Josephine Denice Darais (born 7.14.17)

It was around 2 am on July 14th. Jenette said, "Something isn't right, I think I need to go to the hospital". "The baby isn't moving." I could tell Jenette was growing increasingly anxious. There were other times when the baby hadn't moved, but this time was different, something wasn't right. Jenette offered to let me stay in bed while she drove herself to the hospital to get monitored. I will forever be grateful I didn't accept that offer.

Driving to the hospital I remember thinking, man we are almost out of gas I will have to stop on the way home and get some. Boy was I clueless. I had no idea what would soon transpire.

At the hospital, they hooked Jenette up to the monitors to check baby's heartbeat...Nothing.  The only sound was Jenette's heartbeat and I could see the look of horror come across her face. As if out of nowhere a doctor showed up with an ultrasound and quickly found a baby's heartbeat. "There's a heartbeat!?!" Jenette gasped with a sigh of relief. The temporary joy was soon eclipsed by the fear on the doctor's face. There was a heartbeat, but it was the heartbeat of a baby struggling for life. Within seconds the scene went from a peace-of-mind-check-up to strangers pushing my wife out of the room as fast as they could. What the hell just happened. I'm now all alone, standing in a room without my wife.


Minutes later, 3 or 4 to be more precise, a nurse came back to the empty room, "Congratulations, Dad". It didn't seem like a congrats was in order. You just hit the door frame with my wife's hospital bed and took her away in a mad dash to the operating room. Oh, don't worry it gets better. Soon they led me to the war zone. I went into the room where they had performed a crash c-section on my wife. My dear wife was out cold on a metal table. The top half of her still covered in her street clothes. Blood was all over the floor and what seemed like 10 people or so working on stabilizing our sweet daughter. What kind of nightmare did I just walk into. I was in shock.

Two things I will never forget about that scene. First my sweet wife. There she lay completely unaware of what was happening, soon to come out of her anesthesia to be awakened to the hell I was now experiencing. Robbed of her perfect delivery. Robbed of the moment when the doctor hands Jenette our precious daughter and she holds her for the first time. I wanted this so bad to be a nightmare and Jenette could wake up. But it wasn't and seeing her on the bed, half naked, all cut up, broke my heart into a thousand pieces.

The second thing I will never forget is the first time I saw our sweet Josephine. I will never forget this moment. I know this is hard to imagine with a newborn, but the second I walked in the room she turned her head and opened her eyes and looked right at me. Through all the pain, those eyes, those amazing eyes spoke to me and told me it was ok. I know angels told her to look at me.

I would spend another hour in that room as trained angels both here and there worked on our daughter to get here stabilized and ready for transport via life flight to the NICU at Utah Valley Hospital where she would spend the next 3 weeks of her life.

So what happened? Josee had what's called a true knot in her cord. This knot at some point tightened to where it was starting to slow down blood flow. This led to a low heartbeat. Scary low. They never had to do chest compressions but she was fading fast. She came 6 weeks early.

As we sat in American Fork hospital for the next 2 days separated from our baby we were left to wonder. Is Josee going to be ok? How much stress was her body under? How long was she experiencing this horrible situation? The doctor couldn't give us much hope. He was careful. He didn't know. Later I would find out that he was very worried. She came out a very sick baby and we didn't know how or if she would bounce back.

There have been many miracles in the last few weeks but I will speak of three.


Miracle #1, Jenette. How did she know? The baby had times of not moving before. It would have been so easy for Jenette to just fall asleep and check again in a few hours for movement. But she didn't, she knew something wasn't right. She knew. She listened. Through angels unseen and babies unborn, Jenette was told to go to the hospital. "Jenette, get to the hospital". "Mommy, I'm in trouble please help me". You listened Jenette. You listened. And for that I shall be forever grateful. You truly are an amazing woman.

Miracle #2, Timing. The doctor said we only had minutes. A few more minutes and our baby would have been gone. I was one red light away from losing our daughter. But for us that night all the lights were green. All the staff at the hospital just seemed to be right there. No calling and waiting for doctors. The right people just started showing up. The timing had to be perfect. And it was perfect, we were on God's time.

Miracle #3, Healing. At first Josee was hooked up to everything. Ventilator, cords, tubes and monitors. We later found out babies that went through what she did often don't have a good outcome. What was going to be her outcome? It was the deepest darkest hell not knowing. One by one things started coming off. Josee was bouncing back. Not only was she bouncing back all her tests were coming back normal. EKG, NORMAL. Reflexes, NORMAL. Neural exam, NORMAL. Lab work, NORMAL. Brain scans, NORMAL. The surprise of the doctor clued me in to his worry he had previously so kindly tried to conceal. He couldn't believe it. She became known at the NICU as the miracle baby. And a miracle she is. Saved by the grace of God. Saved by the love of an amazing mother.


I'm not sure how many miracles I will witness in my life but as of late I have witnessed many. Josee, someday I will tell you how Mommy saved your life. I will also tell you about how God blessed your body to be completely healed. I will also tell you how you scared me so bad that you now owe it to me to be a perfect teenager. Mostly I will tell you how special you are. I'm not sure what you're to do in this life but I know it will be great. I know you will be great. In just under a month you have managed to bring us closer to God. You have reminded us that miracles can happen. You have shown us what is important in life.

 Oh how we love you baby Jo Jo.