"I'm quick to discount what most people call miracles. I know that miracles exist, but I don't think we see them very often. I think that what often gets chalked up to being a 'miracle' can often be attributed to something else. Coincidence, self-fulfilling prophecy, luck, whatever. Despite my skepticism, 16 or so months ago, I knew a miracle from God is what we needed for Maggie. I was there when the extreme amount of fluid accumulating in her abdomen was first noticed. I saw it on the ultrasound tech's monitor. I was there when the damage to her liver was discovered. The doctor (a specialist in fetal care) spent time with us, showing it to us and describing it in detail. I saw what he saw when he examined her brain; overlapping sutures, calcifications, and the open space between her skull and the lining of her brain (that he would later tell us indicated atrophy he had previously seen only in babies that had already died in utero). All those things were there. Their existence wasn't open for debate...only their cause. Her doctor told us that IF Maggie made it, there would, without a doubt, be lasting complications. I specifically pressed him on this point, asking him to paint a best-case scenario, since we had been dealing with worst-case scenarios for weeks. I was also there when, one-by-one, every area of concern reversed itself. The ascites went away. It didn't just stabilize or reverse its trend. It disappeared. An MRI that was supposed to give us a better picture of the damage to her brain and a better idea of what disabilities to expect after she was born...showed a completely normal brain. Despite the improving news, Maggie was born a year ago today with a NICU team standing by, ready to assess the extent of the damage to her body. She spent several days in the NICU while they ran a whole battery of tests on her. Each one came back showing we had a completely healthy baby. It wasn't a case of a doctors getting it wrong. Everything they saw, Amanda and I saw too. The best diagnosis they could come up with after all the tests (a perforated bowel that had healed itself before she was born) couldn't explain away everything they had seen. I guess that's because miracles can't be explained.
A year later we have a perfectly healthy, gap-toothed, always smiling, go-getter of a baby who is going to take her first steps any day now. She's definitely proof of miracles. Happy Birthday, Mags!!" - Jon
