April 2023
Halfway through her pregnancy in 2003, Mary Eure didn’t know if her baby would survive. She and husband Paul were expecting their fourth child and had been traveling back and forth from their home in Davenport to Iowa City for tests. Mary’s amniotic fluid was dangerously low, and doctors told her the odds weren’t good.
Mary was put on bedrest in the hospital and doctors prescribed steroids to protect the baby’s lungs. “It finally hit me that this was serious,” Mary says. Paul continued driving back and forth to Iowa City while friends in Davenport looked after their three little ones. Everyone banded together and prayed.
Then came a blessing the doctors couldn’t explain. An ultrasound suddenly showed normal levels of fluid. The baby looked good.
At the same time, though, another issue was revealed. “Your baby has Down’s syndrome,” Mary’s doctor said. Furthermore, there was no way to tell if the baby’s lungs had developed properly. That meant he could die shortly after birth.
Mary was sent home to wait. She remembers how her husband’s steady faith kept her strong; plus, with three kids, she didn’t have much time to worry about the baby. “I just figured it would be all right and God would take care of him.” Open to whatever God had in store, the couple decided to name their baby Andrew—a solid name, as Mary describes it.
Andrew, or Andy, came into the world two weeks early. He spent his first days in the ICU and much of his first two years in and out of the hospital, undergoing open heart surgery at nine months of age. Although the surgery was successful, Andy continued to suffer from pulmonary hypertension—a condition that kept him on an oxygen machine and was likely to shorten his life.
Andy’s family took him to a healing Mass. Over time, with patience and prayer, he kept growing and getting better. They decided to take him off the oxygen and continued to pray. And when Andy was eight years old, doctors discovered that somehow he no longer had pulmonary hypertension.
Mary tells of another unexpected blessing that came when Andy was still a baby. He wasn’t even a year old when she discovered she was pregnant again. Stressed out, she didn’t feel ready for another baby at all. “I was really upset with God,” she says.
Andy still couldn’t walk or hold his own bottle. He needed extra care. Mary had no idea how she would cope--but along came Molly, and Andy loved having a baby sister.
“God knew what He was doing,” Mary says. With Molly around, Andy had extra motivation. He followed her lead and they achieved milestones together, like twins. To this day, Andy and Molly have a special relationship.
Now nineteen, Andy has grown into a healthy young man who keeps his family laughing with his great sense of humor. He attends Mass, helps usher, and is excited to receive Holy Communion for the first time later this year.
Mary says that raising Andy has strengthened her faith and taught her to let go. She’s also grateful for the impact Andy has had on her other kids. With him as their brother, she says they’ve become more compassionate and service oriented. “They just love him so much. He’s like the glue for our whole family.”