Our Miraculous Little Girl

My daughter, Victorie, turned 3 last month. When I look back at pictures of her days as a newborn – I am amazed by how much she’s grown, and how far we’ve come. I want to share with you the testimony of how she came to be.

When my husband, Nelson and I first got married, we agreed to wait 3 years before having children. In that third year, I  began to have some feminine problems – one menstrual cycle came and didn’t go away for 40 days.

This led to some tests and the discovery that I had several large fibroids (benign tumors) in my womb. My doctor suggested surgery to remove them, but I really wanted to try for a natural birth when we got pregnant, and having this surgery almost guaranteed I would have a C-section when the time came.

We had faith that God would miraculously heal me. I was prescribed medication that put me in a menopausal state for a few months in hopes that the fibroids would shrink, but they never did.

After this ordeal, Nelson and I decided we would try to get pregnant without surgery. We tried for about a year before we finally conceived. I was definitely high risk because of the fibroids, among other things. But we were beyond thrilled to be expecting!

Looking back, maybe we should have heeded the doctor’s advice to get the fibroids removed. It was practical. And I ended up having a C-section for Victorie anyway.

Praise God that even when we make mistakes, He works all things together for our good.

Years before, God had revealed through dreams and prophecy that our first child would be a girl.

We settled on the name “Victorie” even before we got pregnant. I had loved this name as a teenager, dreaming of a future family. I was so glad that my husband felt the same way.

Little did we know that our child would live up to that name – it was as if we had made a prophetic declaration – because her time in the womb and her birth were truly a victory!

During our first trimester, some tests revealed markers for potential genetic mutations in Victorie. Doctors immediately put “termination” on the table as an option. That was simply not an option for us. We went through a few scary weeks.

My husband and I both surrendered the outcome – whether or not Victorie would have any genetic issues – to God. She would be a gift and a reward from Him either way.

Then the Lord assured us through my mother-in-law that everything would be ok. One day as she was interceding for her granddaughter, the Holy Spirit took her to Song of Solomon 4:7:

“You are altogether beautiful, my love;

there is no flaw in you.”

We held on to that word! Tests in our second trimester came back negative and confirmed what the Lord had already revealed – that Victorie was 100% ok!

As we entered into the 3^rd trimester though, it was becoming more and more difficult for me to function. I look back on that hard season – I don’t know how I went to work every day or graded papers or cooked or did anything, really. All I can say is that the Lord carried me.

I had to go to a high-risk specialist weekly for fetal monitoring. One evening, the specialist looked at my vitals and said I needed to go straight to the hospital. All symptoms pointed to preeclampsia. I was 36 weeks. Then an ultrasound revealed that my daughter hadn’t grown at all for 2 weeks. Something wasn’t right, so I was scheduled for a C-section.

I had an issue with low platelet count, so instead of an epidural, I had to have general anesthesia. I remember being on the table in the operating room just before they put me to sleep – I was holding my husband’s hand and crying. It was the most terrifying moment of my life. I entrusted our lives to God and then everything went black.

My husband was waiting right outside the operation theatre and could see the action through the glass panel on the door. He was told that in a few minutes he would get to see our daughter.

You normally get to see the baby within 2 minutes of the incision. In our case, it took 18.

When the doctor made the incision, she encountered fibroid after fibroid. She couldn’t reach Victorie, so she continued to cut upwards. They called for help, and two other doctors rushed to the scene. Finally, they were able to get her out. They described Victorie as crowded in a corner in the upper right part of my womb.

I have no recollection of this of course. My husband was looking through the window as panic ensued. (He filled in the details of the previous two paragraphs). Nelson says that his knees almost gave in as he saw all this happening.

After some time, Nelson was able to meet Victorie. Because I was under general anesthesia and it took so long to deliver her, Victorie came out pretty sedated. She didn’t cry or move much. It was a tense 10-15 minutes, as everyone waited for her to come around.

All I remember is waking up in a recovery room with my husband and my family around me. I was in a daze.

In retrospect, it’s a good thing I was asleep for all of this. I think I would have passed out. My blood loss was serious and I was at a great risk of hemorrhaging.

I was not able to see Victorie for the first 24 hours of her life. She was in the NICU and I was bound to a bed in another part of the hospital.

I’ll never forget when they rolled my bed to the NICU and placed her on my chest.

I was overcome by so many emotions – gratitude that she was alive and that I could meet her. She was so tiny – born at 5 lbs. 2 oz. but by the time I met her, she weighed 4 lbs. 14 oz. (Babies lose a little water weight in their first couple of days.) I also felt guilt. I had such dreams of initial bonding with my daughter, of breast feeding, of a natural birth even. All of it went out the window.

I struggled to reconcile all of my dreams and expectations with the reality of the situation for quite some time.

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But God carried us through it all. I was able to leave the hospital after four days and Victorie was discharged from the NICU after only 8 days.

Today, Victorie is a rambunctious 3-year old who loves to read and watch Chicka Chicka Boom Boom videos on repeat. She has a thing for dinosaurs and excavators.

The hard pregnancy and birth experience are distant memories. These days, our challenges include handling toddler tantrums and trying to convince our daughter to brush her teeth…Or to wear something other than flower dresses. What a charmed life we live!

Still, Nelson and I like to look through photos of those early days from time to time. Our Heavenly Father was so near to us in that dark season. We can’t help but say that God has been faithful to us!