Here’s a summary of our story:
October 2006– Josh and I get married
November 2006- Josh and I move to Seoul, South Korea to teach English (such a fun adventure!)
April 2008– We find out we’re pregnant with baby #1!
November 2008- We say goodbye to Korea and move back to Tuscaloosa, AL 7 months pregnant.
February 7, 2009– Liam Joshua is born at 41 weeks (7lb3oz)
March 3, 2011– Asher Caleb is born at 41 weeks (10lb2oz)
October 2012- We find out baby #3 is on the way!
February 8, 2013- We lose our Lucy Dair at 19 weeks to anti-Kell antibodies
February 9, 2013- Lucy Dair Weathersby is born still (1lb)
July 2013- We find out on Lucy’s due date we are expecting our rainbow baby. A week later we lose baby Jude in an early miscarriage (unrelated to anti-Kell antibodies.)
October 2013- We find out we’re pregnant again with rainbow baby, take 2. Baby is due on my Dad’s birthday, June 15th. We lose the baby in another early miscarriage (also unrelated to anti-Kell antibodies) We name our fifth child Pax
December 2013- We start the adoption process!
June 2014– We are chosen by expectant parents, K and P to adopt their precious baby, who is expected to arrive in October.
October 2014– We are devastated to find out that Kailee gave birth to “Scarlet” and placed her with a couple in California without telling us.
November 2014– We are shocked to find out we are pregnant and due August 2nd, 2015
July 19, 2015- After going through plasmapheresis and IVIG, moving to Houston for treatment during the pregnancy and five intrauterine blood transfusions, our rainbow baby, Nora Juliet, is born at 37 weeks and 6 days. (6lbs15oz)
February, 2017- We find out that we are pregnant and due October 21st, our anniversary.
September 13, 2017- After plasmapheresis, IVIG and 3 intrauterine blood transfusions, our miracle baby, Callum Joseph Thomas, is born at 34 weeks and 4 days. (6lbs 6oz)
Fall 2019– The Allo Hope Foundation is created to continue Lucy’s life purpose and bring hope to families around the world facing this disease. Our mission is to prevent any harm, stillbirth or infant death caused by Alloimmunization and Hemolytic Disease of the Fetus and Newborn (HDFN). We are dedicated to providing patient advocacy, support, and education while promoting research and improving healthcare practices for the condition
January 1, 2020– After an early miscarriage in July and a 7 week miscarriage in November, we find out that we are pregnant with our last baby, due September 13th, Callum’s 3rd birthday.
August 24, 2020– After plasmapheresis, IVIG, 7 intrauterine blood transfusions and a global pandemic, our last miracle baby, August Judah Weathersby, is born at 37 weeks and 1 day. (8lbs 1oz)
Losing Lucy and Finding Hope 
Love your story! Praying for your new baby! Can’t wait for an update! We lost our Bella on April 8, 2014 she was born still at 36weeks. We found out we were expecting again mid December and thought what a great Christmas present! On Dec. 23 we found out I had miscarried again. Our prayers are with your family! Check out our story at Blkmascarandbella.blogspot.com!
Thank you so much for praying for us. I am so sorry for your losses. Bella is absolutely gorgeous. When I saw her picture I imagined her playing with my Lucy in heaven. Lucy has a cousin here on earth named Bella who she never got to play with so it’s extra special for her to have a friend named Bella in heaven. I am praying for you and your rainbow baby that IS coming
I just found your blog and will be following your journey. I admire your relentless pursuit to have the large family you desire. My husband and I are the same way…it’s hard to remain faithful at times but God always makes the sun shine again. I’m sorry your adoption didn’t work out as expected, but what a surprise to be pregnant again! We are currently in the waiting process for adoption and find faith in…finding other people that have faith! Thank you for yours. 🙂
Thank you for sharing your story! I came across your blog while doing some research for a school project on preterm births; I was a preemie as the result of a kell pos dad and a kell negative mom. After two in vitro blood transfusions and steroid injections, I was born 33 weeks, 3lbs, 5oz. Now I am almost 21, perfectly healthy and studying nursing to work in the NICU or Pediatric oncology. I appreciated really both your exceptional explanation and your personal story/journey rooted in faith. I will continue to follow your journey!
