These Are Days!: Birthday Girls!

When I look at Isabelle I'm amazed at how far she's come. It seems like just yesterday she was 3 lbs and fighting to live. She's held onto her strong will, skinny legs, and dimples and now has grown into a beautiful, smart, witty, sweet, loving young lady.

When Isabelle was born on March 31, 2000 at 7:16 p.m. her APGAR was a 1, she was limp, blue, and not breathing. It was the scariest moment of my life (Kevin's too, for sure, he had two sick girls in his life to worry about). I quickly touched the top of her tiny head and she was rushed first to a table in the room where the doctors and nurses from the NICU resuscitated her and then she was quickly taken to the NICU which was her first home for 17 days (a blink in NICU time). When Isabelle was about 2 hours old the neonatologist came to my room. She sat down, put her hand on my knee and said, "if she lives through the night....." After that I heard nothing but "waaa wa wa waaa wa waaa" (like the adults in peanuts cartoons). I met her 24 hours later when my kidneys and liver were working again and I was moved from the ICU to the postpartum floor. Very quickly Isabelle proved that she was a fighter. She was off the vent in a mere 11 hours, breathing on her own with only a little help from oxygen through her nose for another couple days. She came home from the hospital on April 17, 2000 weighing 3 lbs, 14 oz. It was a couple weeks earlier then the docs had expected her to come home. She was little, but strong! That has not changed!

I often like to say that March 31, 2000 was not the best birthday I ever had (myself critically ill and with a sick baby), but the best birthday gift I've ever received. What a blessing this little birthday gift has been year after year. Isabelle and I love sharing our special day together. Nine years ago I couldn't see beyond that tiny, sick baby in the NICU. Now today, I wish I could go back (not to the NICU but to her early days) to hold her tiny little self in my arms. I'm not exactly sure what happened to the past nine years, but I am so so proud of the girl she has become. I feel so lucky that God has given me this child. There's never been a better birthday gift!