The One He Spared
She folds her little hands and bows her head. The golden curls fall around her shoulders. The words that softly flow from her lips are inarticulate but powerfully serious. Somewhere in those words, “Jesus” is heard. Then, amen is the only other word that is understood.Emily is her parents’ miracle. The doctors said she would never make it. God said she would. By all medical accounts she isn’t suppose to be here. Life outside the womb was less than a 20 percent chance for her, but she is here. According to her parents, Emily is a miracle from the Lord.Kim and Nathan Pennington married when they were 20. They had been classmates in high school and had worked together on the school’s newspaper. However, it wasn’t until a few days before graduation that they felt the connection. During college, they knew they were meant for each other and married.Within four years of marriage Kim was pregnant, but only after much difficulty.“I was diagnosed with Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS) and told I would never conceive without fertility treatments,” Kim remembers. “After a complicated beginning to a pregnancy with multiples, I was placed on preventative bed rest at 17 weeks.”Kim had been employed as a speech therapist at a nursing home for less than a year, so when she applied for short-term disability, she was told she would have to resign from her position because the family medical leave act did not apply to her.“I was devastated,” Kim recalls. “I loved that job and couldn’t bear leaving it behind. At that time it seemed like the worst thing that had ever happened to me. I had never felt so much sadness.”Little did Kim know that six weeks later and 23 weeks into her pregnancy, her life would forever change and she would be forced to endure some of the most devastating moments in her life -- moments that the loss of a job could not compare. Some of these moments she would eventually come to realize would be unbearable without God.
“I was 17 when I got saved at a testimonial service given by a Columbine victim’s dad at Walker High School,” Kim said. “I spent about a year in church before I began drifting away, using every excuse life could offer to avoid obedience to God.”When Kim and Nathan decided to have a child, she said it never occurred to them to seek God on their decision.“We had our plan for life; it was mapped out and we never ever dreamed it would be any other way than we planned it,” she said. “However, we forgot to recognize that we are not the author of our days; we are simply the participants, and nothing is in our control.”Then, God got their attention and taught them to totally depend on Him.
At only 23 weeks Kim began having labor pains, and for many hours the doctors worked to prevent her from delivering the babies. However, Emily was born first weighing only one pound and two ounces. With more than 20 people working to save Emily, the room was excruciatingly silent.“We braced for the worst,” Kim remembers. “I had no idea exactly what I was waiting for, but I remember the joy in my heart when I heard the smallest cry before she was whisked away to the NICU.”Almost four hours later, her son Tyler was born weighing one pound and three ounces. This time Kim was clinging to life after losing so much blood. Five hours later she remembers the shock of seeing her tiny babies.“I had never seen a baby so small or even heard of one surviving,” Kim said. “The doctors told us to prepare for the worst. They had never had a baby survive that young before. I can honestly say that I cannot remember offering up a single prayer those next ten days.”Instead, Kim just walked around in shock, not knowing what to say or what to expect. “I praise God that when we are His, even if we have fallen away and do not know what to pray that Jesus intercedes on our behalf. I know my Lord went to the Father many times on my behalf in those days.”For the first 11 days, Emily and Tyler were fighting for their lives. Ruptured intestines, surgeries, respiratory failures highlighted the list of complications these little miracles were fighting through.“On day 13 as we were headed to the hospital we got the phone call we had been dreading” Kim remembers. “I knew the voice. It was Emily's nurse on the phone. The nurses didn’t call unless something was wrong. However, this time Emily’s nurse was not calling for Emily, but for Tyler’s nurse, who was busy working on Tyler.”Kim’s 13-day-old baby boy Tyler had been in respiratory failure for the last thirty minutes and they were not having any success getting his oxygen saturations or heart rate up. They were losing him and Kim and Nathan needed to get to UAB fast.“For more than eight hours the doctors and nurses worked diligently to save Tyler, but I knew in my heart that we were not going to get to keep him,” Kim said. “That moment was one of the first times in all of those days that I actually remember crying out to God asking Him to give Tyler a happy, functional life or to take him to heaven and hold him close.”A few hours later, Tyler took his last breath in the arms of his earthly father and ascended into heaven to spend eternity with his heavenly father.