2 Years Ago...

A brief history. It was two years ago, August 26th, that a 2 lb 5 ounce baby girl was born prematurely in San Francisco. She was born nine weeks early with meth/marijuana in her system, experiencing grade 3 hemorrhage with hydrocephalus, to a mother who didn't want her.






Crystal and I got the call about her on August 29th, which is my birthday. Awesome how that happened! We discussed, prayed, worried, and ultimately decided...Yes! Her doctor took time to take a picture of her with his digital camera and sent us an e-mail with her picture. Beautiful! We were heavily discouraged at first from taking her because of her health issues. It was at that point that I decided to fast...pray...pray that God would heal her. Regardless...this was our little girl. The journey became an amazing one at that point. We'd hear a little here and there from the hospital, but not too much changed at first.

Then we began to hear how she didn't need to vent...the reservoir in her head didn't need to be tapped quite as often. Soon...after 57 days in the NICU...she was able to go to a high-risk medical foster.

We then got another picture from the foster mother...Laura


It looks like she's smiling...sleeping, but smiling. You can see where her hair was cut for her surgery. At that point she was growing, gaining weight...still super tiny, but growing healthier.

Fast forward to March of 2007...March 9th to be exact. Sarala came to Missouri...came home. We met her at the airport.


What an amazing day...journey...time. God at that point had done miracles to get her to us. All of the paperwork went through quicker than usual...her health continued to improve so she was able to come out and live with us. We had to foster her for six months, but we never felt like we were foster parents...this was our baby girl.

The development we got to experience with her was awesome. She grew up before our eyes. I think she was two-month's developmentally when she arrived but blossomed quickly. I thank God for the opportunity to take a month and a half off of school like I did. Then summer came and we spent the whole time with her.

October 2007...her last surgery. Her hydrocephalus and grade 3 hemorrhage had left NO evidence...so the neurosurgeon at Children's decided to take her reservoir out. Scary...but we knew it was necessary. She came through the surgery like nothing happened. She was such a blessing for the people on that floor...it was tough because of all the other situations on the neurology floor at STL Children's.

April 28th 2008 saw Sarala officially become a Buckman. We went out to San Francisco and became her parents. Again...God did miracles with the paperwork to make it happen like it did. It was an amazing weekend...reminder of the awesome-ness of God.



Fast forward to now...she's amazing. You'd never know that she had the problems that she did when she was born. All the glory goes to God on this one. He took...and is taking care of her. I'm thankful for the fact that He put her in our lives. God made me a better person through all of this...continues to do so...as does Sarala. Thank you God!



Happy Birthday Sarala...we love you!