God Sees Us Through

My niece Carly was born on October 26, 2006. My younger sister Kari was just days shy of her 22nd Birthday. She didn't know it but she was carrying a baby that had Down Syndrome. Her husband was in Iraq of his first overseas deployment and unable to make it to the birth. Carly was immediately admitted into the NICU at Children's Hospital in St. Paul, Minnesota. She would spend the next 8 months in the NICU and a day short of 3 months old she would have open-heart surgery to repair a congenital heart defect.

Carly was hooked up to many different monitors and she needed continuous oxygen. She was in a very fragile state. When we would pick her up to hold her several machines would beep. She couldn't be bottle fed right away and needed to be fed through a tube.

I would be there next to my sisters side and spend countless hours with her and her baby in the NICU rocking Carly and praying for her.

At times there would be many tears as all we could do is watch and pray as this little tiny weak peanut fought to live.

Carly had open-heart surgery when she was only a day shy of 3 months old to repair her weak heart. She eventually came off of oxygen and recovered.

This is a picture of Carly, me and my sister.

We would all cry tears of joy when she had those first baby milestones, like sitting up, crawling, standing and walking.

We rejoiced when she got her first haircut.

It's those precious moments in life that we treasure the most and thank God for.

I have went through this with my niece and I have seen my sister come out on the other end of this stronger in her faith. I know God knows the plans He has for us. Plans not to harm us but to give us a hope and a future. (Jeremiah 29:11) If I were to say that I am not struggling or having a hard time or cry a lot, that would be a lie. I do trust the Lord. I know He is seeing us through. All's I have is His Word to hold on to and the promises that He gave me.