Never, never, never give up!

I need to tell you what the story is behind our family motto: Never, never, never give up! One week before Brynlyn was born, we were having Family Home Evening. That night we were discussing how our family needed a family motto and the assignment was that each person was going to be thinking about it that week and we would discuss it at the next FHE to put our ideas together.

Thursday morning, June 29th, Brynlyn was born and we jumped on this gigantic roller coaster that we are currently riding on. Well, two days later we found ourselves sitting in the waiting room at the NICU at St. Joseph's Medical Center waiting to talk to DR's about Brynlyn's condition. Down at the NICU, there aren't any private rooms. The babies are all in one huge room with dividers that they call "pods." It was very dark and intimidating and scary. All I knew is that my baby looked really sick and it was hard to even be by her bedside because they were discouraging us from even touching her because she had severe hypertension. Any slight touch set her heart rate sky high and she would de-sat. There were three other cribs in her pod so there was no place to even sit down. It was awful, to say the least.

So outside by the NICU waiting room, they have a couple "family rooms" where they have families wait, sleep, stay overnight, eat, or just relax. It's like being in a small hotel room because it has a bathroom, a bed, TV, mini-refrigerator, table and chairs and rocking chair. We favored the "koala room." The joke was how terrible the decor was, but by the end of our NICU stay, we were actually beginning to like it. ha ha

On Sunday, July 2nd, we were at the hospital and we were waiting to talk to DR's to get more information. Whenever they did rounds around the NICU, they would get the parents in there to give them information. We had just come out of a "rounds" session and things were very touch and go. Brynlyn was a mystery as to how many things were going on with her. They did not have full answers for us yet and we were feeling very upset and discouraged. I walked out of the NICU and towards the Koala family room. This was the first time I saw that room. I walked in and immediately looked up and this sign was hung on the wall and it said: "Never, never, never give up!" I actually read it and then burst into tears because it was so hard and so discouraging at that point. It was easy to see why people do give up.

I turned to Mike and said, "I think we just found our family motto."
With much thanks to the Birmingham family, this motto hangs on a plaque over Brynlyn's crib at home.