The day I was
born I almost died. The doctor told my parents that he didn't know
how I had survived, but it was certainly a miracle and the first one
he had ever seen. My dad says angels were watching over me that day
and that God had answered his prayers.
I was born a
bluish-gray, the color of death, or so I've been told. At some point
before birth the umbilical cord had wrapped around both my chest and
my neck, so with each contraction the cord had squeezed around me
tighter and tighter. Upon my blessed arrival when I should have been
taking my first breaths, I was limp and lifeless. I remember my
mother once told me how she held her breath and watched in disbelief
as the doctor suctioned out my mouth and nose all the while demanding
me to breathe. He then breathed into my tiny mouth and nose and
gently shook me trying to stimulate life back into my body. I don't
recall my mother ever making it past this part in telling the story.
She would become quiet and I could tell she was trying not to think
about it.
My dad,
however, seems to enjoy telling the story. He goes into great detail
about how the nurses scurried around me hooking up monitors while the
doctor tried to get me to breathe. He says at one point the machines
which had given a few soft beeps went eerily quiet and then the only
sound in the room came from the doctor who would occasionally yell
out, “Come-on, BREATHE!” while performing CPR. A long time
passed without any change and my dad says he prayed over and over for
me to live. Right about the time it seemed the doctor was giving up
on CPR and was going to stop, my dad says that I took a deep breath.
I then continued to breathe and within a few seconds my color began
to look a little more healthy. He claims it was the happiest moment
of his life.
Obviously I
don't remember that day, but I'm sure there was an angel there with
me. I keep hoping that one day I'll get to meet him or her. I'd
like to ask them if they somehow gave me my gift or did they already
know that I would be special? I have no doubt that my gift comes
from God, but I'm curious if I was born with it or did an angel bring
it to me on the day my life was saved. I guess it doesn't really
matter though. Either way the outcome is the same, but that doesn't
stop my questions from coming. Why do I have this gift? Why was I
saved when other infants would have died at birth? How am I ever
going to fit in with 'normal' people when I can't help but act
differently?
This is an excerpt from a book I've been writing. Comments welcome.
A couple of months ago I decided there was a need to have a separate blog for my homeschooling information. I had been wanting to create a Word Press website for a while so it was the perfect opportunity for me to combine both of these into a new site. You will see some of my older posts from this page on the new blog as well as a bunch of new information as well.
