Today, January 7th we will be celebrating our sweet Naomi's 1st Birthday! )If you don't know the story of this amazing little girl former known as Calencia....please scroll back and read about her life....it is nothing short of a miracle.)
Photos of Calencia when she was 8 months old and only 9 pounds.
I want to be sure to explain what the word celebrating TRULY means in this case. I can remember celebrating my own children's 1st birthdays. What a fun milestone! They are hopefully sleeping through the night, have cut a tooth or two and were truly showing their unique personalities. With Naomi's celebration it is all about PRAISING God that she LIVED through His HEALING. That she has a NEW family that is FEEDING her and LOVING her and ENCOURAGING her to develop into the life that God has planned for her.
Photos of Naomi just 3 months later!
BUT......even with all this Naomi's physical struggles are not over. Yesterday Naomi, her brother Carlo and her parents (Debbie and Bill) walked over and invited us for cake on her birthday. They had probably been back home about an hour when Carlo ran over, knock on our door and said, "Mom needs you....Naomi is sick!" I ran to their house to find out she had been vomiting for a half an hour and would have episodes of choking. She was stable at that moment but we talked about her cleft palate and how the food was probably irritating it when she went vomited. She began laughing and smiling and her looked better so I went home and advised them that if it happened again to go directly to the hospital. 10 minutes later Carlo was knocking on my door as Debbie and Bill pulled up in the car.....Naomi was grey and struggling to breathe. I jumped in the car and we drove to the hospital that is literally 3 minutes away. Again she was stable when we got there but the doctor listened to her lungs and said she had aspirated. (She had inhaled fluid into her lungs.) They admitted her to start IV antibiotics to prevent infection.
So now on her 1st Birthday, we celebrate Naomi's life in Jesus who has given her STRENGTH to be a FIGHTER. And we PRAY for her little body to continue to HEAL. We thank God for families like Debbie and Bill that LOVE enough to give up their COMFORTABLE lives so a child can have HOPE. We continue to pray for SALVATION and GRACE for the birth mother that has lived a life of PAIN and SORROW.
PLEASE lift this family up in prayer today and thank God for continuing to show us miracles.
Psalm 107:19-21
Then they cried to the Lord in their trouble, and he saved them from their distress; he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from destruction. Let them thank the Lord for his steadfast love, for his wonderful works to humankind.
