Today is my 2nd Mother's Day to celebrate. It's so hard to celebrate with my husband only being deployed a couple of weeks now...but all I have to do is look at my precious little Angel...Maddie...and everything is okay!

Maddie's story:

I was forced to deliver Maddie 8 weeks early at 32 weeks in my pregnancy due to severe pre-eclampsia. At birth, both Maddie and myself almost died. Me, due to the fact I stopped breathing 3 times during anesthesia due to a family disease called Malignant Hyperthermia. Maddie...she required oxygen and it took them a few minutes to get her breathing. I remember very little...and then the first time I even met my baby girl was over 24 hours later.

Maddie was taken straight to the RNICU. The most serious. She dropped weight and couldn't breathe on her own...and weighed 4.1 pounds. The NICU days...were so hard...I vividly remember only being able to touch her through two little arm holes in the incubator and when I finally did get to hold her...they had to untangle all of the wires and we had a time limit because she couldn't hold her body temperature out of the danger zone for very long...no more then 15 minutes.

Maddie progressed through the NICU's over a period of 3 weeks...until we got to take her home!!!

I still suffer with multiple issues from the pregnancy...fluid around my heart, kidney, stones, high blood pressure..etc...all pre-eclampsia related that was suppose to disappear immediately after giving birth which was the main reason for my early delivery...I was in danger...not Maddie..she was fine inside of me at that time. But...the best part of it all...

Maddie is HEALTHY! 110 Percent healthy as a lark. She's only been sick 2 times her entire 19 months of life now...and she couldn't be any better! She may have stayed in premie clothes that were too big for her for 4 months...she had a few issues with bowels for a month...but everything is now gone and for a baby that weighed 4.1 pounds at her lightest weight...the day after birth...she is now a whopping 30 pounds of pure happiness.

She has never stopped smiling...even when sick...she is my Angel, my reason to keep going, my reason for living. God has blessed me with so many things in my life...but Maddie is, our ultimate blessing! She is my reason that today...Mother's Day...is so very special to me! My only other wish would be for my husband to be able to be here...but he will next year...he's fullfilling the mission God set out before him.