Wow, I rarely get to hear the “baby’s” perspective when it comes to anti-kell antibodies. You are a miracle! Thanks for sharing and for deciding to use your own story to help others. Who knows how many babies you might be able to help?
I do not have kell antibodies, but my daughter was stillborn at 25 weeks in January. I am sad to share this experience with you, but I am so glad to have found your blog. It’s such a hard thing to explain to others, and everything you write is just so exactly what I’m feeling. THANK YOU for sharing Lucy’s story!
Hi Katie, I am so very sorry that you lost your daughter. It is such an agonizing, lasting pain to have to live without your child. I’m three years out from my loss and still trying out to live without my baby Lucy. And it IS so hard to explain to others who haven’t experienced the loss of a child. You are not alone ❤
It has been so interesting reading this. I lost my only daughter in 2003 because of kell cell. I wish I would of had something like this back then. I felt all alone. My first son was kell positive. Of course, we had no idea until I got pregnant with my second son. He was kell negative so everything was fine with him. When I got pregnant with my daughter, long story short, I lost her at 27 weeks. I ended up having a hysterectomy after that, but have often regretted it. Thankful things like this are available now for people going through this.
Oh, I am so sorry for your loss! What a heart wrenching thing to happen 😦 And I know how hard it is to feel so alone. Even now with all of the internet communities and opportunities to connect I felt so isolated and lonely in my grief. Thank goodness your second son was kell negative!
Thank you for sharing this blog. My husband and I experienced an ectopic pregnancy in 2016 which exposed me to Kell. I developed antibodies which I discovered when pregnant with my daughter this past year 2019. We found out that my husband was heterozygous for Kell, and by the grace of God we found out my daughter was Kell negative on amniocentesis. We are so incredibly blessed and even on the hard days with a newborn I am so thankful she is here and healthy.
My issue now is that my husband and I want to continue to have children in the future, but are terrified of having a Kell positive pregnancy. There is talk of IVF, pregenetic testing etc etc… but my heart aches thinking of this process and I don’t know if I agree completely with this way of reproduction for us as a family. I understand that it works well for many, but it’s just my personal feeling on it.
I am hoping that we can again have a natural pregnancy one day. I am just fearful that if it is Kell+ what the outcome will be.
Hey Allie, I’m so glad your daughter was Kell negative and she arrived safely! I know it is scary to think about the possibilities of a Kell positive pregnancy and not know what the outcome will be, but that is true of any pregnancy. Every woman who gets pregnant has to face the risk of losing her baby, whether labeled high risk or not. The truth about Kell is that the majority of Kell pregnancies have great outcomes and most don’t even require intervention. Even if you do need intervention, that doesn’t mean you can’t have a healthy baby. I remember when we found out our baby Nora was Kell positive I thought it was a death sentence, but with the right doctors and proactive monitoring and treatment, she was born full term and healthy. From what I have seen, the thing that affects outcome the most isn’t titer or type of antibody or what number pregnancy it is or any of those things, its whether you have MFMs who know how to provide the right care and how much the parents are willing to advocate for their baby.
Thank you for your response!! Yes, I am slowly starting to learn that having Kell itself is not necessarily the tough part. It’s more about making sure the care you receive around being pregnant with Kell is appropriate. And you’re absolutely right, any pregnancy can result in a loss. I was still nervous even after finding out we were Kell neg., and pray everyday for my sister who is currently having a text-book “perfect pregnancy”—due date at the end of January.
Thank you for responding to my other post as well! I wasn’t sure where best to post so I did the two spots (I’m not the most tech savvy). I did sign up for both the ALO Moms and the Support for Antibodies in Pregnancy pages on Facebook. I look forward to gaining more knowledge from these pages.