Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
Jonah. Awake. With His Eyes Open.
I think this is the second time I've seen the little guy awake. I thoroughly enjoyed bonding with the little man today - ain't he cute!?!
 |  |
Wednesday, March 26, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Monday, March 17, 2008
Saturday, March 15, 2008
Elisabeth's Shower
This will be disappointing for most of you because I cannot put up many of the photos! It was a lingerie shower and you know how that goes...what happens at the shower STAYS at the shower, but know that it was a blast! These are the "G" rated pics so enjoy!
 Sisters! |  A huge thank you goes to sis Nikki who hosted the party! |  Money is always good! |
 |  Some of the party goers! |  Fiance's mom looked like this most of the night, except! |
 When EBeth got this! |  Then she loooked like this! |  In the end, Donna decides to keep her! |
Friday, March 14, 2008
ANNOUNCING..........!
Jonah Seago Finkelstein
March 13, 2008 - 8:28 a.m.
7 pounds, 6 ounces - 19 inches
Proud parents Harris & Kate (Seago) Finkelstein
Proud Grandparents Pastor Ted & Johnnie Seago
Selflessly birthed BY Jasmine TO Harris & Kate (and a whole host of Seago family members!)
March 13, 2008 - 8:28 a.m.
7 pounds, 6 ounces - 19 inches
Proud parents Harris & Kate (Seago) Finkelstein
Proud Grandparents Pastor Ted & Johnnie Seago
Selflessly birthed BY Jasmine TO Harris & Kate (and a whole host of Seago family members!)
Thursday, March 13, 2008
The Rules of Houston
1. You must learn to pronounce the name of the city. It is "Hue-stun," not "Ewe-ston," and definitely not "How-ston."
The street named San Felipe is pronounced "San fe-LEE-pay," not "San Fi-LEEP" or "San Fay-LEE-pee."
Also, because the Texicans won, streets and locations (like the monument) named "San Jacinto" are pronounced "San DJUH-sinto," not "San HAH-sinto." (However, if you want a hot pepper, please ask for a "Hall-uh-PEE-no.").
Kuykendahl Road can be pronounced ONLY by a native Houstonian. (It is pronounced "Kirk-n-doll.")
2. Forget any traffic rules you learned anywhere else. Houston has its own version of traffic rules. They are called "Hold On And Pray." There is no such thing as a high-speed chase in Houston. We all drive like that.
3. All directions start with "Go down to Loop 610," which has no beginning and no end.
4. You have the East, Katy, Southwest, North, South, Northwest and Eastex freeways, which are actually I-10 East, I-10 West, 59 North, 59 South, I-45 North, I-45 South, and 290, but not in that order. Your job is to figure out which one you really want to get on, without any signs to tell you. God help you if you are in the wrong lane, or you will go around Loop 610 again, which is an endless circle.
5. The Chamber of Commerce calls getting through traffic "a" scenic drive." It is if you love seeing wrecks and people risking their lives changing tires, running through pot holes, slamming on your brakes to avoid a collision, having people cut you off and exhaust fumes.
6. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The noon-hour rush is 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The evening rush hour is 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., sometimes 9:00 p.m. (or 3 a.m. during floods, which we call "ponding"). The teenagers take the streets from 9:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m., and Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.
7. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you WILL be rear ended, or at least cussed out, and/or possibly shot. When you are the first off the starting line, count to 5 before moving when the light turns green, to avoid being "T-boned" by crossing traffic.
8. Construction on every freeway, loop, and tollway in the city is a permanent form of entertainment as well as a source of delays.
And a word to migrated Northerners: Don't let the Texan climate fool you into thinking these people haven't seen potholes. Houston streets will convince you these people invented them and export the small ones to the snow belt. You will find that you have to have your car inspected annually here, and that of course (this being Texas) costs money. The money is used for the manufacture and distribution of even more potholes.
9. All unexplained smells are accompanied by the phrase "Oh, we must be near Pasadena."
10. If someone actually has his turn signal on, it is probably a factory defect and should be ignored.
11. All Suburbans have the right-of-way, unless you are driving an 18-wheeler or perhaps a Bradley tank.
12. The minimum acceptable speed limit on Loop 610 is 85 mph. Otherwise, you will be stopped by Houston's Finest for impeding the flow of traffic.
