I know all of you know about Connor's situation and I know I probably talk about it often, but it is something that pervades pretty much every aspect of my life. Sometimes the day to day aspects of it can bring you down. When you have three therapists coming in and out of your home five days a week and telling you all the areas that your son is lacking in or needing improvement in, etc. and sickness continues to be present in one or more of your family members, and on and on, you can get sick and tired of being sick and tired of so many things going wrong.
I have had more than one friend say to me, so now what is wrong in your life? I ask them what they are talking about and they have said that is just seems like there is something always wrong and just assume that when I call them they are going to hear from me about something else. That can just be a bummer on your spirits, you know?
Well the following little story was sent to me today from a friend. You may have seen it before. I know Connor's situation is a little different from this little girls. We were told all the possible bad things that he could have when we went in to find out if we were having a boy or girl at our twenty week ultrasound. We had plenty of time to learn about, fret and worry about and wonder about what it all was going to be like. He wasn't premature and we were able to hold him most of the time, but he also spent his first two months in a NICU at the hospital (this picture is of Connor at one month of age in the hospital) with him being very sick and one time after surgery we almost lost him, so this story, whether true or made up, touches me and makes me realize that at all those times when he seemed like he was never coming home with us and that they were never going to figure out what was causing him to be sick and those times when Mommy couldn't be there to hold him, that he was laying on God's chest and that God was taking care of him the whole time.
It is just a reminder for me that the day to day things are sometimes a trial, but look at how far we have come and that I just need to look at the big picture and know that these things will pass and that I just want to be grateful for the blessing on having a little boy who could either have even more problems than he does now, or that he could not be with us at all and you couldn't ask for a sweeter little boy who loves to cuddle, has the best and biggest smile in the world and melts your heart with his giggle. I hope this story touches you the way it has me.
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.
She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say.
She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana, because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him.
It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
I have had more than one friend say to me, so now what is wrong in your life? I ask them what they are talking about and they have said that is just seems like there is something always wrong and just assume that when I call them they are going to hear from me about something else. That can just be a bummer on your spirits, you know?
Well the following little story was sent to me today from a friend. You may have seen it before. I know Connor's situation is a little different from this little girls. We were told all the possible bad things that he could have when we went in to find out if we were having a boy or girl at our twenty week ultrasound. We had plenty of time to learn about, fret and worry about and wonder about what it all was going to be like. He wasn't premature and we were able to hold him most of the time, but he also spent his first two months in a NICU at the hospital (this picture is of Connor at one month of age in the hospital) with him being very sick and one time after surgery we almost lost him, so this story, whether true or made up, touches me and makes me realize that at all those times when he seemed like he was never coming home with us and that they were never going to figure out what was causing him to be sick and those times when Mommy couldn't be there to hold him, that he was laying on God's chest and that God was taking care of him the whole time.
It is just a reminder for me that the day to day things are sometimes a trial, but look at how far we have come and that I just need to look at the big picture and know that these things will pass and that I just want to be grateful for the blessing on having a little boy who could either have even more problems than he does now, or that he could not be with us at all and you couldn't ask for a sweeter little boy who loves to cuddle, has the best and biggest smile in the world and melts your heart with his giggle. I hope this story touches you the way it has me.
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.
She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say.
She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana, because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."
Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him.
It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
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