Going On The Road with Monte & Rose

Friday, January 25, 2013

January 24, 2013

Desert Sky

Today was very overcast and it was forecasted to rain off and on all day making it the perfect day to veg out after yesterday’s adventure.

January 24^th has significance to me because it is my daughter Renee’s birthday. 34 years ago today I welcomed into the world one of the best persons I have ever known.

Now I know I may be a little biased because she is my daughter, but anyone who has met Renee and knows her would agree. One of her very best qualities is her big heart and her capacity to love unconditionally.

Renee had a rough start in life being born 6 weeks premature. Because the hospital she was born in did not have the equipment to handle premature babies, she was transferred to a nearby County Hospital that had an outstanding Neo-natal wing. The first 48 hours were touch and go and I was told by her doctor that it was literally in Gods’ hand.

I had to stay in the hospital where I had given birth so I didn’t get to hold my baby. When I was discharged two days later I went to the hospital where Renee was and was shocked to see how small she was. The prognosis was not good. BUT very shortly after I put my hand through the opening in the isolette and took her tiny little hand in mine, her color changed from a pasty grey to pink. Even though it took a month for her to be well enough to come home, that moment had been the turning point. Was it timing or miracle?

Because she had been born early, her lungs had not been fully mature, and as a consequence, she is an asthmatic. I remember many, many trips to the ER in the middle of the night because she couldn’t breathe and years of driving to the doctor’s office for weekly allergy shots. But that didn’t stop her from participating in different activities including baseball