The Journey Is Over....

Today was the culmination of a very long and stressful journey. Melanie went into labor around 1pm and Anna was born at 1:17 pm. She was just barely over a pound. The Lord called her home a few minutes later. She was to small and delicate to withstand the stress of labor. We were fully aware of this and we decided not to pursue drastic measures to keep her with us. We got to hold her and say goodbye. Anna was a fighter from day one, and fought long and hard to come into this world, but it was not meant to be.

We prayed for miracles throughout this pregnancy, we have received many miracles but not the one we prayed for the most. We have to believe that there is a greater plan through all of this. Sometimes the answer to prayers is not one we like, but we have to look at what the answer truly was. The answer to our prayers was getting to know Anna in a very special way. Through the various sonograms and monitoring we got to truly know Anna's personality. She was a very spirited young lady. We saw her kick and squirm when she was tired of getting looked at, we saw her constantly hide from the sonogram techs, it was her way of saying "catch me if you can." In the hospital she would be on the monitor, then disappear and have the nurses scramble to find her then show up in the exactly same spot she was before. She very much inherited the stubbornness that both her mom and dad have. We got to constantly hear her heartbeat for a week straight, even though we stressed constantly over it (maybe got a very grey hairs). We experienced some of the worries parents feel on a day to day basis. I would not trade that for the world.

I believe one of the miracles we received was that we got to know Anna in the womb. If it was God's plan all along was to take Anna, He gave us a glimpse of our child, and we are very thankful for that. We were truly graced by Anna's time on this earth so were more people than we know.

Third Day has a song "When the rains come" it is a song that was written from God's point of view talking to us. This song was on my heart for that last month of the pregnancy and it scarred me to death, thinking that the result of all of this would be the worst. The lyrics go:

I can't stop the rain
From falling down on you again
I can't stop the rain
But I will hold you 'til it goes away

As Anna came and went this afternoon, our room had 5 very big windows, and as our parents showed up to support us, the sky clouded over and it rained for the first time in two weeks here, and I felt God holding us in the midst of the rain. And I pray that He will continued to hold us through this storm.

http://chwcmedia.com/When%20the%20Rain%20Comes.mp3

There is another song that our buddy Rich posted on our blog a couple days ago, his comment went as such:

"my favorite line from a Counting Crows song called "Anna Begins". The line goes, "everytime she sneezes I believe it's love..." Love is born in the smallest of moments."

This is one of my favorite songs, I was really touched about what he wrote, I have liked this song for as long as I have known. I looked the song up today and here is the end of the song:

It's moving me along and Anna begins to fade away
It's chasing me away
She disappears and Oh Lord,
I'm not ready for this sort of thing

http://chwcmedia.com/05%20Anna%20Begins.mp3

We definitely were not ready for today, but I could never imagine ever being ready for this sort of thing, We held our baby and prayed over her, gave her spirit to God and now must move on.

We need prayers more than ever, Melanie is fine after delivery but the next couple of weeks will be tough, We have to offer our situation up to God. The rains are truly coming.

Pray for Us,
Nick and Mel