Happy 15th Birthday Michaela!

Today is my daughter's 15th birthday and I'm sitting here, wondering, where did the time go?  It seems like only yesterday....There are so many thoughts and feelings spinning around in my head, and I'm a bit emotional.  But I think the perfect way to celebrate her birthday would be to tell you the amazing story of just how much God blessed us in May of 1995.
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It took us 4 years and 2 fertility doctors to get pregnant with her.  There was a time when I thought I wasn't destined to even be a mother. I BEGGED God to let me have a baby and  I had all but given up.  Then, on my brother's 28th birthday in June of 1994, he was diagnosed with Non Hodgkin's lymphoma. Cancer.  I stopped begging for a baby and instead started begging for his life. I told God that I would give up my chances of a child of my own if it meant saving my baby brother's life.  Whatever my brother might need from me, be it blood, bone marrow, an organ, it was his.
On the night of my brother's biopsy, my friend, Traci, called me from work to check on him.  I said "Cancer."  She said "I'm on my way."  As she was leaving, a woman named Willie that worked with Traci said to her, "Wait. God has a message for your friend.  He said to 'tell your friend that if she will profess her faith that God will heal her brother, she will get her miracle'."  This woman knew nothing about me, not even my name.  But Traci, being one of the finest Christian ladies I know, passed that message along to me.  So, I started professing.  To anyone I knew.  Especially to my brother.  Especially to my parents.  And life went on, as much as it can with such a diagnosis hanging over our heads.  Sometime later that summer, Willie told Traci that 3 different people had come to her to tell her that Melinda was pregnant.  Traci didn't tell me that news until later, as even she was a little skeptical.  But I believe with all my heart that those 3 strangers that went to Willie were angels, because I WAS pregnant!  That Christmas, my brother and I were both so sick...he from the chemo, me from the pregnancy.  We both looked terrible that day, but I was never happier!
On May 7, 1995, after 48 hours of labor, Michaela Anne was born via C-section, weighing 11 pounds, 9 ounces with a full head of black hair!  On May 10th, my brother went to his oncologist to get the results of his scans.  He was cancer free!  I got BOTH of my miracles!

So Happy 15th Birthday, Angel Baby Girl and Happy 15 years of being cured to my baby brother!
Thank you God, for both of them!