We had a beautiful 15 month old toddler, Daniel, the love of our lives.  We lived in Albuquerque, New Mexico at the time we got the news.  We were shocked to learn that I was pregnant – again.  Just weeks prior we were devastated by a miscarriage.  I was about 2 months along when it happened.  We had our hopes so high for a second child.  I won’t dwell on the negative but I must mention it because I feel it is one of the things that makes Austin a miracle baby.  If I hadn’t lost the second baby, Austin wouldn’t have been conceived and wouldn’t be with us today.

Shortly after we found out I was pregnant we moved into a three bedroom house on the military base and started to fill the extra room with new baby items.  We only lived there for about 4 months before Mike was discharged from the military and we made the move back to New England.  I was so grateful to be out of that house.  There were too many windows and I was so afraid that someone was going to break in.  I was overprotective of this pregnancy, which made me very paranoid.

When we picked Daniel’s name, we couldn’t come to a conclusion with the names we had chosen so we randomly opened the bible and chose the first name we saw.  That’s how we chose his middle name as well.  It was different with the second child.  I was a second child and was named after a soap star.  Why not, I thought.  I never missed an episode of Days of Our Lives at the time, in fact, I watched it more than once some days.  I thought the character, Austin, played by Patrick Muldoon was very handsome.  The combination just worked well, Austin Patrick.  And that’s when the trend was started.  My nephew, who was born just months after Daniel was the second child in his family.  My brother and his wife named him Dallas.  My cousin named her second child, Sydney.  It became a joke that if any of my other cousins had a second child, it should be named after a city.  But I digress.

Austin was born weighing in at 9 pounds even and 21 inches, even.  He was a perfectionist, day one.  I remember when he was a toddler, if he was going to eat, he had to have something in each hand or he would cry.  For instance, if we were going to give him a donut, we would have to give him two mini donuts.  If we gave him two halves of a larger donut, one for each hand, he would cry because it was broken. His birth went as planned and the only traumatic part was a bit of postpartum with spinal headaches while trying to care for a newborn and an active 2-year-old.  The doctor who was going to bring him into the world insisted we have a C-section because his brother was 10 pounds 4 ounces and chances are he would be just as big.  Daniel was too big to be delivered naturally and was 2 weeks late. They didn’t want to risk similar complications with Austin.  The first date the doctor chose was Daniel’s birthday so we told him we wanted to reschedule.  He chose a date 2 days later but then backed out because he literally had forgotten that he had a golf game scheduled that day.  This is why Austin’s birthday is 5 days later than his brother’s.

Having a brother who is only two years older, it’s almost another miracle that he is still with us.  He had a hard ball throw at him that missed his head by centimeters and he was kicked in the head with his brother’s dress boots when he threatened to take Daniel’s toy when he was learning to crawl.

This past November, Austin and his best friend, Jory went to spend some time with a girl Austin didn’t know.  They were driving around with her, her friend and a mutual friend of all of them.  They wanted to just drive randomly and explore but the GPS they had wasn’t working.  They decided to go back to their friend’s house to get Jory’s GPS from his car.  Their friend decided to stay home.  He didn’t feel comfortable about the situation.  Austin had been in the middle seat when it was the 5 of them but moved to the passenger back seat when their friend stayed home.  It wasn’t too much later that the car they were in hit a tree head on.  If Austin had been in the middle seat he might not be here today.  The lap belt would not have protected him as well as the shoulder strap and the way they impacted, the boys heads would have collided.  All that being said, he is lucky to have only gotten a compound fracture.  That in and of itself could have been more tragic if Jory, who had a concussion, hadn’t been conscious enough to call 9-1-1.

I remember one day we were relaying this story to his English teacher when he returned to school in a wheelchair.  There were several girls standing around listening.  Austin’s friends.  My comment was, “He came into this world as a miracle and he will stay in this world by a miracle.”  And all the girls cried.

Let me leave you with a happy ending.  Austin is running now.  He has very few limitations.  He is meant to do something great with his life and we have no doubt that he will.  He is a brilliant young man with a great talent and love of music.  He is a people person, very comedic with the presence of a stand up comedian,  He has a way of calming people and helping others stay logical.  He brings me great peace when I throw myself off track and shares a great deal of my life philosophies and keeps me open minded.  I love him for all he is.

My miracle children.  I am grateful for both of them.

To read about my first son, Daniel and why we say he is a miracle child as well, check out the post, Our First Miracle Child – Daniel Jacob.

Also check the side bar for inspirational posts as well as tips on how to reduce stress and increase peace and happiness in your life.  My other blog, Where The Ghosts Live – The Haunted United States, discusses paranormal activity near and far, throughout the United States.  Enjoy!

Missy Bell