Coming up on one year...

"But I will sing of YOUR power, Yes, I will sing aloud of YOUR mercy in the morning; For YOU have been my defense and refuge in the day of trouble. To YOU, O my strength, I will sing praises, For God is my defense, My God of mercy."

Psalm 59:16-17

Tomorrow marks one year from Catharine's birth day. This is what Justin, Mema, Andrea, Keith and Madelyn woke up to in Wake Forest that morning. I called them really early because it was snowing in Chapel Hill. We had no idea Catharine would be born on that day.

Madelyn had so much fun playing in the snow. After they were done they sent me pictures in an email so I could see what they did. So hard to believe we lived like that for three months.
This was my view from the 5th floor of UNC Hospital. I was so excited to see snow outside my window that morning!
Late that evening the doctors said "it is time." I had yet another "exciting" day of bleeding and they were too concerned to let us wait another day for the c-section delivery. I cannot explain the anxiety that I felt as three months of waiting in a hospital bed finally came to an end. We truly did not know if Catharine would have lungs. We had no idea what the outcome of this day would be...or the days ahead.
Right before they wheeled me back to the OR. Justin couldn't go with me because they had to do all of the preps before he could come in. I was so nervous...more about the stupid spinal than them cutting me open, LOL.
When Catharine was born, it took a few minutes before she cried, which made us nervous. We were waiting to hear that precious sound that would tell us she did afterall have lungs. When she cried, we couldn't hold tears back. At that moment, somehow I knew everything would be okay.

This is what Catharine looked like four days after she was born. She was on countless medications, and a ventilator that would make anyone nervous. She was so full of fluid that she weighed 2 lbs more than when she was born. She didn't look like Catharine. It was awful.

This was the view from the left side of her bed. Her monitor, which we watched all the time is the computer screen by the curtain, her ventilator, the osciallator is underneath the monitor. That machine made SO much noise.

This is the medicine tower. I count six medicines at this point that Catharine was on. Poor thing.

This was 11 days before Catharine came home from the hospital. She was off the ventilator and many meds. Her swelling had gone down dramatically and she had some moments of "awake" time. The nurse put a sweet little bow in her hair, which was so special to us. She wasn't wearing clothes yet, so it made her look so different to see a bow in her hair.

My journal entry from Catharine's birth day...

...I woke up very early, around 5:30 or so in the morning. The sky outside was starting to lighten and the color of the sky was a little different. I looked closely and noticed it was snowing! I got up to go to the bathroom and passed a blood clot. I paged my nurse and she came and examined it as usual. I knew it would be another typical day of bleeding after that. No big deal. Dr. Newton (one of my favs) came in during rounds (very early) and put me on the monitor (I did this ALL the time) just to make sure Catharine was doing okay (heart rate). Of course she was, she always looked better on the monitor than any of the term babies in Labor and Delivery!

The snow was beautiful. I called home and woke up Justin to tell him about the drama I had already experienced that morning and the snow. He got Madelyn up and they went to play outside before he went to work. I started having very heavy bleeding (in pregnancy that is NOT good, but in my case it happened so frequently it just meant another visit to Labor and Delivery to be told everything was okay). After a couple of visits in my room from different doctors (all whom I loved and saw frequently) they looked at me at about 4:30 in the afternoon and said, "it's time."

I started crying.

It's time?

After all of this, the day before her scheduled c-section, it is time?

I couldn't believe it.

I looked around my hospital room at Mema, Keith, Andrea, Madelyn and our Pastor. "OK, it is time, I repeated in disbelief."

I called Justin and he left work, ran home to change and then headed for the hospital (an hour drive)

Our sweet neighbors came to the hospital to pick up Madelyn. Our dear family friend and Pastor from Dalraida Baptist Church in Montgomery surprised us in the recovery room. Keith and Andrea's dear friends and church members, Pat and Jerry Reeves surprised us by driving up and got there that night.
The people who were there for us the next few days, God truly used to minister to us. We had some dark moments where we were told Catharine wouldn't make it, but God never left our heart's sides. He was ever present to comfort us. We felt so many rallying around us in prayer. The emails, phone calls, cards, and time that people gave was priceless to us.

We are so thankful for what we went through with Catharine.
God has forever changed us.
He has shown us His love in new ways that we never could have seen otherwise.
We thank God for His faithfulness to us and the gift of Catharine.

We are blessed.