Hi. We are Derek and Chelsea Hendrick. We are a family of 5 (6 if you count our beloved dog, Yadi). We have two beautiful daughters, Rorie and Tannen, and we have one handsome son, Creighton. However, we only get to have one of our daughters with us Earthside, while our other awaits our arrival in Heaven. It’s a long, beautiful, tragic story. We plan to recount it piece by piece in our blog, but for now we will just start with this:

We grew up in a small, rural community. We were high school sweethearts. We both went off to college and continued to date. After college, we decided to come back home and plant our roots. We rescued our puppy dog, Yadi. We bought our dream starter home, and a couple weeks later Derek proposed. In August of 2017, we got married on the most perfect, beautiful, and warm summer day. Several months later, we decided that we were ready to expand our family, and right before leaving for our 1st anniversary trip we found out that we were going to have a baby.

We were so excited, and we did it all. We took announcement photos, found cute ways to tell all of our family and friends, and we put an adorable announcement out to the whole Social Media world. We had a baseball themed Gender Reveal Party to announce that we were going to have a GIRL! Our whole family helped us put together an absolutely picture-perfect nursery. It was a perfectly normal, healthy pregnancy with no complications. Most of our appointments were short and sweet. It almost seemed too easy, but our doctor assured us that was a good thing. We were as ready as two new parents could be for the arrival of our little girl.

At 38 ½ weeks, we went in for our weekly routine check-up, and when the doctor was struggling to find her heartbeat with a fetal doppler, we began to worry. It usually didn’t take any time at all to find it. The doctor said that she thought there was something wrong with the doppler which calmed us a little. She left to find a different doppler, and with tears in our eyes, we held hands praying that everything was okay. When the doctor returned, she tried to find the heartbeat again with no luck. She said that sometimes the baby can be turned a certain way that makes it hard to find the heartbeat, so she sent us to get a sonogram. The sonogram confirmed our worst fears, our baby girl no longer had a heartbeat.

Rorie Mae Hendrick was born into the hands of Jesus the next morning on April 12, 2019. She was 6 pounds 10.3 ounces, 19 inches long, and perfect in every way. We are thankful for the precious time we had to spend with Rorie, surrounded by loving family and friends. After an autopsy and many tests, we are still left with no answers as to how this happened. All we know is that it was God’s plan to have Rorie with him in Heaven, and we couldn’t think of a better caretaker. We are blessed to have the hope of Heaven, and we look forward to being reunited with our daughter someday and being able to ask all the questions of God himself.

After her death, we struggled in our grief, and we didn’t know how to talk about our feelings. We were living on egg shells, and we never wanted to bring up if we were having a hard day in fear that the other was having a good day that we might ruin by bringing it up. We decided to seek grief counseling, and it ended up being the best decision for us. We worked through a lot of emotions that brought us to where we are today.

Shortly after Christmas in 2019, we found out that we were expecting again. We switched OB doctors, and we found a smaller practice that gave us the time and confidence that we needed to get through another 38 weeks. It was a long pregnancy filled with an abundance of precautionary appointments, stress, anxiety, counseling and a whole lot of prayers. We made it though, and we welcomed a beautiful, healthy baby girl, Tannen Michele, in August of 2020.

At the Rorie Mae Foundation’s first Gala in April of 2022, we announced that we were once again expecting. This time, we were having a son. Once again, our OB doctor was great and gave us the time and care we needed to get through a 39 week pregnancy this time around. We had said that we never wanted to carry another baby past 38 1/2 weeks, but our doctor gave us the confidence to push through this time. We will say that this pregnancy was a little easier on our hearts and minds knowing that we had delivered a healthy baby in the last pregnancy, but the fear and doubt was still in the back of our minds. In September of 2022, we welcomed Creighton Drew, named after our beloved brother and uncle that we miss so much.

We share our story, in hopes that it will give hope to those who have experienced loss, give courage to those wanting to share their own story, and give inspiration to those who want to help us make a difference. Thank you for joining us on this journey!

Derek, Chelsea, Tannen, & Creighton Hendrick