It had been four more months since one of Tasha’s babies was diagnosed with Holoprosencephaly. So what did she (and eventually Mark) do during those four months? They poured their hearts and souls into researching Holoprosencephaly, and about asking Dr. Watson about it.

Tasha researched it to learn more about it since she had never heard of it before that visit --and neither had Mark-- before that initial visit.

Here are the notes Tasha wrote over the past few months about Holoprosencephaly:

* Usually caused by a genetic condition, or genetics, in general

* Depending on the severity, children can live with it up to infancy, mildly affected children live up to 12 months/1 year or even up to adulthood (<-- let’s hope for the adulthood <3)

* 20% higher chance of me and Mark having another child with holoprosencephaly

* There are four types: alobar, semilobar, lobar, and variants that affect that affect the interhemispheric part of the brain

* Symptoms include: developmental delays, facial structure differences, fluid cysts + build-up of fluid pressure (hydrocephalus) in the brain

* Seizures could be present and intellectual disabilities could also be present

Tasha feels that she has learned plenty enough to understand what she was going to be going through with, what should be, one of her sons.

“Hey, Mark?” Tasha looks over at her husband, “Do you know how much hospital bills would be? Or how often we could have to go? Estimates are fine.”

“For the cost, roughly $2,000 yearly, and I think general hospital visits would vary depending on when it’s needed. But we would need a good few of doctor’s visits, as you should know,” Mark said, as he looked up from his phone.

Her doctor gave her mostly the same information when she and Mark had asked him. When it came to bills, he said it depended on the need of the child with the condition, for all their needs are different, and it would be difficult to make an estimate (funny enough, Mark did find an estimate, so it couldn’t have been that hard, thank the internet) but his input was still helpful, nonetheless.

Tasha nodded and looked back down to her notebook, writing down what he had said. She felt as if she was putting herself into a lot of stress because of this. Or she’s just overthinking it. Tasha knows she’s doing this for a good reason. She absolutely knows she’s doing this for a good reason.

The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

She’s doing this for her children.

She just wants them to be okay. Mark does too. He’s about as worried about this as Tasha is. Mark just has a better poker face than Tasha does.

“Well..,” Tasha shifts her weight on the chair, “Why don’t we go to dinner tonight? It’ll be a nice break. Especially for you since you have to worry about all this and your schoolwork.”

Mark smiled, looking over at her, “Yeah, that would be nice, I’d love to go. How about a movie too?”

Tasha nods without saying a final word. Finally, a relaxing time from the last few weeks. What had happened in the past week had been extremely stressful for her anyway, wouldn’t be good enough for her in the long run.

“I’ll, uh, go get ready,” Tasha smiled to try to make herself happier, in a way, “You should go do that too.”

“Alright, alright, I’ll make myself more presentable,” Mark laughs to himself. You know, Mark always tended to make little jokes. No matter what situation he is in, really. Not unless the situation is super serious, of course, but he still likes to joke around, nonetheless.

Tasha had put on a nice skirt with black leggings underneath with a black, long sleeved, shirt. She felt like she looked pretty already—even without putting on makeup or really doing her hair—she, for the most part, felt like herself, Tasha loved it.

She took about an hour to finish her makeup and her hair combined—30 minutes for each, roughly—and walked back into her bedroom.

“I’m finished, we can go now,” Tasha smiled, and it was more genuine this time, so there is no need to worry.

“Alrighty,” Mark stood up from the bed, “Let's go, I’m getting pretty hungry already.”

Tasha laughed, she enjoyed being around him a lot—but that should be obvious since they were married. She felt she could ignore her worries about her children for the next little while, hopefully. Not unless Tasha could stop thinking about it of course. One of her kids getting a medical diagnosis—before they’re born, too—is just worrying, especially since this disorder will cause the child to be disabled, for life. Tasha didn’t want her kid to have a disability, to be frank no mother would.

But, there was another thought that was prominent. What if God chose for this to happen? Maybe to teach everybody a lesson—her a lesson—but not because she did something wrong, but to help her, and even Mark to be better. Tasha knows her and Mark are already nice people, at least she’d like to think so, but this is so they can just to improve, to see a different point of view, to learn what it’s like to have someone with a physical disability in their own lives.

God wasn’t testing her because she was being cruel, or sinning in some way shape or form, but, like it’s been said before, this is going to make her a better person, for the fact of just becoming a better person.