As my husband shared his story later with us.
He was called by our son and was told that the baby was coming early and he needed to come home as soon as he could. He had great grandpa with him and they were driving down the road as fast as they could without breaking the speed limit. Our son was a policeman at the time and alerted the state troopers in that area that his dad needed to be found.
It was dark by then and a police man pulled him over just to tell him that ‘his grand child was coming soon’ and to drive safely home.
While he continued to drive home in the dark of the night we waited at the hospital with great anticipation.
Worry crept in and sat down beside me and of course all the ‘what if’s joined too’ emotionally I was a mess but had to stay strong in the midst of the crisis that was taking place.
The doctor came out about 10:50pm and said to us:
“Mom is stable and in recovery and baby girl weighed in at 2pds 11oz she is NICU (which is a neonatal intensive care unit) and she will stay there until she is strong enough to leave for home”.
This was our first experience with a neonatal setting and very scary.
This is where tiny babies are placed to ‘grow’ in an incubator setting.
My only experience was one of watching little baby chicks in a warming unit not little tiny babies trying to grow. With anticipation and fear I walked in and met her for the first time.
She was precious. She was bright eyed. She was so very tiny.
She was beautiful. She was serious with dark eyes staring at me as if to say ‘will you always love me and be my grand mother’.
She was everything I could ever imagine only tinier.
I was instantly in love and I promised her at that time to do everything in my power to keep her safe and protected and be her grandma for as long as God allowed me to live.
I determined in my heart to be there for my daughter and her daughter.
They named her Faith Elizabeth…
she was a gift to us when we needed something very special.
When we needed change and purpose and a new reason to love.
God knew it would take a baby to change our hearts.
