Happy Birthday Noah!

Eight years ago my daughter was just barely 29 weeks pregnant. The pregnancy had been difficult and when she called one afternoon complaining about strong back pains, I told her to get to the doctor quickly because she was in labor. The doctors tried valiantly to stop the labor and finally on the 3rd day I asked if she needed her mommy to come be with her. She said yes. I knew it was bad then! Within hours I was on an airplane on my way to Norfolk, Virginia. It was an hour from the hospital to the airport and I just barely made it to the hospital in time. Forty-five minutes after I arrived the doctor decided they couldn't wait any longer and off my daughter went to have an emergency C-section. Next thing I knew out came my first grandson Noah at 3 lbs 1 ounce and 18 inches long. The nurses called him a "little peanut". For the distress he had been in the past few days he was in remarkably good health. But being so little they whisked him away and put him in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. It was hours before we were able to see him and when we finally did, this is what we saw. Little Noah Daniel all hooked up to tubes.




Within 24 hours Noah was doing so well they had taken him off the respirator and he had won everyone's hearts in the NICU! And then it happened. We got a call from the nurses that we needed to come speak to the doctor right away. It seems that one of the nurses had noticed Noah's tiny belly getting larger and larger so she called another nurse who agreed they needed to call the doctor. An x-ray was taken and after Mom & Dad gave their permission surgery was performed. They found a 3" obstruction in his large intestine the size of a quarter!!! What a huge problem for a tiny baby! The doctor informed us afterwards that if little Noah hadn't been born when he was that he would have either died in the womb or right after he was born - they never would have known there was a problem!!! Thank God for His miracles and for His wonderful NICU Nurses!!!!! Within 3 months he was home and within 6 months you'd never have known anything was wrong with him! That was another miracle!
That was eight years ago. Today Noah sees the scar on his belly and knows the story about how God moved people to save him. He calls it his miracle scar. It's the only sign that anything was ever wrong with him!!! We are all quite happy that God chose to bless us with this wonderful little boy who from the time he know what they were has loved cars of any and all kinds. And who from the time he was 2 has wanted to be a race car driver. For several years he thought that my brother Tony was Tony Stewart and was devastated to find out he wasn't. Then Noah decided that he liked Jeff Gordon best because he used to have fire on his car and every time Noah would see Jeff Gordon he'd say "Look Mommy! It's ME!" We have no idea how he found out about NASCAR but he did! Today his favorite thing to do is play racing video games and he still wants cars for presents!
When I asked him last Christmas what he wanted for his birthday, he had one request. "Gigi, I want you to come up for my birthday party and make me a Cars 2 cake with all the characters on it. And I want the REAL cars so I can play with them afterwards." So that's what he got!!! I flew up to Virginia and made him the cake and we had his party at my parents' house with all my family. (He'll have another party with his friends later.)
And would you like to see a current picture of that poor little baby hooked up to all those tubes??? Here's our little Miracle Boy!

Happy 8th Birthday Noah! We love you!!!