If you pray, please do

Etsy is an obsession of mine.  Uh...thanks a lot Katie.  I spend countless minutes (OK, I'll be honest here, hours) perusing the online offerings of a multitude of talented artists, designers, etc.  Pregnant with Channing, my obsession was the children's category.  I 'favorited' item after item and shop after shop.  Finding out we were having a boy, narrowed my scope a little, but it didn't cause me to delete anything previously earmarked that the fairer gender may prefer.  One such item was BIt O Whimsy Prims Mae Doll.  While my more traditional sensibilities kept me from making such a doll for our future son, there were no holds barred when I found out Sophie was Sophie.  She needed a doll.  This.  Doll.

I made Sophie Doll in a likeness of myself, with brown hair and green eyes.  As someone who has a strong aversion to the shade of pink associated with baby girls, I opted for green instead with just a hint of pink.  Just a hint.  

Channing glommed onto her the second the last stitch was sewn.  Unfortunately, a hard drive crash has left me without photographic evidence of this.  Believe me.  It happened.  Ironically, Channing, in his very loving way, chewed a hole in Sophie Doll's felt hair in about the same place Sophie's shunt was eventually placed.  She was a well worn and well loved doll by the time she met her namesake.

In the NICU, Sophie the Doll made her grand appearance almost immediately.  She was unceremoniously tethered to a metal pole at one end of Baby Sophie's bed.  There she hung by her little dolly neck until the day we brought Sophie home.  Channing was beside himself with joy to have not one but TWO Sophies to love.  

This is Channing's snoring face.  He makes it every time he pretends to be sleeping.

He still plays with Sophie Doll.  He tickles her neck and smells her stinky toes just as he once did with his itty, bitty sister.  He has dance parties and plays sleepover in the dining room.  Fortunately, he did not take to hanging Baby Sophie from the kitchen countertop by her toes.  


I felt my heart break just a little bit more when Kelly called not too long ago asking that a Sophie Doll be made for another special little girl, Olivia.  Olivia's mommy, Ali, has a very rare form of cancer and is currently in the hospital.  Kelly thought a Sophie Doll might be just the bright spot not-quite-one-year-old, Olivia might need.  

Channing helped.  We cut.  We pinned.  We sewed.  When finished, Channing asked, 'What's his name?'  You see, he doesn't quite have the gender thing figured out yet.  As they couldn't have the same name, we called her Olivia for the short time she was here.  

We introduced the girls.  Sophie meet Olivia.  Olivia meet Sophie.  We filled our new friend with every bit of extra love and hope we could muster and sent her on her way.


Kelly called yesterday to let me know this new Sophie Doll already found her way into the hearts of her new family.   I sat on our front porch tears streaming down my face as she told me of a beautiful girl our age, looking perfectly healthy but lying in a hospital bed, clutching her daughter's Sophie Doll much the same as I had each time doctor's shared a grim prognosis for Baby Sophie.  Yes, the doctor told her they could get her the trial drug they were hoping for, but it will take nearly three weeks for it to arrive, three weeks she likely does not have.


Ali, keep pouring prayers into your Sophie Doll and believing in miracles.  We were told time and time again Sophie was 'not compatible with life', that she would never survive my pregnancy.  She did.  We were blessed by her presence in our lives for nearly seven months, each day of which was more beautiful and precious than the one before.  


Our hearts go out to you and to your family.  We are praying with you.  


PS.  For anyone in the Cincinnati area.  There is a benefit for Ali this Thursday, August 4.  Details can be found here.