In 1997 our family experienced what we call our “Job Year” (as in Job from the Bible). I gave birth prematurely to twin girls while we were visiting my family in Ohio, our 3 year-old son bit through his tongue so badly that he required stitches, the twins were each admitted to the hospital three times after already spending three months in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU), Scott, my husband, had back surgery and subsequent complications, and to put a cherry on top of it all our 20 month old hit her chin on the bathtub and needed stitches. It was, to put it mildly, hard. All of those things happened in a six month period of time but as I look back on it now, and I recognized then, we received blessings and the tender mercies of God as we went through that very difficult time.
The event that had the biggest impact on me was the birth of our twins. On Memorial Day, while in Cambridge, Ohio, I started feeling like I was having contractions. We went to the small local hospital where it was confirmed that indeed I was in labor and I was put on medication to stop the labor and sent in an ambulance a little over an hour away to Columbus and a much larger hospital. The first blessing in me not being at home in Minnesota was that my family was in Ohio to watch our almost 3 year old and our 13 month old. Had we been in Minnesota, ward members would have definitely helped but having one place for the children to be while I was in the hospital for over a week was a far more settling situation for them.
While in the hospital friends from the ward in Minnesota sent greetings and gifts that lifted my spirit. Our ward held a special fast for me. On a particularly emotionally hard day when I was in the hospital, my aunt and uncle came to visit. Their visit cheered us and pulled us up out of the hard spot we were in. That evening our bishop called. He had been praying to know how to help us and invited us to read Acts 27. As we read verse 22 which says, “And now I exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship,” we felt a powerful sense of comfort and peace from the Holy Ghost. Our bishop didn’t know why he needed to invite us to read that chapter in Acts but by him following that prompting and us following his counsel, we were deeply blessed and lifted.
After being in the hospital on medication and on bedrest for a little over five days, our babies were born at a gestational age of 25 weeks and 5 days. Despite the gravity of this premature delivery, both Scott and I felt peace as our little girls were born. While in the delivery room, there were so many medical personnel in the room and yet there was something different that both Scott and I noticed about the anesthesiologist. As I was waiting to be put in a room, she came and introduced herself as a member of our faith. It was comforting to meet her. The thing that was “different” about her was the added measure of the light of Christ that she carried.
Upon my release from the hospital we were blessed by being able to stay with friends who lived in the Columbus area that I had known when I was a young woman. After a month of being in the NICU, our girls were med-flighted back to Minnesota to the NICU in Rochester. We returned home to a clean house, meals in the freezer, and a welcome basket on the counter. All of this was compliments of our ward family who, as the year progressed, provided babysitting, more meals, and support as the hospitalizations continued. Our loving ward family was such a blessing.
As I look back on our Job year, I recognize the trial we went through. Although I struggled at various times throughout the experience of the early arrival of our daughters, I had the feeling that all would be well even if it meant that one or both of our babies would die. We got through that difficult time and were blessed and grew in the process. I now have true empathy for people who have children in the hospital, I know more fully the importance of helping others, I have seen God’s hand in my life through the blessing of family, friends, and ward members, and I recognize the miracles that my girls are. I know that the Holy Ghost comforts us and as we listen to Him we can be buoyed up and strengthened as we go through trials.