13. The wrought-iron bars on windows in East Houston are NOT ornamental.
14. Never look at the driver of a car with a bumper sticker that says, "Keep honking. I'm reloading." In fact, don't honk at anyone.
15. If you are in the left lane, and going only 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, the people who are passing you are not really waving at you.
16. If it is 100 degrees outside, then Thanksgiving must be next weekend.
17. The Sam Houston Toll Road is Houston's daily version of a NASCAR race.
18. When in doubt, remember that all unmarked exits lead to the state of Louisiana.
19. Don't get on Main Street unless you really WANT to be on Main Street. Left turns and right turns are not allowed between the South Loop and Dallas (that's Dallas, Texas, not Dallas Street).
20. Don't get sick or injured. There are no parking spaces in the Texas Medical Center for anyone but doctors.
21. You don't have to wait for an exit to get off the freeways. Just follow the ruts in the grass to the frontage road like everyone else. This is how Houston residents notify the Texas Department of Transportation where exits should have been built in the first place.
22. BEWARE OF THE TRAIN. This latest edition to the Houston traffic mileu has already claimed several victims - just a few fatalities so far, but there is no prize for being next. It is silent, it is deadly, it will eat your SUV if you go up against it. However, since it only runs North and South adjacent to Main Street between the Fannin Street Park and Ride / Reliant Center and UH Downtown you can greatly reduce your chances of becoming a victim by never driving East-West on any Houston street that crosses Main, or turning left or right from Main.
The street named San Felipe is pronounced "San fe-LEE-pay," not "San Fi-LEEP" or "San Fay-LEE-pee."
Also, because the Texicans won, streets and locations (like the monument) named "San Jacinto" are pronounced "San DJUH-sinto," not "San HAH-sinto." (However, if you want a hot pepper, please ask for a "Hall-uh-PEE-no.").
Kuykendahl Road can be pronounced ONLY by a native Houstonian. (It is pronounced "Kirk-n-doll.")
2. Forget any traffic rules you learned anywhere else. Houston has its own version of traffic rules. They are called "Hold On And Pray." There is no such thing as a high-speed chase in Houston. We all drive like that.
3. All directions start with "Go down to Loop 610," which has no beginning and no end.
4. You have the East, Katy, Southwest, North, South, Northwest and Eastex freeways, which are actually I-10 East, I-10 West, 59 North, 59 South, I-45 North, I-45 South, and 290, but not in that order. Your job is to figure out which one you really want to get on, without any signs to tell you. God help you if you are in the wrong lane, or you will go around Loop 610 again, which is an endless circle.
5. The Chamber of Commerce calls getting through traffic "a" scenic drive." It is if you love seeing wrecks and people risking their lives changing tires, running through pot holes, slamming on your brakes to avoid a collision, having people cut you off and exhaust fumes.
6. The morning rush hour is from 5:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The noon-hour rush is 11:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. The evening rush hour is 2:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m., sometimes 9:00 p.m. (or 3 a.m. during floods, which we call "ponding"). The teenagers take the streets from 9:00 p.m. through 5:00 a.m., and Friday's rush hour starts on Thursday morning.
7. If you actually stop at a yellow light, you WILL be rear ended, or at least cussed out, and/or possibly shot. When you are the first off the starting line, count to 5 before moving when the light turns green, to avoid being "T-boned" by crossing traffic.
8. Construction on every freeway, loop, and tollway in the city is a permanent form of entertainment as well as a source of delays.
And a word to migrated Northerners: Don't let the Texan climate fool you into thinking these people haven't seen potholes. Houston streets will convince you these people invented them and export the small ones to the snow belt. You will find that you have to have your car inspected annually here, and that of course (this being Texas) costs money. The money is used for the manufacture and distribution of even more potholes.
9. All unexplained smells are accompanied by the phrase "Oh, we must be near Pasadena."
10. If someone actually has his turn signal on, it is probably a factory defect and should be ignored.
11. All Suburbans have the right-of-way, unless you are driving an 18-wheeler or perhaps a Bradley tank.
12. The minimum acceptable speed limit on Loop 610 is 85 mph. Otherwise, you will be stopped by Houston's Finest for impeding the flow of traffic.
13. The wrought-iron bars on windows in East Houston are NOT ornamental.
14. Never look at the driver of a car with a bumper sticker that says, "Keep honking. I'm reloading." In fact, don't honk at anyone.
15. If you are in the left lane, and going only 70 mph in a 60 mph zone, the people who are passing you are not really waving at you.
