A Treasury of Miracles for Women by Karen Kingsbury Page B

whatever happens we know that he will be there.”
    After that, every night the couple would pray with their young sons in their room and the children would pray for their sister.
    “Dear God, please make my sister be fine,” they would say. “Please don't let her die.”
    Sunday came and after the service Ben and Angie went in front of their church family and asked for prayers.
    “It seems there's a very serious problem with our un born little girl,” Ben said, his voice cracking. He pulled Angie closer to him and blinked back tears. “The doctors think she'll die before she's born and that Angie should have an abortion.” He tried to swallow the lump in his throat.
    Angie smiled at him through watery eyes and contin ued for him. “We told the doctors that if the baby dies we'll deal with that. But she won't die at our hands. It'll have to be God's decision.”
    A sob escaped her as a flood of tears spilled from her eyes. “Please pray for us. Pray that we will have strength to handle what God has in store.”
    Throughout the congregation people were crying with them, their hearts reaching out to Ben and Angie and their uncertain future.
    The praying began immediately.
    That afternoon a group of grandmothers at the church made the Bauers' unborn baby their top prayer concern. They contacted other women they knew at other churches in the Windsor area and the prayer chain grew.
    In addition, Ben's parents and Angie's parents prayed constantly for God to work a miracle and heal the tiny girl so she could survive the pregnancy. Over the next few days, the despair that gripped Ben and Angie and even their sons began to dissipate. They were not sure what God would do but they trusted him and believed he would help them han dle whatever came their way.
    Six weeks passed and Angie and Ben returned to Cleveland for another appointment with the specialist. This time the atmosphere during the ride up was com pletely different. The couple was calm and strangely peace ful. Ben shared anecdotes about the students he worked with. Their unspoken thought was that one day the anec dotes might be about their own daughter.
    If she lived that long.
    Angie was scheduled to meet with the doctor first and then have an ultrasound done. When he was finished ex amining her, Angie sat up and looked intently at him.
    “You didn't tell us the odds,” she said quietly. “What are the odds that this baby will survive?”
    The doctor leaned against the wall and folded his arms.“There is less than a 1 percent chance that this child will survive the entire pregnancy. If she does, there is maybe a 50 percent chance that she will survive the delivery and the surgery involved to remove the fluid around her neck. The odds get worse from that point on.”
    Angie could feel the blood drain from her face. The peace she had been feeling vanished and again she was gripped with sorrow as she considered the child inside her.
    The doctor saw her reaction and responded in a gentle voice. “There is still time to terminate the pregnancy, Mrs. Bauer. But it has to be your decision. I could have it sched uled right away. This afternoon.”
    Angie looked at her husband and shook her head quickly. “No. Her chance may be almost nothing but I can't take that chance away from her.”
    The couple left the office and headed toward the room where sonograms were performed. Ben waited in the hall way while a technician turned down the lights and began scanning Angie's abdomen. Images appeared on the screen and Angie wished she could tell what she was looking at.
    Minutes passed and Angie began to wonder why the test was taking so long. She moved, trying to get comfort able, and the technician looked at her curiously.
    “Do you know why you're in here? Why you're having this ultrasound?”
    Terror streaked through Angie's body.
There's some thing worse,
she thought.
They've found something worse.
    “Well,” Angie began, her voice unsteady, “my baby has cystic