When you think of having a baby, you think about holding yourlittle one in your arms, and that you will be able to take them home from the hospital with you. As a first time mother, you worry if you are going to be good at it or not; if you will be able to breastfeed like all the doctors (and your family) tell you to do; or if your baby will be healthy, etc. Our experience is oneyou hope you don’t hear about let alone go through!

Our daughter, Emily, was born with gastroschisis. This is where the intestines are born on the outside of the body through a hole in the abdominal cavity. Emily was born six weeks early, so she also had the possibility of her lungs being under developed as well as facing her tremendous battle dealing with her birth defect. She weighed in at 4 pounds and was 16” long. Nothing is scarier for a mother than laying on the operating table waiting, hoping, and praying that you will hear your little one’s first cry. Praise God, what a relief it was when we did. She was immediately passed through the surgical window to a team of her own doctors and nurses where they wrapped her intestines up to keep them safe before she set off for the first of many surgeries. All her father had time for was a quick hello, a kiss, and a prayer that she would be as healthy as she could be considering her condition.

I was finally able to see her for the first time, 12 hours after I had given birth to her. She was the most beautiful baby I had ever seen! I started to cry the moment I saw her, our little miracle baby. She was a fighter; and needed to be since she had to go through FIVE surgeries, 2 PICC infections, and septic shock over the course of her stay at the hospital. Our whole family kept praying for a fast and speedy recovery, but it was not to be. It would be several months before we could bring our baby home. It was unbearable having to leave my baby at the hospital.

Emily remained at Loma Linda University Medical Center for over four months. Her father and I traveled back and forth to the hospital everyday to be with her. Sometimes it was twice or more, depending on her condition. She had to endure countless setbacks and bad reactions to all the surgical procedures the doctors deemed necessary for her survival. However, she had fought her way back to be a beautiful, happy, and healthy baby. It has been a long road for our family, fighting back tears of hopelessness and trying to keep faith in the doctors. We never anticipated having to bring Emily home with her IV PICC line and a feeding tube in her abdomen, but we couldn’t be happier to have her HOME. With all her extra care, it makes it impossible for me to return to work. Emily’s care is labor and love intensive, but well worth the sacrifices, her father and I have had to make for me to stay home with her. Emily is very susceptible to infection and can become sick very easily. No one in the family feels comfortable enough to take care of her without one of us being there due to her medical requirements, so I have been unable to help support our small household. With the economy the way it is, and most homes being supported by two incomes, our finances are extremely tight between rent, car payments, and general bills.

No one can know or imagine all the heartache or pain our family has gone through unless they have experienced it themselves. It was heart wrenching to see our brand new little baby girl, so small and fragile, hooked up to all the machines, with all the lines, on all those medications. There were times we weren’t sure if she was going make it, but THANK THE LORD, she DID! She is our proof that someone much wiser is looking out for us, even if things aren’t going the way we had planned or hoped. Emily still has a long way to go before she is completely healed. My husband Kevin said “there must be a reason for everything we are going through, God must have a bigger plan for her life“.

Kevin and Megan Wright with their four and a half month old daughter Emily, they look like the picture of health just what every young family should be. Unfortunately this is not the case with the Wright family. Little Emily has been fighting for her life ever since the day she was born. Just when everyone, including the doctor’s at Loma Linda thought she was out of the dark , and she was stabilized and well enough to go home. Emily was rushed back to Loma Linda emergency because of complication and was admitted and is still there even as I write this commentary. Kevin 24 and Megan 23 are to be commended as young first time parents, they are doing everything they can to remain strong for there baby girl, one of them have been by Emily’s bed side day and night. Kevin is employed as a sheet metal worker and is going to school part time to be come a journeyman at his trade. Megan was employed full time and was going to school part time studying kinesiology. Today they are doing everything they can to hang on to what they have and all they have and that is the life of their daughter Little Emily Wright . Please keep them in your prayers.