My Four Angels In Heaven

Hi My name is Joanne and I am the mother of 8 children. 4 who live on earth with me and 4 who live with Jesus in Heaven.

I dated my husband who is Canadian and lived on Lake of the Woods, Ontario. His parents owned a tourist resort across from the private island my parents owned and we spent our summer vacations in Ontario. We were friends at first, best friends, girlfriend and boyfriend and then husband and wife. We have known each other since he was 6 mos old and I 5 weeks. My soul mate. I was born in Illinois but grew up in Indiana and we spent 8 months a year apart over 1000 miles from each other. Made our long distance relationship work. We had many dreams and one of them of having 3 to 4 children. We married young at age 18 in 1984 the year we graduated.

We married in Indiana and moved to Ontario in April of 1985, into our first home and there is were our 1st little angel was conceived. I conceived in May and had my first miscarriage 7 weeks later on July 7th,1985. I didn’t know what was going on with my body I just had spotting and horrible cramping and it took 3 hours and I lost my baby. Whom I will name Moon as this child was born 2 am in the morning. Oh how sadden I was to loose our first baby. My mom told me that sometimes that happens to woman, something is wrong in the pregnancy and the baby is not formed properly and this is the way you body handles it.

We decided to try again which probably wasn’t the best thing, As I had a period an then got pregnant again. This baby was conceived in August and I lost this baby in August 29,1985 after only 3 weeks. This baby being so small we named Star as a twinkle of our baby in heaven. I was so sadden again. I didn’t understand why this was happening to me. I had always wanted children and why were my babies leaving my body? We decided to wait a while. We decided to try again and this time we got pregnant for the 3rd time. In the end of April not sure of the date I became pregnant with our 3rd Angel. And this was one of the toughest miscarriages. I went to have a Ultrasound in July around the 18th and there was my little baby with its little heart beating and the Dr. said to me that my placenta was tearing away and chances are that I would loose this baby with in a week. There was nothing they could do. I have a picture of Baby Sun as we named this baby. Because this baby was born on a Sunny day in July, One week later at 14 weeks gestation on July 26th,1988.

This time I went to the hospital and wanted reasons to why this had happened to me 3 times in a row and was I ever going to be a mom? They did a D & C and then did a dye test to see x-ray my uterus. Turns out I had a heart shaped uterus and it had a smaller uterus off from it, which at the time they thought was just extra uterus skin from my main uterus. ( Little did they know) My babies were growing in my uterus and in the center the dip was causing the placenta to come apart and I would loose our child. We went to a specialist in a big city near us and he said to try again that one of the fetus will grow in one of the horns of the heart and stretch my uterus out. So home again we decided to try one more time and if we lost this baby. That was it, because it just was too hard.

December 10,1988 I found out I was pregnant. And 1 month, 2 months 3 months and so forth I stayed pregnant. It showed on the ultrasound that our son was growing on the right side and stretching the uterus. Tyler James was born 3 weeks early on August 15,1989 weighing 7lbs 2 oz and 19 inches long. He put his mommy thru 56 hours of labor and a c-section but it was worth every minute. I had my baby in my arms finally.

Then July 1990 we were surprised to find out we were expecting again. I conceived around July 10th and again worried I would loose this baby. ( I think comes from us mothers who have had miscarriages you never get over that worry of maybe a lost of another one.) My pregnancy went well. My ultrasound showed we were having another son. I decided to try for a V-BAC ( vaginal birth after c-section). He was late 3 days, I labored 16 hours and when my water broke it was green from bowel moment he had taken, so off for another c-section. It was a good thing. He was a forceps c-section as he was lodged in the birthing canal. Later found out him and I would most likely have died if I would of given birth naturally. I am just too small and he was too big. Darrin Scott came into the world April 18,1991 weighing 9lbs 11oz and 21 inches. A toe headed baby!!! and big blue eyes. Oh I was in heaven I had my 2 little boys..... They were like night and day in looks and personality.

