Ashton’s journey began while still in the womb. My sister Gina (Ashton’s mother) found out she was expecting an addition to her family. We were very excited for her to have a third child. She made all the usual preparations and appointments. I accompanied her to her first ultrasound (of many).

I’m not sure if she had a premonition or was just nervous, but on the way to the appointment she talked a lot about other people she knew that gave birth to babies with undiagnosed heart conditions. This was not something our family had experienced up to this point. I was confident this ultrasound would be the same as her other children, healthy and growing.

The ultrasound began as usual. The tech made her measurements of the arms, legs, head, torso, and more. She started taking measurements of the heart, and just kept taking pictures of the area. This is when I started to get nervous. The tech finished up and said the doctor would be right in.

The doctor came in and the only area he looked at was the heart. My heart dropped. After hearing the stories Gina had been discussing in the car, and now all the focus on the heart was too much. He turned on the light and told us the findings. He said it looks like pulmonary atresia. He explained the condition and said she needed to follow up with a pediatric cardiologist. With Easter being the following week, he wasn’t sure when Gina could get in for an appointment.