Anna's Story
In order to fully understand little Anna’s story, it is important to tell you the story of another child in the system. Twenty-one years ago a little girl was born in one of Oklahoma County’s many homeless shelters. Her mother, a product of the “system” herself, gave birth out of wedlock and would raise her daughter on the streets of Oklahoma City, making a living as a prostitute just to get by. As this little girl grew, she too became a product of the same system. Living on the streets, prostituting for money, addicted to drugs and alcohol she would eventually give birth to little Anna, who medics pronounced “clinically dead” after her mother gave birth to her - in the toilet of her jail cell - 10 weeks premature weighing barely three pounds, at the Oklahoma County Jail.
Anna was rushed to the Oklahoma Children’s Hospital where by the gracious hand of God she regained a heartbeat. She was not expected to live the hour, but defied all the odds. She would spend the next six weeks on a ventilator before going home with a relative, who in turn proved to be not only incompetent to care for a baby, but “couch homeless” as well; having no home of her own, she stayed with friends for indeterminate amounts of time. On February 28, 2007 she was dropped off at the Children’s emergency room having lost much of the weight gained previously and very near death. She was diagnosed with double pneumonia and “failure to thrive”. Her lungs were full of scar tissue and fluid from contracting chlamydia at birth that had gone undiagnosed. Her trachea was so scarred & swollen the surgeons had to damage her vocal chords in order to ventilate her. Later, we were to find out that none of the doctors caring for her that evening expected her to live through the night and many of them, even after she began to heal never expected her to see her first birthday. Her future seemed hopeless, even to those who were responsible to help heal her body.
By God’s merciful hand she again survived, and as the days and weeks passed, the hospital became her home; the nurses, hospital volunteers, student nurses and other medical staff did their best to care for this sweet little girl. For 70 days she went without visits from anyone other that her DHS worker. The foster placement workers, along with her child welfare worker, were left with their hands tied. There were newborns and infants coming into the system daily. They had a priority to place those babies without a “home” into foster homes first as there were FIVE infants and newborns in the Oklahoma County shelter alone; two of those five – just six days old. On April 27th of this year our family received word about little Anna’s condition, (by the sovereignty of God alone!). The doctors in charge of little Anna’s care had made a most difficult call. If she did not bond with a “mother” very soon, it was likely that she would die. Clinically, they had done all they could do, she was dying of neglect. Strings were “pulled” and we were graciously allowed to become Anna’s parents. We made our second home at Children's Hospital more often than not that year, but the blessings have been immeasurable as we have seen God protect and slowly heal her very fragile body. The Lord saved her life, and changed ours forever.
February, 2009
On January 28, 2009 we gave Anna Marie our name forever. It has been a long road and we are immeasurably grateful to the Most High God for His providential hand of mercy bestowed upon this precious child - and the blessings she brings to this undeserving family.
Her health continues to improve as she just celebrated her second birthday. Our next big adventure is to travel to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota to evaluate the damage done to her vocal chords. We are also praying for continued strengthening of her little lungs as they are a long way from "normal" - but she is getting stronger every day! Her speech and language skills are wonderful and she is making huge strides physically with regards to all her large motor skills! -- Praise the Lord!
May 2010
Anna Marie celebrated her third birthday on the first day of the year! Her latest visit with the pediatric neurologist shows great improvement of her nervous system!! She suffered a seizure (not the first) in early March and had us on our knees for several days as she fought the "perfect storm" of aspiration pneumonia in her good lung and a significant respiratory virus. God sustained her life, and reminded us all once again of the miracle little Anna is. Every day she is laughing, playing and just being a "little girl" is a gift from God. We are looking forward to taking her on vacation with us this summer for the first time -- we ask for your prayers as we have never taken her away from her doctors here in Oklahoma City. They assure us she is healthy enough to go and have fun just being a kid, but we are always on our knees for her protection!