Michael - the Miracle Baby

When I look back at our early attempts at parenting, I am still amazed that Michael made it through seemingly unscathed. Not only did Randy and I marry at a young age, but I was a very immature 22 when Michael was born in 1982. He was definitely our miracle baby.

We found out that I was pregnant in the spring of 1981. We had been married for 2 years, Randy had finished college, we had moved to Amarillo, and we both really wanted to start a family. I was working at an unpainted furniture store, and Randy was working for a great accounting firm. When I was about 10 weeks pregnant, a young mother came into the store with a sick baby. I had waited on them for several minutes before she said, "I hope you aren't pregnant...the doctor thinks my baby has rubella." I told her I WAS pregnant, and I immediately got someone else to help her.

I contacted my doctor (whom I hadn't even seen yet), and his office told me to go have blood work done that afternoon. Rubella can cause such devastation to an unborn child - especially in the first few weeks of pregnancy. The first test of course didn't show any signs of Rubella, but I was supposed to wait 2 weeks and have another blood test done. In the meantime, my mother tried frantically to find my shot records to prove that I had had a Rubella vaccination. The shot record never turned up, but she was sure that I had had the shot and that all was well. The next two weeks were uneventful - I felt fine and showed no symptoms of the disease.

I went in for the next lab test and waited for them to call me and tell me that all was well with my baby. I finally got a call from my doctor's office saying that he needed to see me right away. My sweet mother drove me to the appointment knowing that something was wrong. The next part of this story is a very hard one for me to tell. My doctor was young and had probably never dealt with anything like this before. He sat me down in an examining room, told me that the 2nd test showed that I had contracted Rubella, there was a 100% chance that the baby was affected and probably wouldn't even make it to term. He had already called the hospital and scheduled an abortion for me. I was stunned. I asked about tests that could be done for the baby, but the doctor refused to authorize any more testing. I was at the end of my first trimester at this point, and I am sure he didn't want to deal with a late abortion decision on my part.



My mother drove me home and I sat in the dark crying, waiting for Randy to get home from work. We called his parents who lived an hour away and told them that we needed to come see them that evening. There are some moments in a lifetime that are forever etched in memory. Those moments are clear and defining. I remember sitting on a loveseat in Eual and Norma's living room while Randy explained to them what the doctor had said. Up until that moment I hadn't really even formed an opinion about abortion. I would have given you a very complacent answer about a woman's right to choose, blah, blah... But in THAT moment, I knew that I could never allow a baby that God had given me to be destroyed for any reason. Whatever the future held, this baby and I were in it together.



While I was in Dumas that evening, I called my old family doctor at his home and told him what had happened. He told me that if I did indeed have Rubella, the baby would be greatly affected, but that I should have as many tests run as I wanted. I called another family friend who was the head lab technician at a large hospital, and he told me to be at his lab at 7:00 the next morning.



Randy and I didn't really sleep that night. The future for us and for our baby seemed very scary. The next morning, our friend took a blood sample and sent us home to wait again. I didn't know until weeks later, but he also drew blood from everyone who worked at the hospital who had had the rubella vaccination. He wanted to compare my titer counts to theirs.



Randy took me home to rest and he went to his office to work for a few hours. I lay on our bed exhausted, but still very afraid. The one and only time I have ever heard the audible voice of God was at that moment. I heard God say, "Sleep, your baby is fine. All is well." Then a remarkable thing happened. All fear left, and I slept soundly until the phone rang. My friend called with the lab results.



This test showed that I did NOT have rubella. Michael was indeed whole and healthy. In the next few weeks we found out that the first lab had received a faulty batch of test kits. I have often wondered if other women were given the same false report that we were given.



Well, our beautiful miracle baby was born on January 17th, and he was PERFECT!!!! What a joy he has been to us for the past 25 (almost 26) years. Michael, we love you!!!