I thought I had lost her.

At 10 weeks pregnant, the doctor called me at work…Your body is trying to miscarry.  Many medicines and ultrasounds later…I had a beautiful 9 1/2 pound baby girl.  She loves Jesus like crazy.  She has a heart that breaks for hurting people.  She thinks the word eyeball is really funny.  She prays for people in other countries.  She has crazy, cool fashion sense.  She is fearless on her scooter.  She is a picky eater and the spittin’ image of her mama.  She loves to memorize Scripture and pretends to write her own Bible studies…one day, it won’t be pretend.

Ah, the precious and precocious one…

This free-spirited girl who always wants to snuggle with me and constantly makes me laugh.  She covers the entire lower portion of her face with lip gloss and then insists that I ” ‘mell her lips.”  She loves to whisper in my ears all sorts of “questions” such as…I loves you…You so pretty…and You make my heart happy. According to my doctor I wasn’t supposed to have her.  Her exact words were…You’re pregnant right now, but don’t go home and tell all your friends. I had just had a miscarriage a month prior, so I had every reason to believe the doctor was right.  But she was wrong.  I do have her.  And she. is. fabulously. dramatic.

I almost died.

Sounds dramatic…even silly…hard to believe really.  But, it happened.  Five months pregnant – ruptured appendix – emergency surgery.  X-rays, IVs and multiple drugs…none of which were good for the innocent babe in my belly.  14 days in the hospital wondering if I was choosing my life over my child’s…worrying about what she was enduring.  I was told later that there is an over 90% miscarriage rate for the surgery I had.  I remember driving to the hospital just a few months later…about to meet my daughter…and praying.  Lord, let her be healthy.  Let her be whole.  Let her have ten little fingers and ten little toes.

God answered that prayer…and more.  He gave her dimples, too.

Our family endured much in 2009, but we also gained much.  We discovered what was really important.  We remembered Who was really important.  And, so far, 2010 is proving to be a very exciting year.

I am so thankful to be in the midst of it all.