Liv Elayne Henke

Welcome friends and family! We've made this site to keep you updated about our daughter, Liv. Read our journal entries to learn more about her condition and to be updated on her life. To God be the glory in all our lives!

Josh and I were married December 15th, 2007. Shortly into our marriage we learned that I was pregnant! Not quite a honeymoon baby, but close enough :) We went through many emotions, but started to enjoy this new little life that was growing inside me. About 4 months into the pregnancy we went in for the normal sonogram, but what the doctor saw was not normal. Our little girl was diagnosed with a Single Ventricle Heart. Instead of having two ventricles, she has only one functioning ventricle. While she is inside me, this makes no difference because I provide oxygenated blood to her. But when she is born she won't have a way to separate the oxygenated and un-oxygenated blood in her body. When this condition is undiagnosed, the babies don't survive past two weeks. However there is a series of 3 surgeries that can be performed that will reconstruct her heart in such a way that she has a greater chance of survival. Since her initial diagnosis, the doctors have seen other complications: her heart has moved to the right side of her body and it's possible that all her internal organs are switched (making surgery more difficult), she is very small for her developmental age (another factor lessening her chances of surviving these major surgeries), and it is unclear whether or not her major arteries and veins are connected as they should be. Ultimately, we have to wait until she is born for her to have her first EKG and for the doctors to see what's really going on in there. While we wait Josh and I have really felt God calling us to love her as long as we have her and she has been a joy to carry. In spite of everything, her heartbeat is strong and she is very active. We go in for Biophysical Profiles twice a week now (they test amniotic fluid levels, heartbeat, and baby movement) and she passes them all in no time and with flying colors (they will give a baby up to 30 minutes to move...she hasn't ever needed more than 2-3 minutes! I think she might be a bit of a ham!).