Tiny Feisty

This is Baby.

To be more precise, this is Baby holding her Daddy's finger. Baby was born in October with a heart condition which required open heart surgery within the first 5 hours of her life. Since then she has been through a myriad of smaller treatments, a collapsed lung, and too many ups and downs to be counted. Very recently a clip installed in her heart during the initial surgery broke, requiring an emergency surgery. Baby's parents were told she wouldn't survive. With much prayer and hope they sent her off to the surgery, whispering to her, "Prove them wrong."

She did. She proved them amazingly, beautifully, phenomenally, feistily wrong.

The latest update is that she is doing better than anyone expected; she may be able to go home at the turn of the year or soon after.

Baby's father is a baseball fan; in a moment of sleep-deprived silliness at the hospital, Baby's Momma grabbed his ball cap, punched it inside out, and slapped it on his head as a Rally Cap. A picture on Facebook was all it took to start a landslide of "Rally Cap for Baby" photos being sent in, with assurances of prayer and support from all over the globe.

All Saints Maastricht Uni Group (& Bubba) Rally for Baby

Baby's Daddy has been printing the pictures out, hanging them by her bassinet in the NICU. The nurses are blown away by the amount of support Baby is receiving; the surgeon and the anaesthesiologist are dumbfounded at Baby's strength through all of this. Baby's Momma and Daddy keep praying, keep hoping, keep loving. What can I say? They believe in prayer; they believe in hope; they believe in love.

I know Baby's Grandma; she's a pretty feisty lady. I know Baby's Daddy (he once interned for me while I was preggers -- every 20-year-old guy's dream job!) and he's a pretty feisty guy. I "know" Baby's sister and Momma through Facebook; they look to me to be the very picture of feisty gorgeousness. And Baby is proving herself every day to be more feisty than the rest of us put together.

So Baby, as dubious an honour as it may be, I pronounce you a Tiny Feisty Broad. Your Momma says you were a kicker in the womb. Keep kicking, Baby; keep kicking!

"Nothing is impossible. The word itself says, 'I'm possible.'"

(A favourite quote of Baby's family, from Audrey Hepburn.)

Your turn: if you would like to support Baby in prayer, send me a picture
of you & your Rally Cap.

I promise I'll get it to Baby's family.