SMELLS LIKE RAIN

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But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.

All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.

There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.

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But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.

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At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.

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And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.

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Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.

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She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

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One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving , Texas , Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.


As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, \"Do you smell that?\"

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Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, \"Yes, it smells like r ain.\"

Dana closed her eyes and again asked, \"Do you smell that?\"

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Once again, her mother replied, \"Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain.\"

Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced,
\"No, it smells like Him.

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It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest.\"