Waiting for Gabriel 2

We thought a lot and tried to think of the many different scenarios, would he hate us for going through with the procedure if it caused some developmental problem? Teenagers hate their parents for invented nonsensical reasons, what if you actually gave a kid a reason? What if your decision to give them the potential to live is selfishly motivated? Beth was our primary existentialist, I was the romantic procrastinator, "we'll deal with that when that bridge floats upon our cross". Beth took a blood test to ensure there were no chromosomal deficits as that combined with cardiac and lung issues would be  insurmountable. No deficits! We returned to the pediatric cardiologist for the 3rd echocardiogram, as usual the little guy was damn (Papa H. says to always substitute "damn" for "very") tough for the Dr to get rock solid imagery. We told the Dr we wanted to go through with the interventions, he suggested Stanford. The good news though was that the atrial defect (oclusion of the patent foramen ovale {well informed scuba divers know what I'm talking about}) was no longer occurring!!! Instead of two severe heart defects, he only had one! Amazing what a different perspective will do, we were now so happy our baby had half a heart! The balance of the month was spent prepping to move to Palo Alto for the next several months, if things went routinely we would be there for 2 months (1 month on either side of the delivery). If things went horribly wrong we would be home in just over a month with no baby. If things didn't go routinely we could be there for 5-6 months. We decided to plan on 3 months. We also named him Gabriel.