In the Fall of 2007, Rachel and her husband discovered that they were expecting their third child. Their first two pregnancies went very smoothly, so neither were nervous and they looked forward to welcoming a third child into their family.

On January 23, 2008, Rachel and her husband went excitedly to the hospital for a routine 20-week ultrasound. They brought their other two children who were brimming with excitement and they were so eager to see pictures of the baby that they would soon welcome into their family. The big brother and big sister were excited and their parents were so eager to see their next child.

At the end of the ultrasound, the nurses gently and subtly took the children away as a doctor approached Rachel and her husband. And, the doctor told Rachel and Silvano that a second ultrasound was needed because things "looked contradictory." They left that day confused, anxious, and with pictures of their baby still sitting in the ultrasound machine. On February 5, 2008, Rachel and Silvano went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to have a second 20-week ultrasound. The examination was done with very little conversation from the doctors and the technician. And at the end, a doctor approached them and as he pulled up a stool to sit down, they heard the words that no parent wants to hear from a physician, "Things look very grim."

They sat there with that physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital as he told them that this ultrasound has revealed that their baby had no bladder, no kidneys, a small stomach, multiple cardiac anomalies, problems with the brain, skin edema, and there was no amniotic fluid around the baby. To make things worse, Rachel had complications with the placenta that endangered Rachel's health and the possibility of future children. All of the anxieties that began with the first ultrasound were confirmed and What seemed like a routine pregnancy to that point suddenly turned into a nightmare.

They left Johns Hopkins that day confused, devastated, and numb. They were counseled on their "options" and they were encouraged to abort the child since the doctors insisted that there was no hope for their baby. Also, the placental issue complicated things such that continuing with the pregnancy could be extremely dangerous to Rachel's health and the possibility of future children. They spent many days talking to experts about how hopeless the pregnancy was and they were told repeatedly that they needed to terminate the pregnancy to save Rachel's health.

While Rachel & Silvano were listening to the experts, they were also praying that God would help them through this and give them the strength to persevere. They both did not consider termination of the pregnancy an option for them and they knew that they had to continue with the pregnancy despite what the doctors were saying. Rachel remembers telling friends, "I don't know if God will heal our baby, but I know that He can heal our baby. And, ultimately we just have to give Him the opportunity to heal her, a chance she won't have if we terminate the pregnancy."

One week after they received the devastating news, they were called into speak with a physician at Johns Hopkins about their decision. In this meeting, it became quickly apparent that the physician was trying to convince them to abort. As Rachel was trying to find ways to save their baby, this doctor was trying to show them why they should not have hope. Rachel asked for another ultrasound to confirm what was seen before and the physician responded that they had two bad ultrasounds in three weeks and nothing was going to change. Rachel then told her that she wanted to wait and see what will happen. And, Rachel vividly remembers the physician saying to her, "If you are waiting for a miracle, it's not going to happen."

Silvano and Rachel spent about an hour discussing the situation with the physician and they finally convinced the doctor to order another test to check the placement of the placenta again. Silvano and Rachel waited two days for the results of this test and when the physician called, she sounded surprised. She said that she had found something "curious." When asked about the baby, the physician indicated that the baby was still the same, but that the placenta had completely moved. She continued to state that the placenta never moves like that in one week. And, to confirm the movement of the placenta, she scheduled a third ultrasound.

On Friday, February 15th, Silvano and Rachel returned to Johns Hopkins Hospital to have a third ultrasound. The ultrasound technician was told to look at the placenta and Rachel asked if he could look at the baby too. He cheerfully agreed and he began to flippantly point things out on the screen. He started by pointing out the bladder. Rachel stopped him and told him that the baby doesn't have a bladder. He then said, "Sure it does and it's full of urine." To that Rachel responded, "Urine? The baby doesn't have any kidneys." And, he followed with, "You don't have urine in the bladder with no kidneys."

At that point, this technician began to realize that this was not a routine ultrasound and called for a physician to assist. He told the doctor on the telephone to come down quickly because he was going to want to see this. For the next hour, they looked repeatedly at Rachel's chart and at the screen. Rachel and Silvano noticed confusion on the face of the doctor. And, after a long, silent hour, the physician looked at them and said, "Don't quote me on this, but I don't see any of the problems that they say exist."

For the next 16 weeks, Rachel had countless ultrasounds and tests. And, while these tests showed that things were improving, the Johns Hopkins physicians continued to counsel them to expect the worst. Because of the lack of amniotic fluid at 20 weeks, the physicians were doubtful that the baby's lungs had developed. Furthermore, the doctors were never able to visualize the kidneys. So, the doctors remained very pessimistic. Rachel's friends and family continued to pray for their baby girl.

On June 3rd, Isabella Grace Piferi was born. And, much to the surprise of the Johns Hopkins medical team, she needed no interventions or special equipment at birth. They simply carried her out of the operating room swaddled in a blanket. And, after one week in the hospital, Isabella came home.

When asked about this experience, Rachel is amazed at the miracle that they experienced. There is no doubt in her mind that God healed her little girl. The numerous tests that were done early on in the pregnancy showed that things were very helpless and the doctors who witnessed her birth were very stunned. In fact, one doctor left the operating room on the morning of Isabella's birth shaking his head and saying, "I don't get it. I saw the ultrasounds. I really don't get it."

When asked if she would take away the struggle of the pregnancy with Isabella if she could, Rachel replies that she would not. She claims that the struggle of that pregnancy was an unassailable display of God's power to sustain them and that it has become a defining point of her life.

A Johns Hopkins physician once told them that if they were waiting for a miracle, it wasn't going to happen. Well, it happened.