Love hanging out with this family. They are a testament to strength, love, unity and they have an awesome story to share. Their daughter, Hannah, is a miracle. Literally. It’s been a year since she died and was brought back to life. With her family’s permission, I’m going to share just a teeny bit of Hannah’s story, in her Mom’s words, written on the one year anniversary of the day her daughter miraculously survived.
“Today is May 19, 2012. It was exactly one month ago that threw our family into the most difficult, tramatizing event to ever hit us. Our daughter Hannah suffered from cardiac arrest and a stroke; she is only 13 and already has had a diifficult life being born with septo-optic dysplasia (SOD). She was already blind and mentally that of a 3 year old, BUT she is our baby girl. We accepted God’s gift with only the knowledge of how to love her. Our family is tight and with our other two kids, our family of five is the core of our hearts.
On April 19 Hannah was taken to Hi Desert Medical Center by ambulance and when she arrived in the ER, her heart stopped. For 45 minutes the paramedics and the ER staff worked to stablize my daughter and a miracle was born in those moments. Once stablized, she was flown to Loma Linda Childrens Hospital by MerciAir. For the first week of her stay there, several doctors told us to prepare for the worst and what are plans were going to be should her heart stop again. Even our Pastor Jerel Hagerman came and councelled us and asked us what we thought of Hannah’s condition. Our answer was grim; we thought we were going to or already had lost her. When doctors and nurses checked her eyes-her light, her life was not in them. We said our goodbyes, told her to go ahead and go home and to not worry about us-we trusted God and her decision. Painfully, we thought our happy life of the 5 of us would be cut down too soon.
But Hannah held on. Little bit by little bit, Hannah showed improvement, but doctors were very unsure of her recovery. So everyday was a battle; Hannah would do something small and medically the news got worse. After lots of prayer, we just began to push back reality and focused solely on hope. Then she began to come alive again! First her eyes opened, then she began to move her right arm, then she was excubated and breathing on her own, moved out of the PICU, she began to eat. Then a seizure hit and again we were at God’s mercy wondering if these would throw her into a vegitative state. After 2 days, she bounced right back to moving forward again. She moved to chopped foods instead of purees. She moved to the basic care level. She began to develop her hand to mouth eating and then reality of her body is no longer capable of began to enter into her head. She was upset she couldn’t go home and sleeplessness has plagued her body, but after 4 weeks, 28 days she was well enough to be discharged from the hospital.
With all the amazing miracles of Hannah’s recovery, came miracles for the rest of our familly! God has placed people to help us with prayers, finances, food and shoulders to cry on. While at the hospital, the Ronald McDonald house took us in and we were able to be nearby Hannah as a family.
WE CANNOT AND WILL NEVER BE ABLE TO SHOW YOU ALL OUR GRADITUDE OR SAY THANK YOU OR REPAY YOU ENOUGH FOR EVERYTHING AND EVERYWAY YOU HAVE HELPED OUR FAMILY! The prayers alone have saved our daughter Hannah! And for that we pray that God will bless each and everyone who prayed to be blessed 10 times over. We love you beyond words and we look forward with eagerness at what God has in store for us next.
Please share this with the people who prayed. I want them to know how awesome our God is! He is very present in our time and Hannah is the proof that there is a God and He ALWAYS hears us when we call. Even if this had ended badly, “I would have lost hope if I had not seen the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living (Psalms 27:13).” So many people have come to our aid: our church family at Joshua Springs Calvary Chapel for their prayers, our immediate family with help for our kids, the doctors who tried and didn’t give up even when medically speaking there was no hope, the nurses who loved her and cared for her around the clock and spoke to her even in her medically induced coma, the Ronald McDonald House for giving us a sense of a home away from home, the people who helped us financially to pay our bills, and most importantly to Jesus Christ who held us up to keep us moving and showing us that a little hope and faith go an extremely long way!
We Love and Pray for you!
The Coopers: Mark, Monica, Hannah, Faith and Mark Jr. ”
And we had a major milestone happen during the course of our session, Mark Jr. Lost his first tooth (it was his first one, right Monica?) He showed me how wiggly it was when they first arrived. And then, during our last little set, he was munching on a pretzel and knocked it clean out. Pretty exciting stuff. You can tell he thought so. 🙂
A year later, though facing new challenges, Hannah is thriving. More beautiful than ever. I’m blessed to know this family and to call Monica my friend. And I’m constantly humbled by the faith in the Lord that binds them together and allows them to shine with such joy and peace in the middle of circumstances most of us can’t imagine.
Tell Your Story | www.delalanephotography.com
