I have a few other things I wanted to share with you. I was incredibly honored that Blogher asked me to allow them to syndicate this post about Scarlette. If anything, writing through this process has been very good for me. Some things I share here and some things remain buried deep in my journal, the pain of my early anguish I think too raw to translate into keystrokes. But I hope that if anything, sharing Scarlette's story serves to encourage and educate others.
I met Kim through a pregnancy forum. She delivered her baby at 24 weeks and she shared her precious daughter, Maelani Rose, with us. Jeff and I followed her CaringBridge updates every day, praying that her daughter would survive and talking about how we didn't even realize that someone could go into labor that early. One week after Maelani was born, I gave birth to Scarlette. It was because of her that I went to the doctor the day I felt weird. I didn't have any signs of pre-term labor. I just couldn't get Maelani out of my mind. Maelani's story saved my daughter's life.
Shortly after Scarlette's birth, Maelani passed away. I can not begin to tell you why one baby lives in body while another lives only in spirit. What I can tell you is that it was because Kim shared her story with us that we were able to give our daughter a chance at survival. She will never know, though I've tried to articulate it, how deeply indebted to her I feel, how much I grieve her own loss, how often I think of her with a love I never knew I could have for someone I've never met. Thank you, Kim.
I was reading Donald Miller's "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years" and realized that I was given the greatest gift all because someone chose to share their story. Today I would like to open up the blog to questions. I would really love to be able to answer some of your questions about this journey and I am open to answering personal questions about our experience (I'll even talk about vaccinnes, lol) as long as they are kind ;) I hope that this way Scarlette's story will answer questions for other parents searching for answers.
