My daughter Emily is an amazing person. She was born 26 years ago, on Aug 27th 1985. She was born nine weeks premature, and her biological mother was only fourteen at the time, of her delivery. We were living in California at the time, and she was born in Utah. I flew immediately to Utah to be with her.


Emily was and continues to be a miracle. When she was born she weighed 3 lbs 4 oz. She was born with a very serious heart condition that very few babies survive. When she had the first episode at 3:00 in the morning her Doctor was standing right next to her crib, and inserted tubes that saved her life. During the next three months that I stayed with her in the hospital. I watched three other babies die from exactly the same thing she had.

The three month period, I was in the hospital with Emily, was a very difficult time in my life. I had a husband and a six year old son, Paul who is one of the joys of my life at home in California. I was alone in an unfamiliar city, with only the Lord to count on to give me guidance in this unsettling time. There were times when I didn’t know if she would live. But I knew she was supposed to be my little girl, and that Heavenly Father wanted me to raise this sweet young person. So our family turned our trust completely over to the Lord, and accepted his will in our lives.

2nd Nephi 4: 34

34 O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever.

In the Book of Mormon we learn that if we build our foundation on Christ, even though we will have trials in our life. We know that it will turn out okay.

Helaman 5: 12

12 And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.

Emily is now 25 years old and she is married to an awesome man and is living in Houston, Texas. Where she is a teacher at a local high school, she teaches Latin. She was and remains to this day, one of the miracles of my life. Reminding me of how much our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love me.