“No words could explain the shock and grief I felt in that moment,” Kim recalls. “Tyler was the stronger of the two babies, and we had just let go of what seemed like our best chance of taking home a healthy baby. I remember just sitting there watching Emily through the glass in utter confusion.”While Kim was planning a funeral, God was planning His relationship with her. While Kim was wondering how she would go through a second death and worrying about her only baby left, Kim’s mom was worrying if her daughter could handle another loss. Emily was by far the sickest baby in the nursery, and according to the doctors, without a miracle, Emily had hours to days to live. What neither parent considered was that God had all of them in His hands, and His plans were already in motion.“The night before Tyler’s funeral we were called in the middle of the night to come to the hospital because Emily was in respiratory failure and they were having trouble getting her back,” she said. “I didn't know if I was strong enough to survive two losses. I remember leaning forward with my head in my hands weeping and crying out to God to please save my baby. I kept thinking surely God is merciful; he wouldn't take them both. Strangely I think now how I had all these expectations of a God who I had given up on, who I had laid aside. He became someone I had grabbed hold of in a moment of my weakness, who granted me his salvation and who I had cast aside and forgot about until now -- until now, when I was at rock bottom and my world was crumbling into rubble. That night I once again found that the God who saved my soul many years before whom I had forgotten had not forgotten me. As I rounded the corner of that NICU, I glanced up at the monitors bracing for the worst; it was like reliving the worst day of my life but this time was different. As I looked at the numbers, my brain searched for understanding. The numbers were normal and the nurse began to explain that about 20 minutes before, when I was pouring my heart out to God begging for his mercy, he was answering my prayers.”Emily stabilized and her vital signs soared higher than they had in days. The next day, Kim and Nathan lay their sweet baby Tyler to rest and headed back to the hospital.“I remember standing there watching Emily through the glass,” Kim said. “She was stretched out with her arms out to the side. IV lines were running in every direction and the oscillating vent was pumping so hard her body shook. She was black from the waist up, her skin transparent. I remember how broken she was and I sat there wondering why God has spared her.”In the doctors’ opinions and in Kim’s earthly mind, her son Tyler had the better chance at survival. Emily was so broken, and Kim wondered how God could ever heal something so broken.“God was revealing to me something special that day,” she said. “ And it wasn’t until many years later that God fully revealed his truth to me -- Emily wasn't the one who was broken in that desperate moment. I was.”
Kim said her world was crashing before her. She was so used to being in control of her life – she was a planner who liked order and liked knowing what would happen. For a college graduate at the top of her class, Kim was out of her league.“I was out of my realm of knowledge,” she admits. “I had no idea all the things that would come next. All I knew was that if we were going to walk down this road, I couldn't go alone. As I bowed before the Lord right there in the corner of the UAB NICU, I went running back to my Lord. It was then and there that I rededicated my life to the Lord.”
According to Kim, God revealed one of the most powerful scriptures in her life. She was amazed at how the words written in 2 Corinthians 1:8-11 captured her feelings.“Emily may have spent the first ten months of her life in a hospital, but I was the patient God was working on most,” Kim said. “I had a heart condition. I was broken. I needed to be reminded of God's love and his faithfulness. He was drawing me back to him, and my life has never been the same. As parents we are suppose to teach our children about God and life, but it’s funny how a tiny, one pound miracle is the one who taught me. She knows God in ways I will never comprehend. He has carried her since the minute she was born.”Emily’s seven-year journey from that day on was no easy task. God had revealed to Kim and Nathan that the only way they would survive this trial would be to rely totally on God. The next years would bring many ups and downs, surgeries and ventilators, sedations and therapies. However, those years were also full of miracles. Today, after many battles and much healing, Emily is completely healed and the scarring is gone.
“Although she does have some speech and language impairments and speaks in single words, that doesn't stop her from singing about her Lord,” Kim said. “We have never looked at Emily for the problems she does or doesn’t have. We see her as being just how God made her – perfect. The hearing aids or the glasses she wears do not make her any less of what God created. She is a beautiful little girl who loves life.”Once Emily speaks the word “amen,” this little bundle of energy is up and ready to play. She never seems to tire and she always wears a smile. Loving life comes easy to this little seven-year-old. 78