Baby Ben Update!

I'm sure you all remember Baby Ben. In fact I'm very sure, because I've had several of you ask me to do a follow-up article on his progress. So here goes, but as all good bloggers will, I shall first refresh your memory.


Little Benjamin's original birthday was supposed to be March 21st, but he was born on January 6th about 12 weeks premature. At his birth, he weighed 15 oz. and was 11 inches long. His mother recalls, "When I first saw him at 2 hours old he looked tiny, pink and cute. He looked like a normal baby only in miniature."



The doctors' reaction to his birth was recounted by his mother. "They were surprised that he survived. Only ½ the babies his size do. He is the smallest baby at (the hospital) that they’ve had."



When I first wrote to you guys about little Ben, I reported that he had significantly gained weight, and weighed in at 1 lb 8 oz as of February 25th. His mother said of that, "Hopefully that number will grow every day."



It's a happy thing for me to be able to tell you that that number has grown every day. I have a couple pictures of him that were taken just yesterday in the hospital. If you can't notice, he has the most adorable little double chin and the parents recently announced that he has just reached 5 pounds!



Note: the difference - lol




While his progress has been quite good and his parents are very encouraged, the little guy is undergoing a serious surgery tomorrow. Apparently a lot of little procedures are going to take place, and then the doctor will ask the parents whether they are willing for Baby Ben to get a tube put in (trachea). The parents will have to decide on the spot of the moment. Obviously the parents and our church family are praying very hard that little Benjamin won’t need that Tracheotomy put in, because it could cause many other severe complications. So if any of you are praying people (or even if you’re not, for that matter), please pray for Ben tomorrow because this really is a very serious time in his young life.



Mom Quote: "Why do I think Benjamin is still alive? It’s very simple actually. Because God wants him to be and because God has a purpose for Bens life that only Ben can accomplish."

Worth the Life

This is a true story.

Early summer came packed full of unpredictable Wisconsin weather, and children laughing on the school playground expecting Wisconsin’s best.

A young 13 year old girl slid down the slides, and then eagerly raced back up the gym to slide down again.

“Kimberly! Race ya!”

Kimberly, one of Jordan’s classmates, flew into action. In the endless way kids race, she slid down the slides after Jordan and then scurried just as quickly back to the same slide.
It was the last day of school, and Jordan’s school was spending it at the park, where children went crazy with the idea that they could no longer get in trouble. It was the typical end-of-the- year feel, and the teachers were on the watch for the little begin-the-summer-fights that could spring up without warning.

Kimberly stood behind Jordan, as they waited their turn in line.

“Come on, come on. Hurry up,” one kid urged.

Finally it was their turn, and Jordan flew down the slide, and tumbled to the ground.

Kimberly flew after her and stood easily.

“Come on, Jordan. Let’s go. Race ya.”

Jordan didn’t move. She lay face down, crumpled on the playground woodchips.

“Jordan?” Kimberly’s eyes widened. “ Teacher! Miss Gray! “

One of the teachers came from out of nowhere and said calmly, “What is it, Kimberly?”

Kim pointed to Jordan and said, “I think Jordan’s hurt. She won’t get up.”

The teacher gasped, hurrying over to Jordan’s side and flipped her over. Jordan’s face was turning blue. Shaking the girl, she yelled, “Someone call an ambulance!”. It was because she performed CPR constantly until the ambulance arrived, that Jordan lived.
-------------------------------------------------------

Pat helped her out of the car.
“Okay, one step at a time. We can take it slowly.”

The 17 year old girl tried to smile at her grandmother, and it warmed Pat’s heart to see the faint effort. Pat wasn’t talking to her grand daughter, Jordan, though. She was talking to her daughter-in-law, Deana, who was pushing her daughter, Jordan’s wheelchair. Jordan couldn’t walk. She hadn’t been able to ever since she collapsed on the school playground right after her 13th birthday.

It took them five minutes to maneuver the wheel chair safely to the ground, and they were breathing heavily by the time they did. Jordan wasn’t as light as she used to be.

Fifteen minutes later, they were in the house, after waving to the respective neighbors, and shutting the humid summer heat behind them.

Pat set down her keys and slipped from tennis shoes to slippers, as Deana began to loosen Jordan’s protective straps. Jordan’s head jerked from side to side and Deana wiped the drool from her chin. Once a normal little girl, Jordan’s brain damaging heart failure left her in a vegetative state. Her mother sometimes had to look very closely to see any of the old Jordan sparkle in her eyes.

Pat, known to kids around the neighborhood as Grandma Pat, knelt and smiled at Jordan. Jordan looked at her for a minute, her eyes finally rolling to a resting point. Suddenly Jordan smiled.

