twilight_728x90_CJ Get your Limited Edition Twilight gift card!

21
Jul

In Memory of Inara Michelle

categories Not Twilight Related, Thanks    

On July 16, 2009 at 5:27 PM our family was graced with the birth of our daughter, Inara Michelle Schade.  She was a beatiful little girl, and brought joy to her parents and older siblings.  She touched our hearts immediately.  Her older sisters were overjoyed to have a baby sister to fawn over and love and help raise in this world.  We all looked forward to our lives being blessed by this little miracle.

Unfortunately, Inara was not born with a perfectly functional heart.  We found, shortly after her birth, that she had congenital heart disease.  More specifically, she was born with a birth defect that affected both her Aortic and Pulmonic Valves (see diagram).

The Pulmonic Valve allows blood to exit to the Pulonary Arteries and into the lungs.  The Aortic Valve allows blood to flow into the Aortic Arteries and from there to the rest of the body.  Inara’s valves were malformed, too thick, and too small.  Because both valves were affected, there were no surgical options available to us to repair the damage.  I’ll not go into the details of why a transplant was not an option, but suffice it to say Inara was too fragile for that.  Simply put, there was nothing that we could do.  The only thing keeping her alive at this point was the ventilator and the large doses of medication used to keep her heart pumping.  But that would only last so long, and eventually Inara would begin to suffer a lot of pain.

Thus, we made the decision not to prolong Inara’s life any longer than was necessary.  Being LDS, it was important for us to give her a name and a blessing, which is normally given to infants shortly after their birth.  We also wanted to ensure that her oldest brothers, who were on a camping trip at the time of her birth and not immediately available, had the opportunity to meet her.  We made arrangements for the boys to leave their camping trip early, and within a few hours, we had the entire family together.  We were able to be with her as she slipped from this life.  Inara Michelle returned to her Heavenly Father at 9:32 PM on July 18, 2009.

Our family will be forever touched by her short life.  We will never forget her, nor the impact she had made on us.  Her spirit is strong, and we know for certain that she now lives with God in the Celestial Kingdom of Heaven.  We are saddened by her untimely departure, but know that she is safe and happy in her new home.  We look forward to seeing her again in God’s due time.

Inara Michelle – we love you with all of our strength, spirits, and hearts.

-Brian, Sharon, Steven, Braden, Leah, Rebecca, and Adam Schade