Amen.

soli Deo gloria.

Our little sugar ‘n spice has arrived.  She was born on September 30 at 2:23am weighing 7 lbs, 14 ounces and measuring 20 inches.

She is truly a miracle.  Baby S was not breathing when she was born.  Her one-minute Apgar score was a 1.   Six days later, she was discharged from the MUSC NNICU in perfect health, without any implication that her lack of oxygen at birth had effected her permanently.

As best the doctors could tell, this was a consummate result of an extremely fast labor and the umbilical cord possibly having wound around her neck.  The result was hypoxia, lack of oxygen to the brain, and acidic pH levels in the blood due to that loss of air.

At one point she was not breathing on her own but with a ventilator… there was talk of seizures, mentions of cerebral palsy…  but the Lord had other plans.

Within 2 days, Baby S was on room air and the doctors were suggesting that I start breast feeding.  The physical therapists found nothing wrong with her muscle tone and the nurses started after D and me to watch the discharge videos.  It was a whirlwind.

We have so many people to thank – so many of you were faithfully in prayer for her and there are people who prayed for our little girl that we don’t know if we’ll ever even meet this side of Glory.

We are grateful to Mom and Dad D (aka Nana and Poppi) for heading down as soon as they got the call.  Nana even stayed an entire night in the rocking chair with Baby S when I started to lose my sleep-deprived mind and was told by the nurses that I needed to go home and sleep.  I couldn’t leave her.  Nana selflessly offered to stay and held her grandbaby all night long.

Poppi – who was flying from DC to Fort Worth to Boston and driving back and forth to Charleston during all this – helped us out with insurance and even had our yard cleaned up for us.  Most importantly, he was our prayer warrior, encouraging us with his powerful vision of a healing.

Mr. and Mrs. Mae were at the hospital with us on a few occasions, praying for us as always.  They even brought a spaghetti dinner over one night.  We love you!  And so does Baby S – she hearts her Tia.

Auntie A came in from a very busy semester at school, on her birthday weekend, to meet her niece and help out her big sister.  Who, somehow, managed to bake a chocolate cake for her 20th birthday!  (Although it turned out pretty lackluster… got a little sidetracked and it stayed in the oven too long…)

Mom and Dad W (who are now for the first time referred to as “Grandma and Grandpa!”) came in a couple of weeks later to help us out.  Grandma packed our freezer with her homemade pasta sauce and cooked for us every night.  And Grandpa cleaned out our garage, sprayed our yard for bugs, and took care of the cars for us.

Uncle J even took off work to come meet his first niece.  And his niece really liked him…

We can’t forget our other friends J and M who brought us a smorgasbord of Thai food one night.  And Pastor M, D, R and B who came to visit us at the hospital – your support did not go unappreciated!  We thank God for lifting us up and placing so many people in our lives to help us through this daunting time.

To God, only, the glory.  He is the reason our daughter is here.  He is the reason she is healthy.  She is a gift from Him that we can’t wait to give back and hear Him say, “Well done, My good and faithful servants.”