Our First Born

In mid-January, Daniel and Lee Anne Johnson received some disturbing news--their baby had stopped growing inside the womb. The doctors determined that they would need to take the baby early in order to monitor it properly.

As soon I heard there were going to be complications, my heart tightened in my chest. Realizing that my only hope was in God, I called my family in Alabama to request prayer. My mother immediately called the church and got everyone from my home town praying for us. Between Orlando and Gadsden, we had hundreds of people lifting up prayers for our little one.

On January 29, 1997, the doctors induced labor. Within four hours Daniel and Lee Anne welcomed a new member into their family, Rebekah Dawn Johnson. An immediate x-ray of her premature chest revealed that her tiny lungs were filled with fluid. She was immediately put under an oxygen hood to enhance her irregular breathing patterns. With intravenous lines and monitor cables attached to her little body, she looked like an experiment from some science fiction film.

I never imagined the things that would go through my mind as I stood there and watched my first born daughter lay limp under the heating lamp. It was very difficult for Lee Anne too—watching the other mothers hold their babies and knowing that her own was just a breath away from heaven.

The first three days were pretty unstable. As the fluid in her body was slowly being absorbed by the surrounding tissue, her demand for oxygen fluctuated like a roller coaster. After several days, her breathing stabilized and the oxygen hood was removed.

When I heard that, it was like a breath of fresh air. I knew that she could start eating and that the worst was over. The next evening I sat by her isolette, cried, and thanked God for His goodness to us.

Rebekah was eating the required amount of milk within two days. She had a short bout with jaundice but with photo-therapy began recovering rapidly. It won’t be long now and little Rebekah Dawn will be sleeping in her own crib.