November 17 is World Prematurity Day. It always sneaks up on me, and this year was no exception. However, I can't let the day go by without a post about our preemie, and our thankfulness for God's healing power and faithfulness in her life and in our family.
This year as I've thought about our "preemie story", it's brought great encouragement and comfort. We're going through struggles of various kinds right now, and so many around us are going through major trials that seem so overwhelming. I'm thankful for the reminders of God's power, sovereignty, and faithfulness as I pray for all of those needs. Our God is a God of miracles. He is always working for our good and for His glory, even when the circumstances are hard!
Tonight I want to share again my words from last year, with some more recent pictures of "our everyday, walking {or more often running}, talking {all. the. time.}, breathing {which we'll never take for granted after seeing her "blue" too many times}, giggling {ALWAYS!} reminder of God's amazing grace, power, and goodness".
From my 2013 World Prematurity Day post:
The night that my water broke at 30 weeks, my friend Kathy shared these verses with me:
I waited patiently for the LORD;
He turned to me and heard my cry.
He lifted me out of the slimy pit,
out of the mud and mire;
He set my feet on a rock
and gave me a firm place to stand.
He put a new song in my mouth,
a hymn of praise to our God.
Many will see and fear the LORD
and put their trust in Him.
Blessed is the one
who trusts in the LORD,
who does not look to the proud,
to those who turn aside to false gods.
Many, LORD my God,
are the wonders You have done,
the things You planned for us.
None can compare with You;
were I to speak and tell of Your deeds,
they would be too many to declare.
~Psalm 40:1-5
I clung to those verses for dear life during the time I was in the hospital before Ammah Grace was born and during the time that she was in NICU. God was so gracious to us in giving us wonders too many to declare with Ammah Grace!
As often as I feel I've shared Ammah Grace's story, there are always people who haven't heard it. You can read more here, here, and here. We were cautioned by her neonatologists that she might never walk or talk, and that she could be blind and/or deaf. I still marvel, almost 10 years later, at our running, laughing, always-talking, bright and healthy reminder of God's faithfulness and glory.
Prematurity is such a scary thing. The NICU is a world unto itself that no one wants to enter. What a blessing, though, to have the technology and medical advances that we have today, and to have the highly-skilled, compassionate doctors and nurses who work with these tiny little ones and their families.
God taught us so much through those days that I don't know if we could have learned any other way, and I am so thankful for that. I am also so thankful for the many people who helped our family in so many ways during that time, and for the many, many who prayed for her. The "Ammah" in Ammah Grace was my great-grandmother's name. We discovered after she came home from the hospital that "Ammah" is a Biblical place name that means, "God's people". What a perfect name for our little preemie, in whose life God's people played such a huge part.
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