The beginning

In 2000 when our 1st son was born at 23 weeks we were informed even before his birth that if he was born alive and continued to live that he would spend months in the NICU. We both worked and I was finishing up my teaching degree and that was fine, we had plans laid for a full term healthy baby for babysitting, etc. What we never counted on was having to divide our time between work, school and the NICU. As it turns out, we never had to make those arrangements, Andrew passed away 3 hours after birth. We never had to figure out how to do it all. We spent the next few years, grieving and growing, both individually and as a family. We went on to have another son and a daughter. When I had to go on bed rest due to complications with my pregnancy with the twins, our son was 5 and in a half day preschool and our daughter was just 18 months old. Jim worked 60 miles from home, a 2 hour a day commute. We relied heavily on my mom, who worked very close, to pick up our son and prepare lunch for myself and the children. At the time, we couldn't know how much more we would come to rely on her, the rest of our families and friends. When the twins were born at 36 weeks, we thought every thing would be alright and we would be home in a couple days. The plans were laid, babysitting arranged a couple meals cooked, the house cleaned. What we didn’t plan on was Jason having Respiratory Distress Syndrome and being sent straight to the NICU. The first 36-48 hours were very touch and go and quite obvious that he wouldn’t be home in a couple days. Jason did begin to improve and Rebecca and I were sent home. The tricky part had just begun. We wanted and needed to go to the hospital 2x daily. But, there was still 2 older kids at home to be feed, a house to be cleaned, errands to run, bills to be paid...just life. But, life for us revolved around NICU hours, breathing stats, quality time with the older kids and trying to sleep a little. Our families babysit and cleaned up as often as they could and we were blessed to have our church family deliver dinners. However, we did feel like we were monopolizing all of our parents time. Yes, they gave it willingly, but even still it is an exhausting schedule for anyone to keep. Since they all work (Jim was off on paternity leave), we had to center our visiting hours around their work schedules and the NICU’s hours. We thank God daily that we only had to do this for 2 weeks. In that 2 week time frame (it does seems like forever when you are living it) we often remarked that we didn’t know how other people would do this if they had to work or didn’t have the expansive help we had. That laid the foundation for An Angel's Grace to be born. We wanted to be able to make it easier for parents to focus on the babies in the NICU and their other children if they had any and not have to worry so much about the details of life. So, with OUR angel's guidance and everyone's grace, we move forward and begin this chapter in our lives.