written by Grandma Laurie, Georgia’s grandmother
Georgia Grace Weiner
4/20/2015 – 4/24/2015
Heart Angel
This is the story of a sweet little Heart Angel named Georgia Grace Weinert, affectionately known as Georgia Bean. Georgia is my granddaughter. Born on April 20, 2015 and passed on April 24, 2015. Four little days and let me tell you, in those four little days she made an impact on all our lives. Who would know all the love and care that could surround one little tiny girl and her family?
We found out that our youngest daughter Katie and her husband Nick were going to have another baby! Oh my husband, Steve, and I were so excited to add one more to our “blessings”, aka grandchildren. Georgia would be number eleven, as we have been blessed with ten others, seven boys and three girls. This baby would be Katie and Nick’s third child. Big sister, Shae and big brother Corey were so cute and so excited that their mom was going to have a baby.
Around the 19-week time period Katie and Nick went to get an ultrasound in order to find out the sex of their baby. They visited an elective prenatal ultrasound clinic where you can learn the gender of your baby a little earlier than the typical 2nd-trimester ultrasound. Katie and Nick were really getting anxious and just could not wait to find out about the sex of their baby so right before Christmas they found out they were going to have a baby girl. We were all so very thrilled, as our family needed another girl to balance out our seven little boys. This new baby would now give us four little girls!
The next day I was at work and Katie called me very upset that she had received a call from the doctor’s office. They had been contacted by the actual doctor this ultrasound technician worked for, who happened to work at Katie’s OBGYN’s office. They wanted her to come in for another ultrasound as they were concerned about the baby’s heart. Knowing that a person always assumes the worst (and it almost never is the worst) I tried to calm her down and relax her fears about this phone call. Sadly, our sweet little Georgia had the WORST. Who could have ever guessed? We would never in a million years have come up with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome. NEVER! We had never even heard of this congenital heart defect. Well, now we had and we were beyond devastated. HLHS is when the left side of the heart does not develop, causing all the work of the heart to be done on the right side. In other words a child is born with half of a heart.
We began to research everything HLHS. Scared out of our wits, we clung to the most positive information we could find but there were plenty of statistics that were not positive at all and escalated our fears. We were confused, scared and hopeful all at the same time.
Our family sent out the word for prayers and prayers and prayers to be said on Georgia’s behalf. Wonderful people in our lives did not let us down. Katie and Nick had a lot of support from family and friends and beyond. We were all blessed with care and love from others. This gave us strength and hope that we would be able to make this horrible situation work out. We would all pull together and do whatever it would take for little Georgia to come into this world and for Katie and Nick to be able to do what they needed to do without worrying about the other day to day things. They would just need to concentrate on Georgia for a while so she could grow strong and get to a better place with her fragile heart.
The next 15 weeks or so were filled with doctor visits for Katie with Nick by her side every step of the way. We continued to pray and pray some more. Katie was now focused on growing Georgia as big and strong as she could get her so that Georgia Bean could face the challenges that were coming her way with more physical strength. Georgia coming early could be devastating to her chances of survival. Katie took vitamins and ate regularly and tried to eat extra to give Georgia more to grow on.
Into our lives came Heart Heroes… what a wonderful and caring organization this is. We were able to meet and talk with people in the “know” of what we were going thorough just when we needed to meet people like them. This wonderful group of people helped us to learn information about HLHS and brought to our attention to other stories, allowing us to be able to sort through what was happening. They gave support and wonderful friendship to my family, encouragement and information to help understand this whole situation better and also gave guidance to us in regards to what Shae and Corey were quietly going through and would go through, having such an ill sibling. These two little people had to be considered as well. Heart Heroes has offered so much to our family. They are so much more than a cape. But the capes are so special!!! Made with love for the most fragile and heroic of little ones. These people care and they make you feel cared about. The support we felt from them was amazing. We knew we had only to reach out to them at any time and they were there for us. Even as Katie’s mother and Georgia’s grandmother, I was never left out. I felt comfort and friendship as well. This meant the world to me.
The next hurdle along this road was that we found out that Katie had Placenta Previa. The decision needed to be made for Georgia to come a bit early. Katie could not go into labor due to the chance of bleeding, which could be dangerous for Katie. Georgia would need to be born via C-section.
At this time, Georgia started showing signs of growth restriction, which was not a good thing. She would be small when we wanted her to be as big and as strong as possible. To make this even more stressful, our baby girl had developed a Restricted Atrial Septum, which ended up becoming Intact (completely closed). This was now a situation causing even more concern and worry due to the fact that having an Intact Atrial Septum could mean that there might be damage to her lungs. There were just so many unknowns until she was actually born and in the Doctor’s hands.
So, the plan of attack: Georgia would be born via scheduled c-section and the Medical Team would whisk her away to surgery to get her Atrial Septum opened up right away so that blood could pass into and back from the lungs. ECMO (a type of life support) was available if needed, although we hoped she would not need to be placed on it and if she did that they would be able to get her off very soon.
Georgia and I share the same birthday, April 20th. How meaningful that she was my gift on that birthday. I feel bonded to her because we share that date together. I have been blessed with many birthdays since I was born but Georgia only had four little days here with us. Not long enough here on Earth to please those that loved and wanted her to be in our lives, but she will forever be a very special part of our family. Our Baby Angel.
Georgia passed peacefully in the loving arms of her Mother and Father on April 24, 2015. Such a beautiful little baby girl. She looked so perfect on the outside but had such a sick little heart and lungs. Her lungs were damaged and not sustainable for life. This made her Heaven-bound.
It is amazing to see how many wonderful people one little baby girl could have in her corner. Sending up prayers for her and for her grieving family. All the would-have-beens and should-have-beens have been with us since the day she went to God. We miss her today and always. Sadness at her passing will be with us forever but we stand strong as a family…. Wienert/Jones Strong.
I know Georgia is being loved and cuddled by our loving family and friends that have passed before us. She is happily awaiting the days that eventually will pass by and will bring us all together again in our happily forever after family.
In the beautiful words of Ray Charles, from his song “Georgia On My Mind”, our girl’s theme song:
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to you
… Georgia on my mind.
(And in my heart little one!)
We are forever blessed to have had Georgia Bean, our forever Angel Baby Heart Hero.
I love you baby girl!
Grandma Laurie