June 17th, 2005 my wife called me at 4 am to tell me her water broke earlier in the night. She was in New Hampshire visiting her grandmother at the time and was 18 weeks pregnant. We were living in Utah at the time. I contacted Air Force Aid and they helped me get a flight out that morning and gave me an interest free loan to pay for it.

When I arrived at the hospital that night I visited with Heather for about 10 minutes when the doctor came in. She wanted to discuss what we wanted to do with the body of the baby after it was born. She asked things like did we want to hold him because he may live for a minute or two? Did we want to have a funeral or memorial service? Did we want to have him cremated or buried? This took me by surprise because I had no idea they were not giving him a chance to live. I asked the doctor if there was even a slight chance that Heather would be able to carry him long enough so that he could live. She said there was no way that could happen.

After the doctor left the room Heather and I discussed our thoughts on the matter. We decided we were not going to give up that quickly so we called all of our friends from all over the world and asked them to start praying. I then recalled a church service Heather and I went to back in June of 2001. After the service had ended a lady that had been sitting by us tapped us on the shoulder and said she felt God wanted to tell us that our son was going to be ok. I immediately felt that this word was for a later date. This was more than 2 years before we would have our first child. Heather and I both felt this was the situation that particular word applied to. We decided to name our son Joshua Michael. I feel both of those names are a statement of what God was doing and will do through Joshua. Joshua was a man who looked at the giants in the land but stood firm and believed God would fulfill his promise. Michael is a warrior angel who delivers messages for God. As time went on we received more confirmations from people who were praying for us that they felt God had a plan for this baby.

The doctors released Heather from the hospital the following Monday and told her to go home and wait for labor pains to start. She asked the doctor if there was anything she could do to give Joshua a better chance. She told us we shouldn't get our hopes up but that if Heather would lay on her back with her lower extremities raised slightly it may give him a little bit of a chance but she also said she didn't think there was really any hope.

Heather and I decided that we wanted to change hospitals because the hospital she had been in did not have a newborn intensive care unit (NICU). We found a hospital in Manchester, NH that had a very good NICU so we started seeing a doctor who practiced there. We again asked this doctor and 3 others that worked with him if there was any way Joshua could be healthy. We were told that when the water breaks this early it means the mother's body is rejecting the baby which happens because the baby has something wrong with it. We asked if there has EVER been a situation like this and the baby turn out healthy and they said that NEVER happens. We were told that when this happens the least you can expect is that he will have brain damage, or he will not be able to breathe without the use of oxygen and/or machines for most if not all if his life, or he will be deformed, or he will have a serious disease like MS or MD.

Weeks went by and Heather continued to stay on her back. She had to go to the hospital once a week for ultrasound exams. Every time they found the same thing: the amount of amniotic fluid was low (usually below 5 but sometimes up to 8, 10 or above is considered healthy), he was growing like a normal baby, and they could not find anything to indicate that Joshua had anything wrong with him.

As Heather neared the 24 week mark the doctor told us he would like for Heather to be readmitted to the hospital if Joshua waited past that point. So at the 24 week point Heather was admitted to the hospital. There she stayed in bed except to go to the restroom and to be wheeled down to the ultrasound lab. Apparently after 24 weeks the doctors feel there is a slight chance for survival should the baby be delivered. Things continued to progress as before. They monitored Joshua's heartbeat several times a day and it was always normal.

As time went on the doctors finally had to admit that Joshua appeared to be as healthy as any other baby. They ran quite a few tests but found nothing wrong. They did warn us that with the lack of fluid his lungs would be underdeveloped and that he may not be able to breathe after he was born. They told us that even if his lungs did somehow develop with the little fluid that was there he probably would need to be on a respirator a minimum of 4 months and may still need oxygen his entire childhood or longer.

At 30 weeks the doctors decided Joshua was developed far enough that leaving him in Heather any longer than 32 weeks would not benefit him any more so they asked us to pick a date during the 32nd week for them to deliver Joshua. They wanted to deliver Joshua September 16th but that is our other son's birthday so we asked them to wait until the following week. We decided to schedule the procedure for September 23rd.

