Starting small to becoming something big

I am blessed with a big family.

So big that my great nieces and nephews are just as important

to me as my first generation ones are.

Today I want to brag on the great nephew on the

left of this photo.

This is Hugh John Plaisance,

My sister, Veronica's grandson, My niece Rebecca and

her hubby, Mikie's first born,

Older brother to Lucy, Owen, and Ellen.

Today he is my spotlight guest on the blog.

Not just for the awards he recently won at

a competition for his college, Nicholl's State University.

Also because of how he started his life.

My niece, his Mom, Rebecca had a hard pregnancy 

with this child from the minute she found out she

was pregnant. No details are needed here, just

know it was a hard pregnancy.

When she went into labor way too early,

I think at 27 weeks, we all gathered at the hospital.

I can remember it like yesterday.

We gathered for my sister and hubby,

we gathered for her in-laws but mostly 

we gathered to each silently pray for a miracle.

When you know a full term pregnancy is 40 weeks

and here is a little Momma threatening to deliver

at a little more than half that time, you pray... big...

For a few days on bedrest in hospital and meds,

they were able to hold off his delivery for a few days

but then came the day that nothing was going to stop his

birth. Where all our thoughts were at the time, we have

not all shared but I know I was there to support my sister 

and brother in law and my niece and nephew in case 

this child would be lost to them.

The labor began and the doctors and nurses began

to prepare us all. "He will be small" he said.

"He will not cry" she said,

"If he makes the delivery, he will probably be on life support"

they told us. 

we were prepared mentally, yet all our hearts were wearing our sleeves.

It became very real to me as my sister came out her

own daughters delivery room crying and reminding us

"I know we are all worried about this little baby, but that

is my baby in there who is about to become a Mother 

and suffering" Having my own children, I could understand

my sister's pain. We all stood around the

delivery room when we knew that baby boy was

coming, we could hear doctors, nurses, we never heard

my niece make a sound nor her husband who was probably 

whispering in her ear, "We got this"

It got very quiet at one point, quiet for those standing

around the door, quiet in the delivery room and after a few

minutes we all heard it, the small soft cry.....

of an under 2 pound baby boy. 

We all joined that cry. 

What transpired from that time to the age he is now

is one that could be written into a book.

He fought to live in the NICU,

my niece made the hospital hotel her home.

her Hubby joined her most days when not at work.

It was touch and go for days.

My niece would visit, touch him, cuddle him, read to him,

play classic music, whisper and sing to him.

He did not just survive he flourished.

Throughout his life, he has had some tough issues he

had to overcome yet he could not have been born to better 

parents. They, both being very smart, did and learned all

they could about premature babies. 

If you looked up patience in the dictionary, you might

just see their names there. 

this child has always been a super smart one when it came

to common sense and understanding things that

most children his age just would not understand.

I always use the story about when I visited him

at Christmas time when he was under three.

We were playing with his family nativity set

and i wrongly called one of the statues a Wise Man.

"Aunt Lil, he is not a Wise Man, do you see him

carrying any gifts, do you see any Frankincense, gold, or Myrrh?"

Yes, this two year old knew more about wise men than

his aunt Lil. In his early years, we had a close bond and

I would like to think, even if I rarely see him now

that he is a young adult, he still feels that bond as I do.

Yesterday as I sat at 4 am to check out what is going on in my

world via facebook, I come across the photo of my

nephew all grown up, making his way into the journalism part

of his college, having won not only an award with his

peers for the work they have done for their college newspaper,

4th place in Best College News Magazine,

where Hugh is the managing Editor 

but bringing home his own personal award,

third place for his Op-Ed writing!

how proud we all are of him is an understatement.

For those that worked hard for him throughout these years,

his parents, himself, I applaud you all.

In my eyes this child is a miracle. So many warned

us of just how much he may never gain for his early birth,

he has proved them all wrong. Partly, I believe because

everyone who has loved him refused to not only label him

this way but didn't tell him what was expected.

He was always told he could achieve anything he wanted.

He has not always worked to his full potential in the eyes of

others but I know that he has always worked

up to what was important to him. He has made his own timeline.

This young man, who his Aunt Lil has trouble seeing him 

all grown instead of that little baby that fit in the palm of

his Daddy's hand,

is going places. In his own time he will make a difference in 

this world. I hope when he looks back on his life,

he remembers auntie Lil who has been in his "village" 

since the day we knew he was coming.

I love you, Hughbee and am so very proud of not

only these awards but all you possess inside that 

tall, lovely frame of yours.

Keep on writing and show the world the other side of

the norm, continue to pass on your knowledge to the World

just as you did at two when you taught me

the difference between a Shepard and a Wise Man.