Dear Friends,

We want to thank you for your prayers for Dana and the baby. Isaac Noé Gamonal was born March 13 at 10:28 pm. (Noé is pronounced No-EH and is the Spanish form of Noah.) It is a MIRACLE that little Isaac is here with us. We can see God's hand in every aspect of his birth. It is truly amazing. Number one, the sonogram was wrong in that he wasn't as big as they said he was...but due to that error, we scheduled an induction for this past Saturday. Then, my doctor was in a prison with a medical mission team and all of a sudden felt strongly impressed to call me and schedule a checkup the night before the induction. It made no sense to me, since my last checkup had been two days before, and I'd see her at 6 am Saturday. But she insisted I go in at 5 pm. As I was about to leave the house, she called, and postponed it an hour. That really frustrated me. Didn't she know I had a lot to do? Yet in that time I was able to leave supper ready for my family. A friend was willing to drive me, since I had had signs of beginning labor.

At the office, the Dr. and her colleague friend were both waiting. They checked and my heart sank as they said the head still hadn't lowered into the birth canal, though I had seemed to have begun labor and it had stalled twice. Then they checked the heartbeat. I could tell it wasn't normal, but my worries were confirmed as they told me his heartbeat had dropped from 140 (normal) to 128 in the two days since I'd been checked. They tossed around ideas and almost sent me for a sonogram, but most places were closed at that hour. They decided to check me once more before sending me away to find a place that would do the sonogram. The heartbeat was then 120. They told me then that I must have an emergency C-section right away because he was in fetal distress, and although they couldn't be certain of the reason without a sonogram, his heartbeat was dropping rapidly and he had to get out no matter the reason. They strongly suspected the cord was around his neck. (In the sonogram 3 days earlier, the heartbeat was fine and there was NO cord around his neck.)

I was rushed to the emergency room, having called poor Joel to get my stuff together (as he was finishing supper with the kids and the toilet was running over). The friend that took me (in our car) called her husband who rushed down to pick up Joel's sister, Tabita, and bring her to the house, and pick up Joel and bring him to the clinic. We weren't sure Joel would get there in time, but he did, and I was SO relieved. I had also asked my doctor to stay with me, even though it was now out of her hands. The doctors at the clinic initially couldn't find a heartbeat at all. Then I asked my doctor to check since she had just heard it. She found it, though it had dropped even more and wasn't very strong. But it was still beating, and that relieved us all.

I was prepped and rushed down for an EKG and then the C-section. Normally, I would have been terrified, but I only cared about getting Isaac out!
The surgeon is my doctor's future son-in-law, and she had called him from her office. He had been let out of work early and was in the neighborhood, two blocks away when she called. He called his colleague, who must be present for the surgery in that clinic, and who wasn't to be working that night. He had been called in for something else and had just finished, and was at the clinic. They came in to make sure the pediatrician was there, and he was...but not only that, a neonatal specialist was with him when he wasn't supposed to be working then! They were all there, like pawns having been placed just where they needed to be. The surgeon went straight for Isaac's neck, and found the cord was strangling him, preventing him from lowering. With each contraction, it pulled tighter around his neck and body. They got him out, and he didn't cry, though he wasn't blue. But the neonatal specialist knew just what to do, and as he had done with premature infants before, gave him a chest massage. His heartbeat went straight to normal and he began to cry loudly. He was fine! But had I not gone to that appointment that "made no sense," Isaac would have died by the next morning. Praise God with us!

We know God has special plans for each of our boys, but this one really must have a great work to do. He almost came prematurely, and would have probably died then. And then he almost died in birth, but God preserved him! Pray for Joel and me as we raise them. Pray that each one will be saved and used for God's service.

Thanks so much for praying!
In His service,
Joel, Dana, Caleb, Benjamin, Aarón, and Isaac G.