smellofrain

I want to dedicate this page to our Grandson Austin.
Austin was born on December 10, 2000 thirteen weeks premature. Austin weighed in at 2 pounds 6 ounces and 14 inches long. Many prayers went out for Austin to the Lord that He would keep Austin in His loving arms and keep him healthy that he may grow into a man that He would be proud of. During his stay in NICU, he was transferred to a larger Children�s Hospital, three hours away, for more critical care for NEC (necrotizing enterocolitis) where he spent 5 weeks before coming back to our local NICU. During his hospital stay, Austin also had RSV (respiratory syncytial virus).Austin spent another month before coming home just a few days after his expected due date of March 13, 2001. Austin was home only a few days before he was again transferred to Children�s Hospital for emergency bilateral inguinal hernia repairs. At this time he only weighed 5 pounds 8 ounces. He was considered to small for the surgery, but to critical not to operate. We thank the Lord that everything went well and he only stated in the hospital for two days. The Lord has been so good to Austin and we continue our prayers for all premature infants that are truly being held in the arms of our Lord.

A cold March wind danced around Dallas as the doctor walked
into Diana Blessing's small hospital room. It was the dead of
night and she was still groggy from surgery. Her husband,
David, held her as they braced themselves for the latest news.
      That rainy afternoon, March 10, 1991, complications had
forced Diana, only twenty-four weeks pregnant, to undergo
emergency surgery. At twelve inches long and weighing only one
pound, nine ounces, Danae Lu arrived by cesarean delivery.
      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. 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 Danae could face if
she survived.

      She would probably never walk, or talk, or see. She would
be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to
complete mental retardation, and on and on. Through the dark
hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread,
Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep. But she was
determined that their daughter would live to be a happy, healthy
young girl. David, fully awake, knew he must confront his wife
with the inevitable.

      David told Diana that they needed to talk about funeral
arrangements. But Diana said, "No, that is not going to happen.
No way! I don't care what the doctors say, Danae is not going
to die. One day she will be just fine and she will be home with us."

      As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung
to life hour after hour. But as those first rainy days passed,
a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's
underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," the least
kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't
even cradle their tiny baby. All they could do, as Danae
struggled beneath the ultraviolet light, was to pray that God
would stay close to their precious little girl.

      At last, when Danae was two months old, her parents were
able to hold her for the first time. Two months later, she went
home from the hospital just as her mother predicted, even though
doctors grimly warned that her chances of leading a normal life
were almost zero.

      Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young
girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for
life. She shows no sign of any mental or physical impairment.
But that happy ending is not the end of the story.

      One blistering summer afternoon in 1996 in Irving, Texas,
Danae was sitting in her mother's lap at the ball park where her
brother's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was
busy chattering when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms
across her chest, Danae asked her mom, "Do you smell that?"
      Smelling the air and detecting a thunderstorm approaching,
Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
      Danae closed her eyes again and asked, "Do you smell that?"
      Once again her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to
get wet, it smells like rain."

Caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin
shoulder 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 Danae happily hopped down to
play with the other children before the rain came. Her
daughter's words confirmed what Diana and the rest of the
Blessing family had known all along. During those long days and
nights of the first two months of her life, when her nerves were
too sensitive to be touched, God was holding Danae on his chest,
and it is His scent that she remembers so well.

By Nancy Miller