Here's Daniel!

This is Daniel, who was born in Oct 2009. He was born a month before his due date and was quite poorly to start with. He was in our local hospital's Special Care from his birth on Thursday until the Tuesday, when he was discharged to my care, within the hospital. We stayed in until the Friday, when he finished his IV antibiotics and we were both free to go.

It was horribly difficult being in hospital and our older boys, Jack and Luke, couldn't visit Daniel in Special Care. When you're expecting a baby, you read books to your older children about new babies, but nothing prepares you for a baby coming early and/or being poorly. The boys' birthdays are somewhat clustered in the autumn (their due dates were all in the same week!) and we had told them that the baby would be born after Luke's birthday, but before Jack's. As it was, Daniel came before Luke's birthday.

Although I would not want to repeat the experience of Daniel's birth, it was amazing how God fulfilled our needs and met us there in all the strangest ways. When he was born, we had not really discussed baby names - it was on my to-do list!, Daniel was the only name we had really liked and my Mum had pulled a bit of a face. When I grew up, locally to us, there were quite a few "naughty" Daniels and I think that had influenced her. The day after he was born, when he was still nameless, she came to us and said that she had pulled out her Bible and read the story of Daniel and that God had said to her that just as Daniel had trusted God to close the mouths of the lions, we were trusting God to bring our Daniel safely through this time of trial. So we gladly named him Daniel. That night, as I was sitting by his incubator, one of the cleaners came past, mopping and asked me if we had named our baby yet, so I told her yes, he was Daniel. She instantly said to me "Daniel was a strong man of faith and God saved him from the lions". I was too amazed for words. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Ps 46, v 1-3.