Today was Tatianna’s annual NICU reunion. This is an event that honors former patients in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, the family that loves them and the staff that nurtured them. We go every year and I look forward to it. It is a time of reflection where I remember with immense gratitude how blessed we are to have been able to have our healthy daughter come home with us.

Tia was born seven weeks early in 2005; miraculously she spent only 12 days in the NICU!  Every day feels like the equivalent to a month so it felt like a year. The experience was stressful save for the Amazing people God brought into our lives-most notably Tia’s nurse Raquel. During every reunion we have attended she has not been on shift, today she was! I called up to the NICU and she was able to steal away for a bit to come see her “little baby”. Look at how Tia just took to her like she knew her, it’s because in her soul Tia does.

Raquel was on shift the night after Tia was born. She was the one that placed Tatianna in my arms nearly 22 hours after her birth. I watched as Raquel moved around the room tending to each baby. The stillness of the night and the aura of tiny sleeping infants created an ambiance where one sees angels and I did. She cared for each precious soul as if it were her own child in an indescribable manner I had never before seen. Today she shared that she has since married and has a beautiful son of her own.

I am so thrilled for her baby. I can only imagine how exponentially more her love for her own child must be and how honored he is to have her as his mother. Seven years ago I walked out of the NICU one night with the peace of mind that she would love and care for Tia like I would, I told Raquel how much she meant to me and prayed she would find a husband that deserved her.

Today she praised God for fulfilling my prayer and thanked me for my desire to see her be loved. I told her “when you give love in that way it comes back you”. Although the idea of the NICU is on no one’s wish list; I value the time there because I saw the love of Jesus lived out in flesh. I felt like I had God’s cell phone number and he was just texting me direct messages in a way I had never before experienced. He met me when I needed him most and like always he never forgoes and opportunity to show up! Today was a beautiful day!