The Smell of RainThe following story we received via email,. It's about a little baby girl, Danae, who was only 24 weeks
when she was born. Diana and David Blessing's story became the most widely
circulated inspirational stories on the Internet. TruthOrFiction.com verified the story with the Blessings family, who
told them that (by then) 9 year-old Danae was doing great.
It all began
when a hospital in Columbia (USA) asked for stories to compile a book called 'Miracles in our Midst.' Diana's
mother sent in a rough draft titled "Heaven Scent", which was included in the book. Danae's story was used to
promote the book on the Internet, from where it was copied and forwarded all over the globe, inspiring and blessing thousands
of people.
In 2000, Diana wrote:
"Danae is now a lively,
beautiful, active, free-spirited, blissful, God-loving fourth-grader. She is in the Gifted and Talented program. Still petite,
but growing daily. Loves all animals. Has several of her own.
Danae has a compassion for other people that I have
never witnessed with another child and I work with children daily. She is a pure joy to be around and is NEVER at a loss for
words. When I first began getting response from the story I was startled. I quickly realized that God was working his magic.
I praised him for allowing me to be blessed in such a way that I see his well doings each and every day. My husband and I
decided that if sharing Danae's story touched even one person, than that is what was meant to be. I know now that it has
touched many, many and continues everyday. I am so grateful to know the Lord and to have him so evident before us. I am also
thankful for the widespread response and blessings from so many of the people that have received the story and have been touched
by it. Hopefully it will continue to spread the news of God's love.
I knew when I first saw Danae that she
could not and would not be contained. She screamed to be shared. We couldn't walk in the grocery store without someone
commenting about her. So, I painfully acknowledged the fact that she would not be mine alone. Danae has a lot to give. This
story is only the beginning."
This is the
story, as told by Diana Blessing - Luckiest Mom on Earth (as she calls herself.)
The Smell
of Rain
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the Doctor walked into the small
hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband David held her hand as they braced themselves for
the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24 weeks pregnant, to give birth to
Danae Lu Blessing.
At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously
premature. Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. I don't think she's going to make it, he said, as
kindly as he could. "There's only a 10 percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some
slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one." Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as
the doctor described the devastating problems Danae would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never
talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to
complete mental retardation, and on and on.
"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old
son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours,
that dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread,
Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live, and live to be a
healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances
of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable. David walked in
and said that we needed to talk about making funeral arrangements.
Diana remembers, 'I felt so bad for him because
he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I just wouldn't listen, I couldn't listen.
I said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say; Danae is not going to die! One
day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"
As if willed to live by Diana's determination,
Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But
as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Danae's under-developed nervous system was
essentially raw, the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny
baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the
ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl. There
was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger.
But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight
here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their
arms for the very first time. And two months later-though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of
surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero. Danae went home from the hospital, just as her mother
had predicted.
Today, five years later, Danae is a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable
zest for life. She shows no signs, what so ever, of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she is everything a little
girl can be and more-but that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
One blistering afternoon in
the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving, Texas, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ballpark
where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Danae was chattering non-stop with her mother and
several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, Danae asked, "Do
you smell that?"
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells
like rain."
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Once again, her mother
replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet, it smells like rain.
Still caught in the moment, Danae shook
her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him. It smells
like God when you lay your head on His chest."
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae then happily hopped
down to play with the other children.
Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the
members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves
were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers
so well.
What a mighty, loving God we have!