Noelle's first outreach

Hello friends, Noelle just used her testimony to share God's love with a little baby who needs our prayers. Her name is Hannah and she seems to be doing well but suffered from a blood clot that got lodged in her brain sometime around her birth. The doctor's believe she has brain damage but are not sure how much and how her newly growing brain can overcome it. Her daddy is an identical twin too! We wanted to share her letter with you...

Dearest Sweet Hannah, My name is Noelle Priebe and I am almost 8 months old! I was born on November 26th, 2008! My mommy snuggled up to a wonderful prayer blanket from Grace United Methodist Church the whole time I was growning in my mommy's belly. You see, when I was 10 weeks along, my mommy had my picture taken and found out I had a twin! My sister, Nataly, was growing right alongside of me! What fun to have company in my mommy's tummy! However, two weeks later she had more pictures taken and found out my sister Nataly was doing just fine, but I was not keeping up with her. After many more pictures from the best photographer EVER, they realized we had split from being one baby into two and were still sharing our food coming from one placenta. It was obvious, Nataly was getting more than her share! Nobody could tell my mommy and daddy if I was getting enough to continue growing. Every day they had to pray that God would continue to allow nutrients to flow into my body and allow me to grow, even if it was just barely enough to stay alive. They also prayed for my heart as God needed to reach down inside of me to keep it pumping because my heart had to work so much harder than my sister's. There was a very smart man down in Tampa, FL who is trying to help babies like me. He just doesn't know yet if what he is doing is helpful or not. So he is doing this thing that uses a small hot light to cut the blood connections in a shared placenta like mine. He thinks that if these blood connections are cut, then I will have my own share of the food and Nataly will have her own share. Since we wouldn't share anymore, if something were to happen to me, I wouldn't bleed into my sister and hurt her too. However, some smart men think there is a possibility that the blood connections I share with my sister could have been helping to keep me alive. My mommy and daddy decided not to have the doctor separate us and allowed God to do what He thought was best just the way He created us. Mommy couldn't take the risk that having me separated from my sister might hurt me. So my parents waited and waited. The photographer told my parents to hope for me to continue to grow to at least 1 pound and 26 weeks! Then we would be able to deliver me so I could have a chance. What do you know? 26 weeks came and went and I was getting farther behind Nataly, but I was continuing to GROW!!! That photographer was now taking pictures of me 3 times a week! I was such a good model!! and my portfolio is quite impressive! At every photo shoot he kept telling my mommy I was growing. Every week the growth was getting smaller and smaller, while my sister grew much more than me. But that man kept telling my mommy it was OK and that as long as I was growing we would wait! Mommy and daddy were so excited!!! We got to 28 weeks and I was reaching 2 pounds! and my mommy and daddy were thanking God every day!! As I continued to grow though, my mommy would have these fits of fear! You see, every day that they left me inside my mommy, she had to trust that I would be safe and continue to grow. She knew that I could be delivered and have a good chance of survival but the doctors kept telling her I was better off growing inside her. The big risk was: would that wonderful photographer be able to tell at just the right time that I had stopped growing and deliver me safely into the world before the placenta stopped feeding me? I don't think my mommy has ever been more scared and hopeful at the same time. The photographer said I could stay in my mommy until 32 weeks but that was it! Then, at 32 weeks, I was still showing off how well I could grow and that same man told my mommy he wanted to give me a little more time to grow. So mommy said OK and they made all the plans to deliver me the next week. Then again at 33 weeks, I was growing so well that the man told my mommy that we could wait one more week. However, I decided at my next photo shoot to tell them all I was ready to go. While they were doing all this stuff to mommy's belly and trying to measure my movements and my heart, the beating in my chest slowed down for a couple minutes. The man looked at mommy and told her we were not going to wait any longer. Today was the day that I would be born! I don't think Nataly had a clue what was coming!!! That man took me out first and weighed me in at 3 lbs. 8 oz.!!!! Mommy cried because she knew at that moment I would be an overachiever - who said I could only make it to 1 pound? I sure showed them! Then, my sister, who had beaten my mommy up for months, was forced to come out! I had settled in at the bottom so my sister had to lay over me day after day. As she grew and grew, she wedged herself into mommy's ribs. When they took her out, my mommy could breath! Mommy was happy but Nataly was not! She weighed in a pound and a half bigger than me at 4 pounds 15 ounces. My grandpa thinks we should do a Jenny Craig commercial but my moms says he is silly! We had to go to the special nursery too! And we had to live there for awhile. Mommy and daddy visited us just like yours did. Nataly had a harder time adjusting to her new life. I was so happy to get the food I needed that I actually did better than her. I think she was so happy in mommy that she didn't understand why they took us out! Someday, maybe she will know and be OK with it all. And now we are almost 8 months old. And guess what? I was so little that I wore tiny, tiny clothes for a long time. In fact, my mommy has just packed up my 0-3 month clothes because I am finally moving into a bigger size!!!! I can do everything my sister can! Most people think I'm a very advanced 2 month old until they meet my sister. We look alike and they call us "identical" even though she is clearly bigger than me!!! I heard your daddy is a twin too:) I know that my parents prayed over me continuously! My mommy thinks we're so special, she calls us miracle babies. So, she was thinking you might like some of my clothes. I know they are just silly clothes that often I got really messy, but to her they are more - she thinks they are somehow very special! She thinks they might be a blessing to your mommy and daddy. And although I don't see the big deal, I do hope you like them and feel the love and prayers that have have already been poured into them! She just needs your address? Hopefully she will hear from your parents or your Uncle Mike soon! Love and prayers, Noelle

Hope you are blessed today from her testimony!! We sure are!