September 11, 2006 was an awesome and traumatic day for me.\u00a0 Awesome because my son, William, was born just after midnight.\u00a0 Traumatic because his birth was 14 weeks early AND he weighed 1lb-14oz.\u00a0 Ya, they call that a 26 weeker.\u00a0 That was my introduction to the word micro-preemie.<\/p>\n
Just the evening before my wife, Lisa, and I spent a few hours at Virginia Beach General Hospital getting checked on by nurses because of cramping.\u00a0 They gave us the thumbs up.\u00a0 Everything was fine.\u00a0 So, around 10pm we left the hospital reassured.\u00a0 At 12:07am reassurance came to a screeching halt!\u00a0 I was awakened by excruciating screams from Lisa.\u00a0 She was in the bathroom, on the toilet, doubled over, bleeding!\u00a0 My only words were, “What’s wrong?”\u00a0 I was in a panic, a frenzy!\u00a0 My wife was in agonizing pain and I felt helpless.\u00a0 I picked her up, put her on the bed, put her clothes on and next we’re flying down Laskin Road headed for the hospital.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I pulled up and tried to go to the same office that we were at just hours earlier BUT IT WAS CLOSED!\u00a0 Off to the emergency room we went!\u00a0 I ran in looking for help and found the security guard.\u00a0 All he said was, “Sir, what’s wrong?” and I lost it.\u00a0 I broke down crying.\u00a0 “My wife.\u00a0 She needs help.\u00a0 She’s out in the car.”\u00a0 The security guard followed me outside with a wheelchair.\u00a0 I helped Lisa out of the car and as soon as she stood up her water broke.\u00a0 To me, at the time, that was no big deal.\u00a0 I did not know what it actually meant<\/em>!\u00a0 I had absolutely no idea that William would be born shortly thereafter.\u00a0 I just thought that my wife was in a lot of pain, the doctors would help her and we would simply go back home.<\/p>\n NOPE!\u00a0 God had different plans for us that morning.\u00a0 The point of no return at times makes you feel defenseless.\u00a0 Not everything makes sense.\u00a0 Not every decision seems right.\u00a0 Sometimes decisions are made for us and we feel completely out of control.\u00a0 That is how I felt.\u00a0 Completely out of control.\u00a0 Unarmed.\u00a0 Unprepared.\u00a0 Undermanned.\u00a0 Ever feel alone and the world as you know it appears to be coming loose at the seams?\u00a0 Me too.\u00a0 I lived it and I kept it together.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" September 11, 2006 was an awesome and traumatic day for me.\u00a0 Awesome because my son, William, was born just after midnight.\u00a0 Traumatic because his birth was 14 weeks early AND he weighed 1lb-14oz.\u00a0 Ya, they call that a 26 weeker.\u00a0 That was my introduction to the word micro-preemie. Just the evening before my wife, Lisa,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":428,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7,3,8,22,9,6,23,5],"tags":[12,13,20,21,14,19,18,15],"class_list":["post-39","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-determination","category-face-the-pain","category-faith","category-fatherhood","category-god","category-hope","category-husband","category-inspiration","tag-cerebral-palsy","tag-conductive-education","tag-micro-preemies","tag-nicu","tag-physical-therapy","tag-preemies","tag-special-needs","tag-therapy"],"yoast_head":"\n