LOVElockdown.

Title:a touching story.
Date:Thursday, January 24, 2008 @ 9:05 PM

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. She was 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 undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.

weighing only one pound 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 Dana 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 But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana.

Because Dana's underdeveloped 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 Dana 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 Dana 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 Dana 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, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted. Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.

She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was 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, Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent .

Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, 'Do you smell that?'
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, 'Yes, it smells like rain.'

Dana 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, Dana 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 Dana 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 Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

#his grace has gotten us through(:

Title:slowdance.
Date:Tuesday, January 22, 2008 @ 10:48 PM

slow dance.
(written by a teenager with cancer.)

Have you ever watched kids
On a merry-go-round?
Or listened to the rain
Slapping on the ground?

Ever followed a butterfly's erratic flight?
Or gazed at the sun into the fading night?

You better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Do you run through each day
On the fly?
When you ask How are you?
Do you hear the reply?

When the day is done
Do you lie in your bed
With the next hundred chores
Running through your head?

You'd better slow down
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

Ever told your child,We'll do it tomorrow?
And in your haste,Not see his sorrow?
Ever lost touch,
Let a good friendship die
Cause you never had time
To call and say,'Hi'

You'd better slow down.
Don't dance so fast.
Time is short.
The music won't last.

When you run so fast to get somewhere
You miss half the fun of getting there.
When you worry and hurry through your day,
It is like an unopened gift....Thrown away.

Life is not a race.
Do take it slower
Hear the music
Before the song is over.

#elbow prints. ever praying.

Title:pledge to go fur-free
Date:Friday, January 18, 2008 @ 5:53 AM

Caution! The video below may be quite unbearable to some.

Pledge to go fur-free at PETA.org

just received a mail from tzechao.
these poor animals are skinned alive in chinese fur farms.
pledge to go fur-free!

Title:crazy little encounter.
Date:Tuesday, January 15, 2008 @ 11:55 PM

little encounter.
kind of amusing.

I was sitting at the benches when a girl came towards me excitedly.
she looked kind of familiar so I waved and said hi enthusiastically too.
after a short conversation with her,
we both realise that we in fact do not know each other at all.
funny, but real nice(:

#his grace has got me through it all.

Title:second semester.
Date:Saturday, January 12, 2008 @ 6:49 PM

tired.
that sums it all up for my first week in school.

anyways finally get to meet the girls yesterday(:
I had a great time! lots to catch up; so little time.
Looking back, there were regrets but I'm glad we didn't cling on to them.

hooray! Atleast its the weekend now(:

#you are my strength when I am weak, you are the treasure that I seek, you are my all in all.

Title:welcome2008
Date:Friday, January 04, 2008 @ 9:01 AM

another year has passed.
thinking through, are all my resolutions for the year fulfilled?
was my spiritual life maximised?

many thoughts, many doubts, many unexpected help.
many blessings, many grace, many times I was amazed.

the new year has arrived
and thou belated I have realised,
in him I see a more fruitful year this will be(:

#honey-d my life lord!