LIFE

On Sunday, I will be 30 weeks pregnant with Camille Hope.  Everything after 27 weeks and 5 days has been new territory for me.  As many of you know, this is because my first child, Jack, was born 12 weeks premature.  While pregnancy at this stage of life is new to me, experiencing the growth of a child at this stage is not!  With every stretch mark that appears and every movement of Camille that I feel, I am reminded that my eyes have literally seen the same miracle of growth happen inside the NICU.  While I dream about what Camille’s little hands look like, I remember Jack’s little hand wrapped around my finger.  I no longer have a need for The Bump.Com, nor the Baby Center app for I have seen and know more than any “fruit comparison” can tell me!

Did you know, in the past 30 years there have been numerous medical advances that have increased the positive outcome for premature babies born as early as 22 weeks?  Not that long ago, “in 1960 the survival rate for infants under 3.3 lb., was 28%.  In 2010 it was 78%, and a lot of that improvement has occurred just since the 1980s” (Kluger, Jeffrey. “A Preemie Revolution.” Saving Preemies 14 June 2014: 25-31. Print.).  I can’t believe what medical advances have been made in a little more than my parents’ lifetime!  Just imagine what could happen in my or, even better, in Jack’s lifetime.  These things are possible because of cutting-edge medicine and dedicated caregivers, but ultimately these things are possible because of the miraculous healing power of our Heavenly Father!

The Lord gave me a gift that I will never understand completely, when Jack was born at 2 pounds, 10 oz at just 27.5 weeks gestation.  He allowed me to see miracles that typically He only sees within the womb.  And what I saw in the weeks and months that followed Jack’s birth, was nothing compared to what God sees from the very beginning…

“For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.  I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.  Wonderful are your works; my soul knows it very well.  My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth.  Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them”  (Psalm 139: 13-16).

From the very beginning of life, God not only sees but participates in the miracle of each baby’s growth and development.  Don’t you see, medical advances are happening because God is allowing us to understand more about the work He does in a mother’s womb!  The work doesn’t change.  The perspective changes!  America needs a change of perspective.  If the Bible doesn’t change your perspective, and if my personal story doesn’t change your perspective, I hope science will.  The science that shows that while death was the likely outcome for premature babies in 1960, the outcome is LIFE today!

Through the smallest lives, the Lord is allowing us to see the biggest truths.  Babies are teaching us every day that what we once thought was impossible is possible.  Choose to recognize that your perspective does not change reality.  Choose today to stand for LIFE.

*This blog is dedicated to all the doctors, nurses, and technicians of the NICU.  You are participating in countless miracles every day!