I have been documenting the stories of everyday people who have had dreams, intuitions, or brushes with God. These stories are more common they I would have imagined. This one in particular is about how my Aunt Georgina woke up in the middle of the night with a “knowing” from God that she was going to have twins as a thank you for having her daughter Haley, whom the doctors recommended aborting because of the danger posed to Georgina and the severe risk of birth defects to the baby. Below is her story.
The doctors told me to abort Haley. I had Graves disease which was causing a hyperactive thyroid. I was five months pregnant. They said you are going to have a mongoloid and a cretan. I didn’t even know what that meant. Craig (husband) didn’t know if we should listen to the doctors. It was not be mean, but he said we already have a beautiful baby girl Heather who is 18 months old. He said what are we going to do if something like that happens to us? I told God I want to have this baby God, but I want it to be Craig’s decision. I don’t want to just say I am going to have this baby, because there it is inside me and there is nothing he can do. I wouldn’t have had her without him. So, I told him you make the decision of whether we have Haley or not. He said to me, we will have her. And we did on June 27, 1978. Haley was a beautiful girl with all her fingers and toes.
The first time I tried nursing Haley, she turned blue. That’s when we learned she didn’t have an esophagus. They took my blood right on the table to see if I still had the Graves disease, which is the hyperactive thyroid I had the entire time and why Haley had difficulties. I produced six times too much thyroxin. The same medicine I needed to save my life also would hurt the baby, which is why the doctors told me don’t have Haley. They immediately performed surgery and inserted a gastrostomy into her stomach so she could digest food, but after she was sill coughing up most of her milk. However, she gained just enough weight to be sent home.
Haley struggled with swallowing and repeated bouts of pneumonia. At 7 months, she weighed 10 pounds 1 oz at 7 months. She was dying. The pediatric surgeon said she had lost her body height, her body weight, and in another two to three weeks, she would lose her brain cells. Something had to be done. They performed a second surgery, which saved her life. When she was so sick, I told God, if you take her, I will still love you and trust you. I don’t know how I ever did that.
When my mother died of cancer, I didn’t go to church for a year. I didn’t darken the doors. I was angry, very angry. I said I would never do that again. So, I told the Lord, if you take her I will still love you and I will still trust you. We came through it all. God didn’t take Haley. The doctors performed surgery to save her life and she lived.
Just over two years later, in the 3rd week of July of 1980. I went to bed. I had always wanted twins. I had always wanted to be a mom. When I was a little girl, I used to think about it. When Haley was dying. I told God, you can take her. On the 20th of July, I woke up in the middle of the night at 3 a.m. and in my heart God said you are going to have twins. I heard Him. I didn’t hear an audible voice. I heard Him inside me. I shook my husband and said God just told me we are going to have twins! He said that’s great, go back to sleep. So, I was awake for a long long time. I knew that the twins, in my heart, were my gift for not aborting Haley and telling God I will still love you.
After learning I was pregnant, I received an ultrasound. I said to the doctor, do you promise you won’t laugh? He said, I won’t laugh. I said God told me that these twins that are coming are my gift for having Haley who had no esophagus. The doctor said he had never heard that one before. So, I had the only ultrasound that I had, September 28th and there were two of them. He almost died. He couldn’t believe it. He said, you were right and I said oh I know I am right. And they were healthy too.
Pretty Good at Life 