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Tuesday, February 15, 2011

The Heart of a Micro Preemie

A little different of a Valentine's Day post, but reading this today just really inspired me! Borrowing this text from an email I received today from the Graham's Foundation (a support organization for parents of micro-preemies)...


"The human heart is such an amazing thing. Over a lifetime, one heart will beat 2.5 billion times and move the equivalent of 250,000 gallons of blood through 60,000 miles of blood vessels. The heart does the most physical work of any muscle.
Even more amazing is the heart of a micro-preemie...a heart not much bigger than a cashew. Very early preterm infants are more likely than full-term infants or even later-term preemies to be diagnosed with patent ductus arteriosus (PDA) and cardiovascular malformations. And yet those tiny hearts beat with amazing strength, having had plenty of practice even though a micro-preemie's time in the womb is far shorter than it ought to be. "

-- Doesn't this just get you energized!! Our babies are just AMAZING! Having the heart of a cashew! They each went through the PDA ligation and their little titanium clips they used to close the PDA were only millimeters long. Brooklyn was the smallest baby they had ever done a PDA ligation on! Isn't it just incredible that something so small can sustain life and do the job it was intended to do! Reading this, I just stood in awe of God's workmanship. We are truly his creation - is there any other explanation that a heart the size of a cashew could keep my babies alive!? These tiny hearts overflowed with God's goodness and every beat was for His Glory! This Valentine's Day, though remembering a little bit differently, reminds of us of His love and our love as parents. We also remembered Katelyn, though her heart not beating as strong, was perfect for what God needed her to be. As tiny and young as she was, filled our hearts with such indescribable love.

We did the typical Valentine's Day too - Nich bought Hailey & I flowers (actually Hailey's was from her "secret admirer"), Hailey wrote out about 30 Valentines to school and day care friends, but tonight we picked out the perfect Valentine's for two super special people. Hailey's class made Valentine's for veterans that are in the VA Hospital and she wanted to send one to Uncle Joe because he was her soldier. Even though Katelyn couldn't read hers, we didn't want her to feel left out :) Such a thoughtful sister!


Brooke helped Hailey pick out Katelyn's, a pretty purple flower.

Hailey picked out Uncle Joe's (a smelly Shrek one!) and wrote out Uncle Joe & Katelyn's names on their Valentines and we sent them off! They actually didn't get stuck in a tree this time!!! First time ever! :) Happy Valentine's Day! Wishing you all the love!

3 comments:

Britt said...

I love that Hailey got flowers too!

Rebecca said...

our God is truly amazing! wow...hearts the size of cashews...i cannot get over that...so amazing!

and what a sweetie pie hailey is!

Mommato4miracles said...

A beautiful awe inspiring post, thanks so much for the reminder of how miraculous our God is:-)