Well then we waited a few years and decided to try again as we wanted another. I wanted a little girl as I was feeling out numbered in the house. But just as happy with a healthy baby boy.

I found out I was pregnant Feb 22,1994. My urine test was not showing positive but my blood was, so they did a ultrasound and couldn’t see a fetus. But my blood test kept showing a strong pregnancy. In April I went in for another ultrasound and this is when I was told my baby was growing in what they thought was skin of my uterus, when which it was indeed a 2nd uterus. And small the size of a walnut. No way could this carry a fetus to full grown. The Doctor had seen one other case of this and it was in Scotland where he came from apparently the fetus continued to grow and explode the uterus like a etopic pregnancy. But my doctor felt this would not be the case and decided again operating and watching for the next few weeks. Well my little boy died May 15th. And I was told he would dissolve back into my body and turn to scar tissue and block that uterus off. I had a ultrasound every week and sure enough he slowly dissolved and by November 5,1994 his water sac collapsed and my pregnancy was over. It made medical history in Canada. He saved my life and my chance to go on to have more children. He had this plan. I never met him but I knew him through the ultrasounds and we named him Jack Timothee. My 4th Angel above.

We were given the okay to try and get pregnant again. I was told I had only my left ovary to conceive from and so we tried for a whole year and December of 1995 I was going into the hospital for a D& C and a dye test to see if my left fallopian tube was blocked. Routine blood test that morning showed I was pregnant. Yippee... What a wonderful Christmas present. I found out in April I was carrying a baby girl. During my pregnancy my mom grew ill with cancer and had to have major surgery the week before our daughter was scheduled to arrive by c-section. I was awake thanks to a spinal to see our daughter come into the world on July 25th,1996 just shortly after my 30th birthday. We named her Kaitlyn Sara Helen she weighed 7lbs and 9oz and 19 inches. What a beautiful baby. My mom was there with me recovering from her surgery which I think healed her faster knowing she had a granddaughter to get well enough to spoil. We had figured we were done. We had 3 beautiful healthy children. Well my mom grew very ill in May of 1997 and she died in my arms from cancer at home on May 17th, 1997. I was devastated as I wanted my mom to be there to share all my children’s firsts and mine too. Well June 17th one month later exactly I found out I was pregnant with our 4th. And to me this was a act of my mother. She needed to take the sadness away and bring some happiness into the family. During my pregnancy my father grew ill due to heart failure and diabetes. He was dying and it was hard on my pregnancy, I developed Toxaemia first time ever, but due to the stress and all it was understood. My father knew we were having a boy and knew the names we had picked out as he didn’t make it long enough to meet Scott. He died March 9,1998 in the hospital. I was put in the hospital the same week dad died for complete bed rest until our son Scott Thomas Reece came into the world on March 26th, 1998 weighing a whopper of 9lbs 15oz and 21 inches. He had a bit of a rough start, he was jaundice and he had to live under the billy ruben lights for a few extra days. But with 4 healthy children and the lost of 2 parents in 10 months. We were done and Hubby made it official in Dec.1999. So we were blessed with 4 Angels and 4 beautiful children. And this is my story of my children.

Our 4 Angels

Moon -May to July 7th, 1985
Star - August to August 29th, 1985
Sun- April to July 26th, 1988
Jack Timothee Feb. 22, to May 15th, to November 5th 1994

~Grandma Lucas & Pop Pop are up in heaven holding and loving all our angel babies until mommy and daddy can be with you again!~
XXXXOOOO

My love for you.....

My love for you grew day by day
My love for you was far more to say.
My heart was sadden when you left
My heart knows you will always be
My angels within me......

Written by Joanne Cottam

Tyler & Darrin & Kaitlyn & Scott send loving kisses and balloons and I love you’s up to heaven where you play and will meet us all some day.

Is Mommy and Daddy love you and will be with you all someday, in the meanwhile you can watch over us as our guardian angels...xxxxoooo we love you.

Daddy sends lots of love and kisses to you too....