16. If it is 100 degrees outside, then Thanksgiving must be next weekend.
17. The Sam Houston Toll Road is Houston's daily version of a NASCAR race.
18. When in doubt, remember that all unmarked exits lead to the state of Louisiana.
19. Don't get on Main Street unless you really WANT to be on Main Street. Left turns and right turns are not allowed between the South Loop and Dallas (that's Dallas, Texas, not Dallas Street).
20. Don't get sick or injured. There are no parking spaces in the Texas Medical Center for anyone but doctors.
21. You don't have to wait for an exit to get off the freeways. Just follow the ruts in the grass to the frontage road like everyone else. This is how Houston residents notify the Texas Department of Transportation where exits should have been built in the first place.
22. BEWARE OF THE TRAIN. This latest edition to the Houston traffic mileu has already claimed several victims - just a few fatalities so far, but there is no prize for being next. It is silent, it is deadly, it will eat your SUV if you go up against it. However, since it only runs North and South adjacent to Main Street between the Fannin Street Park and Ride / Reliant Center and UH Downtown you can greatly reduce your chances of becoming a victim by never driving East-West on any Houston street that crosses Main, or turning left or right from Main.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
You Know You Live In Houston If....
1. You're on your way to work one FEBRUARY morning and suddenly you're trapped in a traffic jam caused by a chuck wagon and fifty horses with riders and you look around to see that everybody in the cars around you is wearing a cowboy hat. Must be time for the Houston Rodeo.
2. The "farm-to-market" roads have seven lanes.
3. You want to be a snob about your grocery shopping,and go to a Randall's Flagship, a Kroger Signature, a Rice Epicurean, or soon, an HEB Central Market to buy bread and milk (but you have to dress up, and your dog and cat are out of luck if you go to the latter - nothing as mundane as pet food there).
4. You have to turn on the air conditioning in January, two days after a low of 29 degrees.
5. You have a Roach Story: You opened your flatware drawer to find a roach the size of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. He stood up and looked you in the eye. You closed the drawer, bought new flatware - and stored it in the oven. Or your friend has a Roach Story - about a dive bomber who crashed her formal dinner party, made several passes at guests whose heads were bobbing like little dogs in car windows, and finally landed in somebody's soup.
6. When you see your neighbor dancing around the front yard, you don't think he's won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes; you know that he just stepped in a fire ant bed.
7. The name "Bud Adams" makes people snarl, and "Bum Phillips" doesn't mean a bad screwdriver.
8. "Luv ya Blue" still makes you smile, even if you did run the Oilers out of town.
9. You know that the Astrodome will always be the Eighth Wonder of the World.
10. You come to work in short sleeves and walk out at noon to find that a "blue-tailed norther" has blown through and the temperature has dropped 40 degrees in a matter of minutes.
11. Your neighbor's Christmas yard decorations look like a re-creation of the gunfight at the OK Corral, complete with a ten-foot tree decorated with boots and cowboy hats, and a Santa Claus who looks a lot like Wyatt Earp.
12. You wander into a section of town where you can't read the street signs because they're written in Asian characters instead of English, but you don't care because you can get great prices on fake designer merchandise there.
13. You go to an art festival on Westheimer and you're almost run down by two hand- holding cross dressers on roller blades.
14. The "Killer Bees" are not stinging insects, but rather members of the Houston Astros.
15. You hear everything but English spoken when you go to the Galleria to window shop. (You can't afford to buy because the prices are jacked up for all the foreign tourists.)
16. You know that "Dad gummit" has nothing to do with your father's failure to practice good dental hygiene.
17. You think "Y'all" is perfectly good usage if you're referring to more than one person.
18. For a Chili Cookoff, you'll use anything from armadillo to frog's legs, but you know that the only GOOD chili is made with chopped (not ground)- beef, and it has NO beans and NO tomatoes.
19. Spring is not the season, Katy is not the lady, and 1960 is not the year.
20. Society matrons of "a certain age" still sport big hair and faces that have gone east, west and north rather than south.
21. You can leave your house, head out of town, and an hour later you still haven't left the city limits (during rush hour, you haven't left your NEIGHBORHOOD).
