(no subject)
> A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the
>doctor
>walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still
>groggy
>from surgery.
>
>
> Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the
>latest
>news.
>
>
> That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana,
only
>24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver
couple's
>new
>daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
>
>
> At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, 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,
>and
>even then, 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 Dana would likely face if she survived.
>
>
>
>
>
> She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be
>blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic
conditions
>
>from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
>
>
>
>
>
> "No! No!" was all Diana could say.
>
>
>
>
>
> She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed
of
>
>the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now,
>within a
>matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
>
>
>
>
>
> But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and
>Diana.
>
>
>
>
>
> Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially
'raw',
>the
>lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they
>couldn't
>even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the
>strength
>of their love. All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the
>ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that
God
>
>would stay close to their precious little girl.
>
>
>
>
>
> There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.
>
>
>
> But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight
>here
>and an ounce of strength there.
>
>
>
>
>
> At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able
to
>hold
>her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later,
though
>doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of
>surviving,
>much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went
>home
>from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
>
>
>
>
>
> Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl
with
>glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life. She showed no
>signs
>whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was
>everything
>a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the
end
>of
>her story.
>
>
>
>
>
> One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in
>Irving,
>Texas, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a
local
>ball
>park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
>
>
>
>
>
> As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and
several
>other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her
>arms
>across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"
>
>
>
>
>
> Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm,
Diana
>
>replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
>
>
>
>
>
> Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
>
>
>
>
>
> Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to
get
>wet.
>It smells like rain."
>
>
>
>
>
> Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin
>shoulders with her small hands 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 Dana happily hopped down to play
with
>the
>other children.
>
>
>
>
>
> Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana
and
>
>all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in
>their
>hearts, all along.
>
>
>
>
>
> During those long days and nights of her first two months of her
>life,
>when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was
>holding
>Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so
well.