It wasn’t huge, and it wasn’t quite all of the old Jordan smile, but it was enough to make Pat stand and call Deana’s attention to it.
“Did you see that? Did you see Jordan smile?”

Little tears sparked in Deana’s eyes as she smiled with her hands on her hips and nodded.
“Okay, so I’ll come and pick her up around 6?”

Pat nodded at Deana with a smile. “Sounds good.”

As soon as Terry left, Pat began really talking to Jordan.
“You’re in there. You really are, aren’t you, Jordan? You know this is me. This is Grandma. Can you say, ‘Grandma’?”

These words were much like the ones the family had used, gathered around Jordan’s bed in ICU, where she stayed in a coma for over a year. Prayers were flown in from all over the country. Neighbors and friends came to visit her, some even singing her favorite childhood Bible songs to her. Her classmates at school, and her neighborhood friends, just couldn’t understand where Jordan had gone.

I remember watching my neighbors from my living room window, thinking as a thirteen year old who used to play dolls with Jordan, that maybe there was a key to unlock her and stimulate her back to a miraculous recovery. The faith I had that God could heal Jordan, I’m sure, made my parents struggle to come up with answers. I have no doubt that Jordan’s younger sister, Lauren, asked many of the same questions I wanted to ask.

“Will Jordan be coming back to school next year? Will Jordan and I still play dress-up at Grandma’s? What will happen to Jordan’s friends? Will Jordan still race me at the park? Can I still be the maid of honor at Jordan’s wedding?”

It’s been about 4 years now, since Jordan’s heart stopped and she was brought back to life by the steady CPR of one of her school teachers. Since that time, the family has stuck by Jordan’s side, paying endless medical bills, and battling to keep around-the-clock nurses employed who will care for Jordan.

Whether the hard work has been worth it, well, all it takes is for Pat to look in those dark eyes of Jordan and stroke her brown hair her from her forehead. The child is still in her, straining, but still smiling.

Sometimes things completely beyond our control spin dangerously out-of-control. Jordan had had a physical only a week before she dropped from (as the doctor’s have diagnosed) QT syndrome. That last physical before her fall had diagnosed her as a normal, healthy girl. There was no planning for what had happened, no predicting, no going back and changing. And really, there are no answers for why these things happen, except that God had a different plan in mind than man had.

Hundreds of families across the nation deal with special-needs children, many of them not asking for the hard task. But they stick to it, because it is worth it to see those simple smiles. They protect the innocent life of a child, not because they are perfect, but because even though they are not perfect, they are a part of them, and they still love them.

Premature Baby Ben... in the impossible

When a person is told something that they believe in is impossible, their first inclination is to believe in it anyway. Believe against all hopes, against all of the overwhelming reports, and believe in God for that which has been deemed impossible. Many scoff that 'hope' is idealistic and will only result in deep regret. But I submit that some individuals have a grasp on something deeper than hope. They have faith. Faith in God.

To some, faith is a strange concept. Skeptics can say some very loud and scientific things against faith and God. And they have every right to. But regardless of those loud words, faith remains a strong core of communities, families, and my great country of America. I guess I already knew this, but I know now more than ever that God cannot be proved by science, or by man. God proves Himself. Some may doubt their beliefs, but faith itself cannot be extinguished. And when this faith is grounded in God, it has power that even the most knowledgeable of mortals cannot deny. It is my experience that those who believe in God regardless of the opinion of man, have decided that there is Someone bigger than man that has the power over life and death.

So why not believe in the impossible, eh? Why not have a little faith, ladies and gentlemen… in miracles?

I present to you a very young family. This family was normal enough for quite a while. Aaron and Heather already had two blonde-haired little girls and were naturally pleased when they found out they were pregnant with a boy. So, young Julianna and Lauren were to have a little brother! There’s nothing abnormal about that. Little boys are born every day. But what was unusual about the little boy Heather was carrying, was that he was not growing normally in the womb. This was naturally a shock to the whole family (including the two girls’ close grandparents), and requests for prayer were sent around to churches.

Understandably, the time that has followed has been a turbulent time for the family. The little boy, Benjamin, was born on January 6th, instead of the projected March 21st. That is a very premature baby. His diaper was the size of a large postage stamp. But premature babies are born every day. What makes him different? The more I became interested in the family, and the more I heard about their hard time, I found that it was their strong faith in God…in the impossible that only He could allow, to be what fascinated me and inspired me to write this.