22. You've never seen I-45 in any condition other than under construction, and you've lived here for 20-30 years.
23. If the humidity is below 90 percent, it's a GOOD hair day.
24. You know that "Clutch City" has nothing to do with automobile transmissions.
25. The Dream" is not a fantasy.
26. The only REAL Mexican food is Tex-Mex.
27. A 747 with the Space Shuttle riding piggyback has actually flown low right overhead, and nobody paid any attention to it.
28. You know that while saving you money, "Mattress Mac" has amassed more than the U.S. treasury.
29. You're happy to have beaten Los Angeles out of a football team, but you'd rather they keep the title of "Smog Capital."
30. You see nothing unusual about an eighty-something former sheriff's deputy who wears a white pompadour toupee and blue sunglasses, mispronounces names, allows televising of his frequent plastic surgeries, seems unnaturally obsessed with slime in the ice machine, and SCREAMS, "MAR-VIN ZIND-ler, EYE-witness news" into a television camera every night.
2. The "farm-to-market" roads have seven lanes.
3. You want to be a snob about your grocery shopping,and go to a Randall's Flagship, a Kroger Signature, a Rice Epicurean, or soon, an HEB Central Market to buy bread and milk (but you have to dress up, and your dog and cat are out of luck if you go to the latter - nothing as mundane as pet food there).
4. You have to turn on the air conditioning in January, two days after a low of 29 degrees.
5. You have a Roach Story: You opened your flatware drawer to find a roach the size of the Taco Bell Chihuahua. He stood up and looked you in the eye. You closed the drawer, bought new flatware - and stored it in the oven. Or your friend has a Roach Story - about a dive bomber who crashed her formal dinner party, made several passes at guests whose heads were bobbing like little dogs in car windows, and finally landed in somebody's soup.
6. When you see your neighbor dancing around the front yard, you don't think he's won the Publisher's Clearing House Sweepstakes; you know that he just stepped in a fire ant bed.
7. The name "Bud Adams" makes people snarl, and "Bum Phillips" doesn't mean a bad screwdriver.
8. "Luv ya Blue" still makes you smile, even if you did run the Oilers out of town.
9. You know that the Astrodome will always be the Eighth Wonder of the World.
10. You come to work in short sleeves and walk out at noon to find that a "blue-tailed norther" has blown through and the temperature has dropped 40 degrees in a matter of minutes.
11. Your neighbor's Christmas yard decorations look like a re-creation of the gunfight at the OK Corral, complete with a ten-foot tree decorated with boots and cowboy hats, and a Santa Claus who looks a lot like Wyatt Earp.
12. You wander into a section of town where you can't read the street signs because they're written in Asian characters instead of English, but you don't care because you can get great prices on fake designer merchandise there.
13. You go to an art festival on Westheimer and you're almost run down by two hand- holding cross dressers on roller blades.
14. The "Killer Bees" are not stinging insects, but rather members of the Houston Astros.
15. You hear everything but English spoken when you go to the Galleria to window shop. (You can't afford to buy because the prices are jacked up for all the foreign tourists.)
16. You know that "Dad gummit" has nothing to do with your father's failure to practice good dental hygiene.
17. You think "Y'all" is perfectly good usage if you're referring to more than one person.
18. For a Chili Cookoff, you'll use anything from armadillo to frog's legs, but you know that the only GOOD chili is made with chopped (not ground)- beef, and it has NO beans and NO tomatoes.
19. Spring is not the season, Katy is not the lady, and 1960 is not the year.
20. Society matrons of "a certain age" still sport big hair and faces that have gone east, west and north rather than south.
21. You can leave your house, head out of town, and an hour later you still haven't left the city limits (during rush hour, you haven't left your NEIGHBORHOOD).
22. You've never seen I-45 in any condition other than under construction, and you've lived here for 20-30 years.
23. If the humidity is below 90 percent, it's a GOOD hair day.
24. You know that "Clutch City" has nothing to do with automobile transmissions.
25. The Dream" is not a fantasy.
26. The only REAL Mexican food is Tex-Mex.
27. A 747 with the Space Shuttle riding piggyback has actually flown low right overhead, and nobody paid any attention to it.
28. You know that while saving you money, "Mattress Mac" has amassed more than the U.S. treasury.
29. You're happy to have beaten Los Angeles out of a football team, but you'd rather they keep the title of "Smog Capital."
30. You see nothing unusual about an eighty-something former sheriff's deputy who wears a white pompadour toupee and blue sunglasses, mispronounces names, allows televising of his frequent plastic surgeries, seems unnaturally obsessed with slime in the ice machine, and SCREAMS, "MAR-VIN ZIND-ler, EYE-witness news" into a television camera every night.
