FLY, HUMMINGBIRD, FLY
My first grandbaby, Eliana, was born 9/18/2016, twelve years to the day I killed somebody in a car wreck. I had gone from medical school to prison behind a horrific accident that occurred during my ten-year addiction to cocaine. I rebuilt my life, rebuilt trust, regained my confidence and set out to live a new life without cocaine. What happened to me twelve years into this new life was unexpected, not sought after, but certainly a blessing in disguise. Because my daughters due date was the same, I thought God was replacing a life with the life I felt I had stolen and it would somehow reduce the grief and pain I suffered through year after year. Consequently, her birth became so very much more and was what catapulted me into TRANSPARENCY and gave me the courage to release my life story in my book, What Goes Up. This story is for you Eliana, my Hummingbird!
Eliana arrived on her due date but was stuck at 6cm in the birth canal and suffered a brain injury due to a lack of oxygen. She was diagnosed with HIE, GRADE III (hypoxic ischemic encephalopathy- most severe.) Her brain injury caused her to be blind, deaf, she couldn’t suck, cry or even regulate her own temperature. Eliana went through many surgeries her first year of life and was fed through a feeding tube (g-button), had multiple