The Smell Of Rain ....

A cold March wind danced

around the dead of night in

Dallas as the doctor walked

into the small hospital room

of Diana Blessing. She was

still groggy from surgery.

Her husband, David, held her

hand as they braced

themselves for the latest

news.

 Complications had

forced Diana, only 24-weeks

pregnant, to undergo an

emergency Cesarean to

deliver the  couple's new

daughter, Danae Lu Blessing.

At 12 inches long and

weighing only one pound

nine ounces, they already

knew she was perilously

premature.

Still, the doctor's soft words dropped

like bombs.

"I don't think she's going to

make it," he said, as kindly as

he could.

"There's only a 10-percent

chance she will live through

the night, and even then, if by

some slim chance she does

make it, her future could be a

very cruel one"

Numb with disbelief, David

and Diana listened as the

doctor described the

devastating problems Danae

would likely face if she

survived.

She would never walk, she

would never talk, she would

probably be blind, and she

would certainly be prone to

other catastrophic conditions

from cerebral palsy to

complete mental retardation,

and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say.

She and David, with their 5-

year-old son Dustin, had long

dreamed of the day they

would have a daughter to

become a family of four.

Now, within a matter of

hours, that dream was

slipping away.

But as those first days

passed, a new agony set in

for David and Diana.

Because Danae's

underdeveloped nervous

system was essentially 'raw',

the lightest kiss or caress

only intensified her

discomfort, so they couldn't

even cradle their tiny baby

girl against their chests to

offer the strength of their

love.

All they could do, as Danae

struggled alone beneath the

ultraviolet light in the tangle of

tubes and wires, was to pray

that God would stay close to

their precious little girl.

There was never a moment

when Danae suddenly grew

stronger.

But as the weeks went by,

she did slowly gain an ounce

of weight here and an ounce

of strength there.

At last, when Danae turned

two months old. her parents

were able to hold her in their

arms for the very first time.

And two months later, though

doctors continued to gently

but grimly warn that her

chances of surviving, much

less living any kind of normal

life, were next to zero, Danae

went home from the hospital,

just as her mother had

predicted.

Five years later, when Danae

was a petite but feisty young

girl with glittering gray eyes

and an unquenchable zest for

life, she showed no signs

whatsoever of any mental or

physical impairment. Simply,

she was everything a little girl

can be and more. But that

happy ending is far from the

end of her story.

One blistering afternoon, near her

home in Irving, Texas, Danae

was sitting in her mother's lap

in the bleachers of a local ball

park where her brother

Dustin's baseball team was

practicing.

As always, Danae was

chattering nonstop with her

mother and several other

adults sitting nearby, when

she suddenly fell silent.

Hugging her arms across her

chest, little Danae asked, "Do

you smell that?"

Smelling the air and detecting

the approach of a

thunderstorm, Diana replied,

"Yes, it smells like rain."

Danae closed her eyes and

again asked, "Do you smell

that?"

Once again, her mother

replied, "Yes, I think we're

about to get wet. It smells like

rain."

Still caught in the moment,

Danae shook her head, patted

her thin shoulders with her

small hands and loudly

announced,

"No, it smells like Him.

It smells like God when you

lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes

as Danae happily hopped

down to play with the other

children.

Before the rains came, her

daughter's words confirmed

what Diana and all the

members of the extended

Blessing family had known, at

least in their hearts, all along.

During those long days and

nights of her first two months

of her life, when her nerves

were too sensitive for them to

touch her, God was holding

Danae on His chest and it is

His loving scent that she

remembers so well.

Angel of Miracles