Tuesday, March 11, 2008
FBI Assassin Recruitment Test
(This is one of the funniest jokes I've ever heard - enjoy!)
The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testings were done three finalists remained. Richard, Sam and Jane were to be given a final test.
For the final test, the FBI agents took Richard to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find Betty, your wife, sitting in a chair. Take this gun and shoot her and kill her." Clearly shocked, Richard said, "You can’t be serious. I could never shoot my wife." The agent said, "Then you’re not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."
Sam was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Sam came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, I really tried but I just can’t kill my wife." The agent said, "It's alright. But you don’t have what it takes for this position. Take your wife and go home."
Finally it was Jane’s turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband Bob. She took the gun and went into the room. Immediately shots were heard. Then silence. Then, all of a sudden, they heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls, the sound of chairs being thrown and then....more screaming! After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood Jane, hair all wild, pouring sweat and gasping to catch her breath. With an angry look at the two wide-eyed FBI agents, she exclaimed, "Man, you guys didn't tell me the gun was loaded with blanks! I had to beat him to death with a chair!!!"
The FBI had an opening for an assassin. After all the background checks, interviews and testings were done three finalists remained. Richard, Sam and Jane were to be given a final test.
For the final test, the FBI agents took Richard to a large metal door and handed him a gun. "We must know that you will follow instructions no matter what the circumstances. Inside this room you will find Betty, your wife, sitting in a chair. Take this gun and shoot her and kill her." Clearly shocked, Richard said, "You can’t be serious. I could never shoot my wife." The agent said, "Then you’re not the right man for this job. Take your wife and go home."
Sam was given the same instructions. He took the gun and went into the room. All was quiet for about five minutes. Sam came out with tears in his eyes, "I tried, I really tried but I just can’t kill my wife." The agent said, "It's alright. But you don’t have what it takes for this position. Take your wife and go home."
Finally it was Jane’s turn. She was given the same instructions, to kill her husband Bob. She took the gun and went into the room. Immediately shots were heard. Then silence. Then, all of a sudden, they heard screaming, crashing, banging on the walls, the sound of chairs being thrown and then....more screaming! After a few minutes, all was quiet. The door opened slowly and there stood Jane, hair all wild, pouring sweat and gasping to catch her breath. With an angry look at the two wide-eyed FBI agents, she exclaimed, "Man, you guys didn't tell me the gun was loaded with blanks! I had to beat him to death with a chair!!!"
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Saturday, March 8, 2008
Thursday, March 6, 2008
Heaven Scent
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery,her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10 , 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she is going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10% chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face is she survived. She would never walk. She would never talk. She would probably be blind. She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation and on and on.
"No! No!" was a Diana could say. She and David with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day that would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live-and live to be a happy, healthy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.
"David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers. "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen - I couldn't listen. I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life - a marvel her miniature body could endure. But, as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort - so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But, as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero
Danae went home from the hospital, just as he mother had predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for like. She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?" Once again her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain. "Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with some other children. Thinking back on her daughter's word's it confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest - and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
That afternoon of March 10 , 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she is going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10% chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face is she survived. She would never walk. She would never talk. She would probably be blind. She would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation and on and on.
"No! No!" was a Diana could say. She and David with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day that would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live-and live to be a happy, healthy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.
"David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements," Diana remembers. "I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen - I couldn't listen. I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Danae clung to life - a marvel her miniature body could endure. But, as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially "raw," the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort - so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultra-violet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But, as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero
Danae went home from the hospital, just as he mother had predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for like. She shows no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent.
Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do you smell that?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?" Once again her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain. "Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped down to play with some other children. Thinking back on her daughter's word's it confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest - and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
Nancy Miller, Columbia Health Care Group, Dallas, Texas, 1998
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Monday, March 3, 2008
Hope For Us All.....
.....or, it ain't over til it's over. Remember that plant I won in the raffle at work and then forgot about it and killed it. Well, would you looky here!?! I put it outside meaning to throw it away and then forgot about it - sooooo I would love to hear your thoughts on this...how does it speak to YOU? C'mon ya'll, give this picture a Caption! I can't wait to hear what you come up with!
Saturday, March 1, 2008
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