Even when life takes what you love, love can still make a life. Faby and Danny fell for each other fast, got married by the ocean, and bought a small starter home near family. They were young, healthy, and sure the next step was a baby. When a smell made Faby suddenly nauseous, a test confirmed what they hoped: she was pregnant. At the first ultrasound, the room went quiet. There was no heartbeat. She had a miscarriage and a D and C. Her body healed in weeks; her heart did not. They tried again. Another quick positive test, another cautious hope. Then, there were sharp pains, bleeding, and a second loss at home. Tests finally answered: Faby’s body was not making enough progesterone to keep a pregnancy. With treatment, they tried a third time. She conceived, but heartbreak returned. Grief seeped into everything. They stopped trying.
Then life surprised them. Without planning, she became pregnant again. At the ultrasound, they learned there were two babies. It was a rare case of conceiving a second time while already pregnant. Their shock turned to joy. She started progesterone and saw doctors weekly. At fourteen weeks, the second heartbeat was gone. The team called it vanishing twin syndrome. Faby was told the remaining baby would be watched closely. She went on bed rest and lived appointment to appointment.
Midway through the pregnancy, new alarms sounded. The baby looked small and had blood flow concerns. Specialists warned Faby to rest and hope to get past twenty-eight weeks. She and Danny took a short trip to breathe and gather strength. Back home, at a routine visit near twenty-seven weeks, her doctor sent her straight to the hospital. Nurses admitted her at once. She had severe preeclampsia with HELLP syndrome. Her organs were at risk. The only way to save her was to deliver immediately.
Their daughter, Emma, was born by emergency C-section at twenty-seven weeks, one pound, and two ounces. For five days, Faby lay in a hospital bed, medicated and unable to see her baby. When she finally entered the NICU, she found a tiny body nestled under lights and wires, skin so thin she could trace the veins with her eyes. She placed a hand on her daughter’s back and whispered her name. Emma stayed in the NICU for 160 days. She needed transfusions, a heart procedure, lines for meds and feeding, resuscitation, and more interventions than most adults ever face. Little by little, she grew. When they brought her home, it was with oxygen, monitors, a feeding tube, and a long list of what-ifs. But they crossed the threshold together. Against long odds, Faby had become a mother, and Faby and Danny had become parents.
Life shifted again in 2015. While on a family trip, Danny died in a sudden boating accident. The loss remade their world. Faby and Emma learned to carry grief and gratitude, tell stories about the man they loved, and build days he would be proud of. Faby turned her pain into purpose, sharing their journey so others would not feel alone in theirs. She began writing a memoir about trying, losing, nearly breaking, and still choosing to live with an open heart.
Her path is proof that joy and sorrow often walk the same road. She knows the sting of a quiet ultrasound room and the beep of a NICU monitor. She knows a doctor’s urgency and a partner’s hand squeezing back. She knows how it feels to stop planning and be handed a future anyway. She also knows that help can come from science, prayer, strangers in scrubs, and the steady act of showing up for one more day.
