Somewhere Over the Rainbow

My. very. favorite. song.

I’ll tell you why…

The first time I heard this song, I was very young.  Judy Garland sang it…who didn’t want to be Dorthy in The Wizard of OZ? I sure did.  I still want to wear her ruby slippers.

I developed a deeper love for this song during the weeks after Izabelle’s birth.

When my daughter Izabelle was born, she was way too early.  She was due on December 19th, 2000, instead she reluctantly greeted this world on September 22nd, 3 months early.

I had an emergency C-Section.  The doctors had to deliver the baby or I would die.  If they didn’t, we would both die.

Izabelle was a tiny 2 pounds 6 ounces.  Very small, but she was a fighter.

My husband’s hands held her gently.  She was so tiny, look at her fingers. Amazing.

Izabelle stayed in the hospital for 2 months.  I stayed for 2 weeks.  It was so hard to leave her.  How do you leave a hospital without your baby?

I came back every 3 hours for her feedings, even though she was too small to breast feed, I would pump milk and they would tube feed her.

Every night I would have such a hard time leaving her.  A nurse suggested that I tape record my voice, talking to her and singing.  I did.

The first song Izabelle ever heard was Somewhere Over the Rainbow.  Sung to her from me, full of love.

Even after she left the hospital I sang to her every night.

To this day she will ask me to sing to her at bedtime.

Even though I know the answer, I always ask,  “What would you like me to sing?” and she always replies, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow”.

A little over eight years and I have not stopped thanking my Father in Heaven for the miracle called Izabelle.