind, so we stayed in the area for
the day. At one point, I told Ben "it's time to go home". When we
walked in the house it was like running into a brick wall. We had
everything out, thinking we were walking in with a baby. My mom,
grandma and ben immediately went to packing everything up and putting
it in the Nursery and shutting the door. Some sweet friends sent us to
Orlando for a few days just to get away, which was so so needed. It
allowed us to grieve. Allowed us to escape. Four months later, we got a call from our Attorney saying BM was on
her way with Baby Girl. I was SHOCKED. I was on vacation from work
that week, so I immediately called Ben and told him to COME HOME. I
called all our Families and asked them to ferverently PRAY. We got to
our Attorney's office and the BM handed me my Ansley. My Baby. My
girl. She was so skinny, so frail, screaming her little head off. I
was sobbing. I snuggled her and she snuggled right in and fell asleep. My heart was so full. I looked at Ben and he beaming with pride. We
took her home and did alot of "skin to skin", snuggles, bathing, and
crying. Boy did we cry. Our families came over and snuggled, loved and
cried. It was such a joyous occassion. We couldn't stop thanking God. We held and loved on her all night (well...we still haven't stopped,
grin!). Within 2 days we had found a Pediatrician and took her to get
her looked at. The first thing they asked us was "do you know she's
retarded? Are you sure you want to adopt a handicapped child?" We were
stunned. What?! (Can you believe his lack of compassion?!)
We knew she was frail and unhealthy, but she was perfect. They sent us to Wolfsons and Nemours for testing. We learned
she had Microcephaly (Abnormally small head due to little to no brain
development), and that she would be delayed. We had no idea to what
extent. Within the next few weeks we were in and out of Specialists
getting testing done. We then noticed she was having infantile spasms
(seizures) and she was sent to Wolfsons. This is where they did the
MRI and found she had Lissencephaly, which often goes with
Microcephaly (which is why it's often referred to as
MicroLissencephaly). They told us that she was categorized as
"moderately severe", that she would never surpass 3-5 month level,
that she would never crawl/sit/walk/talk. We were overwhelmed to say
the least. But we also had Hope. Hope that only our God could provide. We knew she was created perfectly in HIS image. We knew he made no
mistake. We knew this was our baby so we loved her just the same. We
then noticed she was never opening up her eyes, we thought she was
sleeping as she adjusted. We were referred to an Opthahmologist where
we learned Ansley was visually impaired. She was diagnosed with
Cortical Visiual Impairement (disease of the eye) and Optic Nerve
Hypoplasia (her nerve from eye to brain is very thin). ***She has
improved drastically with keeping her eyes open and working on
focusing them now. Hallelujah!!!*** We started Ansley in Occupational,
Physical, Vision and Speech Therapies. They refered us to a Spasticity
Clinic, because she was just so stiff. We then learned she had
Cerebral Palsy (Spastic Quadriplegia), which is another disorder of
the brain. Since then, we have been hospitalized numerous times, 2
procedures and more doctors than we can count. She had a Gtube placed
for feeding (due to the neurological disorders she has no hunger cues,
and can't coordinate the suck swallow), a nissen fundoplication placed
(prevent throwing up all her feeds). The procedures were so so scary
for us but have been life savers. Literally. We serve a BIG God. One
who gives us peace, comfort and guidance. One who loves us thru our
fears and doubts. We are looking forward to being a FOREVER family. We have had numerous setbacks
but even still, we trust in HIS timing. And we pray God uses our story
to magnify and glorify him. We do not know what the future holds. We have been told time and time
again to "not expect much
from Ansley", "let's see if she makes it past age 2". And while we
understand that Doctors have to be realistic
we don't take their word for anything. Our God holds the ultimate plan
and we trust in that.
