The Smell of Rain

A cold March wind danced around
the dead of night in Dallas as
the doctor walked into the hospital
room of Diana Blessing.

Still groggy from surgery, her
husband David held her hand.
That afternoon, 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 and nine ounces,
they knew she was perilously
premature. Still, the doctor's
soft words dropped like bombs.
"I don't think she's going tomake
it," he said. "There's only a
10-percent chance she will live
through the night, and even then,
her future could be avery 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; 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 dreamed of the day
they would become a family of four.

Now, in a matter of hours, that
dream was slipping away. "David
said that we needed to talk about
making funeral arrangements,"
Diana remembers, "I felt so bad for
him because he was doing everything,
trying to include me, but I just
couldn't listen." I said, "No, that
is not going to happen, no way!
I don't care what the doctors say.
Danae is not going to die! One day she
will be just fine, and she will be
coming home with us!"

Danae clung to life with the help of
every medical machine and marvel
her miniature body could endure
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. All they
could do was to pray that God would
stay close to their precious little girl.

As the weeks went by, she slowly
gained weight and strength. When
Danae turned two months old, her
parents were able to hold her.

Two months later, though doctors
continued to warn that her chances
of survival-much less living a normal
life-were next to zero, Danae went
home, just as her mother had predicted.

Five years later, Danae is a petite
but feisty young girl. She shows
no signs of any mental or physical
impairments. But this happy ending
is far from the end of her story.
One blistering summer afternoon,
Danae was sitting in her mother's lap
watching her brother's baseball team
practice. As always, Danae was
chattering non-stop with her mother.
Hugging her arms across her chest,
Danae asked, "Do you smell that?"

Detecting the approach of a
thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, 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
then hopped down to play. Her
daughter's words confirmed what
the Blessing family had known all along.
During the first two months of 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.

~A true story originally entitled
"Heaven Scent" from the book,
"Miracles In Our Midst~

Mountain Wings #7219

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