Miracle of life

I think that sometimes we forget just how special a life really is. My sister had 1/2 of her cervix removed 7 years ago due to cancerous cells. She had a wretched pregnancy because of that surgery. She went for a check-up a couple of weeks ago and was told that after 7 years and a mere 6 months after Alex's birthday, the cancerous cells were back. She's going in tomorrow for more testing to learn to options. She's not too hopeful about keeping all of her lady parts. This makes me feel 2 things: 1. joy. Joy that Alex is here. 2. Fear. I fear for my sister and her health. I pray (and hope that you all will, too) that everything goes ok. That if they have to remove some of her lady parts that no cancerous cells pop up any place else. I wish that it was my lady parts that were screwed up so that she didn't have to deal with this.

I got an email last night to my work email (gotta love that Blackberry always keeping me in touch with work...oh wait...NO!) that read:

I just needed to give everyone a head's up. Unfortunately we got some bad news today- one of the two babies passed away. We are in the hospital until at least tomorrow monitoring the second baby. I can really use your prayers for the health and safety of baby B.
Thanks,
Anthony

I thought that Anthony was maybe someone new to my team that I had not met yet. It turns out he is out of the PwC Philadelphia office and had sent the email to all of the exempt organizations tax practice and not just his office. That's ok. I welcomed the chance to pray for and think of him. Then tonight I got this email:

Hi Everyone,

First, I wanted to apologize for flooding everyone's email and sending the below email to the entire group last night. My goal was to only send this to the Philly EO practice. As you can tell, my head wasn't really on to straight last night.Given that I did send this to everyone, I thought I should give an update- Francesca is today 29 weeks pregnant with twins. We found out yesterday that Baby A, Carina Marie, had passed away a couple of days ago. Thankfully, Baby B, Amelia Rose, is still going strong. The drs at this point really do not know what happened to cause the sudden death of Carina. They have monitored Amelia continously since about 5pm yesterday and have collectively come to the conclusion that it is best for her to be delivered. So Francesca is scheduled for a C-section Friday morning at 8am. Amelia will have a long road ahead, but the doctors say that she does has a fighting chance. Even though I screwed up on yesterday's email, we can still use all of your prayers for the health and safety of Amelia.

Thanks so much,
Anthony

It broke my heart. I sent him an email letting him know that while we do not know each other, I will certainly be praying for him, his wife and his new daughter. I'd love it if you all would do the same.

Thanks!