We talked to the doctors about letting Heather attend Daniel's (our other son) birthday party. They agreed and said she could leave the hospital for 2 hours. We invited some of the relatives that lived in the area and also a nurse brought her children. We had a great time and it was good for Heather to have a break from the hospital she had been in for almost 2 months.

Heather had been praying for 3 things throughout this ordeal: 1. Let the labor be natural not induced, 2. Let the labor go fast, and 3. Let Joshua weigh at least 5 pounds.

On September 21st Heather started having contractions so they took her to labor and delivery. I called Heather's family and let them know what was going on. Heather's parents and her grandmother met us and we were able to visit for a short while before the doctor showed up. After a couple hours the doctor did an exam and said it will probably take a little while because she wasn't dilated enough. Heather started having a strong urge to push ten minutes later so we called the nurse in and she said Heather was ready. She called for the doctor. By the time the doctor got in the room Heather was really struggling to keep from pushing. The doctor barely had time to scrub up and get dressed before Joshua was coming out.

As soon as Joshua was born they took him over to the bassinet and started working to get him breathing. Once he was breathing they rushed him upstairs to start monitoring him. They determined that he wasn't able to get rid of the CO2 or bring in enough oxygen on his own so they put him on a respirator. After a few hours they still were not making enough progress so they discussed our options and we decided to send him to Boston Children's Hospital. Later that evening a Life Flight helicopter came to pick him up. They administered some nitric oxide and he immediately began to improve but the doctors still wanted him to go to Boston.

After Joshua was born they inspected the placenta and found that it was full of infection. In fact the doctor that inspected it said he had never seen that amount of infection in a placenta. He ran test after test on Joshua thinking he had to have an infection but couldn't find anything. We believe God protected Joshua from the infection.

The doctors wouldn't let Heather out of the hospital for a couple days so I made the trip to Boston by myself the second day he was there. The doctors were encouraged by how well he had done the first 24 hours. After 48 hours they removed him from the high frequency respirator and put him on a standard respirator. By the third day they were gradually decreasing the amount of oxygen they were giving him. On Saturday they decided he was well enough to return to Manchester so they scheduled an ambulance for Monday.

Once he was returned to the hospital in Manchester we started asking the doctor what his feelings were about how Joshua was progressing. He said he was amazed at how quickly he was improving and that we could expect him to be strong enough to return to Utah in December or January. A couple weeks later he called us and told us we need to discuss transporting Joshua to Utah. He basically told us that if we waited until November to move him he will be too healthy to be transported by medevac aircraft but that he would not be strong enough to travel by normal air carriers or by car. By this point he was still getting a very small amount of oxygen and was still on a breathing tube. We emailed the Med Group commander in Utah and he agreed to arrange for a medevac flight for Joshua. I immediately drove from New Hampshire to Utah so I could begin making housing arrangements. I had moved our things into storage and driven back to New Hampshire in July. Joshua, Heather, and Daniel arrived in Utah the third weekend in October.

The doctor's in Utah were quite amazed when they heard all that had happened and saw how well Joshua had progressed. At this point Joshua was completely off oxygen except for the occasional need for it when he was being fed. The second week in November my dad came to visit us. He was able to stay for a week. Two days after he left they released Joshua from the hospital.

I try to pass this story on every chance I get. God filled Heather and I with faith throughout the entire situation. He began preparing us 4 years in advance. There is no way I can possibly express all that God did during this time. He was faithful beyond belief and always provided someone with an encouraging word when we needed it most. Everything I have written is true and we can only say that God was in complete control and did a miracle in our situation.

Before I left NH I was talking with one of Heather's doctors and she told me that she was leaving to go to a meeting where they were going to discuss this situation and that they were going to have to rethink how they treat patients who have their water break prior to 24 weeks. Every doctor we have talked to about this situation have had said there is no way this should have turned out the way it did and they have had to admit that Joshua is the result of a miracle.