I wanted to make this blog entry as factual as possible, so I figured that the best way to let you see the inside perspective to this story was to ask questions and get some answers. The children’s grandmother passed these questions on to the mother of Baby Ben. Heather was kind enough to answer them for this blog, and I share those stimulating answers with you now.

Hi Andria,
Here are the answers to the questions you gave to (my mother-in-law). She didn’t know the answers to some of them so she gave them to me. The only time I have to sit and write is when I’m holding Ben so I don’t have access to a computer. Hopefully written answers are ok.

1. When did (you) first find out something was wrong with Ben?
We first found out something was wrong with Ben on Friday December 28th. I went in for a routine US and they discovered that he was only ½ the size he should be and that my placenta wasn’t working so well.

2. What did the doctors initially say/advise?
It depended on the doctor, and we saw 10 of them over all. My doctor and 1 of the perineotologists said that this baby had a chance and lets do all we can to help him. Two of the perineotologists told me to go home and let him die.

3. What were (you) thinking when she heard what the doctors said?
I of course was scared, however I had the peace of God that all would be OK. Not easy or pleasant, but OK I had not experienced His peace so vividly like that before. It was wonderful and what got me through the2 weeks of bed rest and the 7 weeks since.

4. When did the emergency C-section take place? And what would the normal due date have been?
I had him on Sunday January 6th at 2:18 pm. His original birthday was supposed to be March 21st.

5. How much did Benjamin weigh? How premature was he? What did he look like initially? What was the first sign that he might live?
He weighed 15 oz. And was 11 inches long. He was just about 12 weeks premature. When I first saw him at 2 hours old he looked tiny, pink and cute. He looked like a normal baby only in miniature. He looked like a tiny version of Lauren. The first sign that he might live medically speaking was the fact that he breathed on his own for the first 6 hours of his life. He had a rough 2 weeks after that when the doctors were doubtful that he’d make it but I always knew that he would live and be OK.

6. What were the family’s and (your) reaction to Benjamin?
We all pretty much reacted the same way. We were relieved, overwhelmed and very joyful.

7. What were the doctors’/hospital staffs’ reactions to Benjamin?
They were surprised that he survived. Only ½ the babies his size do. He is the smallest baby at (the hospital) that they’ve had. They are very good and gentle with him. His room sees a lot of traffic. All of the nurses check on his progress and they “fight” to see who gets to take care of him.

8. What milestones has Benjamin already overcome?
Too many to write it seems. He has overcome a hole in his heart, immature lungs, 2 grade-one brain bleeds, and a digestive system that didn’t want to work at first. He also had a blood infection and a body full of bilirubin.

9. How much does Benjamin weigh now? How has he changed in appearance?
Ben weighs 1 lb 8 oz as of Feb. 25th. Hopefully that number will grow every day. He has changed quite a bit. For a couple of days he was black from bilirubin then he turned yellow. He is still a bit yellow but is starting to pink up. His ribs are a bit less visible now and he looks longer - probably because he is. He’s just under 12 in. Why do I think Benjamin is still alive? It’s very simple actually. Because God wants him to be and because God has a purpose for Bens life that only Ben can accomplish. We have been able to speak of God’s power and love to people we never would have had Ben not come to us the way he did. Although it has been tough, if given the choice, we would do it all again.

As I read those answers and saw the pictures of Baby Ben, I was touched to an unprintable degree. Ben is so small, so fragile, so helpless. And yet Someone is keeping his heart beating. Someone is whispering in his little ears that he has a purpose on this old earth. Someone is telling him to open his eyes and survey the world with wonder. That is not fate, or chance, or logical prediction. That is God.

I am not beyond thinking that some will scorn the simple faith of this family. But I don’t think that would change their faith in God one dot. Believing in God is not about proving anything. Believing in God to do the impossible is a choice. That choice is something that will baffle atheistic minds for both the centuries past and future, and you and I both know that where there are believers, there will be unbelievers. Unbelievers will shake their fist at the sky as though God is some drifting shape in the clouds, and will ask Him for proof of His existence before they can believe. But God is not limited to physical qualities and physical instruments and physical limitations. He is not ordered about by ‘all-knowing’ man. He cannot be described, because it would only limit Him. No, man cannot pull out instruments and measure God. And yet, while God cannot be proven by man, God can certainly prove himself through man. Even a little man…a little miracle… our Baby Ben.

I offer my deepest gratitude to those of you who read through this entire entry, and I hope these words encouraged some of you to hang in there today. Nothing is too hard… too difficult. For those of you who found this too sappy? tough. You needed sappiness today.

Regardless of whoever you are, if you think to pray, please send those prayers little Benjamin’s way.