I believe in miracles

Greetings, all. A miracle happened the other day. Or perhaps a better choice of words would be countless miracles happened the other day and I am privileged to report on one in particular. Mari and I welcomed Jonas Bjorn and Elsa Joy to planet Earth on December 12th around 5:15am. Our babies were born sixteen weeks premature.

In what I can only describe as surreal, the moment arrived for the delivery of our babies. A small army of nurses and doctors surrounded us and shouted orders back and forth. Machinery hummed but the lights remained so stable. As our babies were removed from the womb they were immediately placed on small tables to the side where doctors worked on getting them the oxygen they would need.

Several minutes into the delivery, two two-person teams of NICU nurses descended into the room. Their level of expertise was apparent by the calmness they brought into the room. The nurses stabilized both babies and prepared them for the fifteen minute journey to Mary Bridge at Tacoma General Hospital.

If I am honest, I am leaving out lots of details because it all happened so fast.

Several hours passed before I was able to see Elsa and Jonas in the NICU. Entering the NICU the first time is a scary experience. I did not know what to expect. After a three minute scrub of my hands to my elbows, I entered into a long room that had eight babies of various ages in incubators providing them the necessary air and nutrition for their, and our, long journey ahead. I wasn't sure if I could touch our babies and there was an ever present hum and the staccato of beeps coming from the various machines. But after another hand sanitizer, I was able to reach through two hand-holes and touch our fragile babies. Gorgeous.

My first visit with a NICU nurse was very comforting. He explained that this is a long roller coaster ride with many ups and downs. If we can keep making two steps forward for every one step back--we will be doing great.

After a couple of days, Elsa was able to take some milk in addition to her IV. Her lungs are more stable. She is on a ventilator but is able to process room air (approximately 21% oxygen). Jonas is struggling a little bit more with his lungs. He is on a different ventilator and fluctuates on the amount of oxygen supplement he needs. His current challenge is to heal up his lungs via a platelet transfusion. The doctors are optimistic with both. The babies haven't thrown the doctors anything they haven't seen before.

It is currently snowing outside and our backyard is covered with a beautiful white blanket. Jonas and Elsa are currently vacationing in the warm glow of the incubators, but I imagine they will enjoy many winters of leaving those first footprints in fresh snow in the years to come.

God Bless

Dan & Mari