I dedicate this image to my daughter, Michelle. The past few days have been very hectic and very frightening for me and other members of my family. Michelle is 28 weeks pregnant with her 5th child, her first son. His name will be Landen Leo and he is due to be born on Aug. 24th, 12 days after my birthday. I have been hoping he would be born on Aug. 12th but the past couple of days I watched as I and others thought that surely wouldn't happen. Michelle developed a ubilical hernia awhile back. Several days ago that hernia began giving her a whole lot of agonizing pain. I watched her cry in pain, unable to walk or move. The hernia became what is known as incarcerated, meaning it was out and wouldn't pop back inside. She was rushed to the hospital. They gave her moriphene and tried to push the hernia back in, it wouldn't go. They were afraid to do surgery because a baby under 32 weeks is in more danger of not surviving outside the mother but her ob doctor called in a surgeon to look at her and Michelle was admitted to the hospital. The surgeon decided that surgery had to be done and we would all hope for the best. Rather than remove the hernia they opted to mesh it, pushing it back inside with the hopes that if labor developed it could be stopped. A portion of her intenstines had made its way into the hernia keeping it from popping back inside which tightned her stomac area causing pain everywhere. The surgery was a success, however, later that night the contractions began. The doctor began treatment to stop the contractions which also was a success. After the baby is born Michelle will have the hernia removed. It was a small journey but one we all suffered through together, praying everyday that Michelle and the baby would come through this fine. I watched as my daughter worried about her baby being born too soon with such a threat of him not making it were it to be so. I felt so helpless. Thank goodness prayers are answered...she is being released today with landen safe inside her until his time to join us here in our world. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~