Kayla's 7th Birthday

I'm late posting this due to the flu. Kayla turned 7 two weeks ago. She is such a delight to be around. I used to call her my little sunshine because every day she woke up smiling and happy. I am not a morning person so for me that is usually hard to do although I'm trying to change that. Going to bed earlier usually makes it better, but I just can't seem to get in that habit. Seven years ago in North Africa I gave birth to a beautiful blue eyed, brown haired little baby. A little while after she was born my husband came and told me that she had apparently gotten the Strep. B virus from me through birth. That moment was probably the worst moment of my life. To give life and then almost immediately have it taken away is heartbreaking. I (we) did the only thing we could do- we fell on our knees to God and cried out to Him. The doctors said the next 3 days were critical. They immediately began 3 doses of antibiotics and the most important thing was that people all around the world (literally) began praying for Kayla. As a new mom all I wanted to do was hold her. I was not allowed to hold her due to the incubator and all the wires. I wonder if I'd been somewhere else if it would have been different, but that's not something that I even question because that is where we were. The longing of a mother to hold her child is something that you can't imagine if you've never been denied it. It wasn't until she was 12 days old that I was able to hold her. What a wonderful moment that I will never forget. It was sometime in the second day that we prayed and gave her to the Lord. We asked God to heal her, but knew that healing might not be the way we wanted or desired. Our will became His. Peace came over us as could not be explained. Yes, we were still hoping for physical healing, but God continued to work in her and us. We saw small improvements, but she was still not eating. Fluid continued to show up on her lungs. After two weeks there, the doctors recommended that we air-evac her to Paris where they could put a scope down her to find out what this fluid was. This was a frightening time for me. I felt peace, but there were other fears now that we were going to a place I'd only visited and never lived. But hopefully, we'd find more doctors that could speak to us in English. (That is a testimony of faith because when you can't understand very much of what's going on your faith grows that the Lord will take care of you.) When we finally arrived after a long and eventful flight we were met at the hospital by some of our dear friends who we had been through training with and spoke fluent French. What a relief and blessing from God to see them! Immediately after we arrived she was placed in an open bed where we could touch her as much as we wanted. What a blessing! I was already seeing that this was what she needed. The first thing they wanted was to see her gain weight. She had almost lost 2 pounds since birth! It seemed like things got better and better. There were so many good days! They had to put her to sleep for the scope, but it was for her good so we were okay with it. They didn't find any fluid on her lungs. What a blessing! All she had to do now was gain weight and breathe better without the oxygen. After almost 3 weeks we were released and okayed to fly back to the states. I know the story was long, but for me it is such a joy to see how God healed my sweet baby girl. I know He did! I will never deny His healing on her life. As often as I can I tell her this story of my miracle baby. That was actually a short version of the story, but just wanted to tell her story of healing. By the way, as you can tell in the picture she was completely healed. She's not had any problems since.