E is for Emily

Emily is my first born, my miracle baby.

She came into my life unexpectedly and has been full of surprises all along the way!
She was 8 weeks early and weighted only 3 lbs 14 oz.   We were both medically unstable after her birth.  She was in the NICU and I was so ill I couldn't go to see her.  I was lucky to get a visit from a friend of mine who works in pastoral care at the hospital.  I asked her to please go give my new daughter a blessing.  She paused and reminded me that she is Jewish (we are Catholic) and I told her that wasn't what was important.  My daughter needed her blessing.

A few hours later my friend returned.  She sat down with me and thanked me for the opportunity to bless my daughter.  She told me it was the most powerful spiritual experience she had to date.  As she blessed Emily, my tiny girl in her little incubator opened her eyes and they bore into her with such pull it shook her.  She got tears in her eyes as she told me. 

When Emily was about 3 or 4 she pointed to a drawing of a girl on the page of a book we were looking through.  The girl was dressed in a prairie dress, apron and hat.  Emily pointed to the girl and said "that is when my family died and the Angels brought me to you".  A friend of mine was there at the time and we just looked at each other - stares that though unspoken, said "did you hear the same thing I did"?  Emily never wavered she just kept looking through the book - calmly, unaffected. 

I am grateful everyday for Emily.  Grateful today because when I said I needed to write my E entry, she said "Emily starts with E".  Then she got on the bus to the Jr High and I started to write.  Emily, you are still a blessing.