Elianna and Connor Van Farowe expressed how Elianna's preterm labor and the birth of their daughter, Selah, at 27 weeks brought them to their knees, crying out to God.
"We didn't know if she'd even live and now here she is," Connor Van Farowe said. "She's just a miracle."
Elianna Van Farowe's water broke at 26 weeks and four days pregnant.
"My water broke very obviously in the shower on a Friday evening so then we came [to Riley]," she explained. I was admitted onto the antepartum unit with the expectation that I would stay here for eight weeks to keep Selah inside as long as possible."
But after five days, Elianna Van Farowe found herself in labor for a second time. Just as the team did when she was first admitted, they tried to slow her labor down with medication, yet she continued progressing rapidly.
"Within about two and a half hours I progressed from not being dilated at all to being 10 centimeters dilated and complete," she said. "She also flipped somewhere along the lines to then she was breach. So, as [Selah's] progressing, I'm progressing, they realized okay we need to do an emergency c-section because she is ready to come out but she can't come out like this."
With a quick goodbye to her husband, Elianna Van Farowe was whisked away to the operating room. Selah was born that night on June 3.
"It just became very evident that from the moment that my water broke, like he said, we were not in control," Elianna Van Farowe said.
Connor Van Farowe said the whole situation, along with their current stay in the NICU in the Riley Maternity Tower, reaffirms his Christian faith. "We definitely had to just get on our knees and pray a lot and trust that the Lord's plan was good," he said.
Elianna Van Farowe described feeling peace as she arrived at Riley.
"We were able to just let it go and 1. Trust, this is a wonderful facility, so grateful that we could be here," she explained. "The doctors, the nurses, the therapists, the [respiratory therapists], everyone has been excellent. So we can trust the humans, but we can more importantly trust the Lord who's working through those humans."
Elianna Van Farowe already trusted the great care Riley provides. After all, she is a nurse in the stem cell transplant unit.
"It's nice to have that familiarity," she said. "Some of the people working here, like some of the resource nurses, I've worked with them before so to get to share Selah with them has been really sweet."
Connor Van Farowe is also a pediatric nurse at a nearby hospital. He just returned to work three weeks ago.
"This situation is such a gift to me also working in pediatrics; it's just made me a better nurse," he said. "I've just already noticed the ways it's changed the way I practice. I could sit outside the nurses' station on my phone when I see a family walk in, or I could go talk to them, update them on their kid like so many of the nurses here have done with us."
While watching your baby's life begin in the NICU is difficult, the Van Farowes said their experience helps them find joy even during the hardest days. For example, the couple refers to this chapter as Selah Jean's NICU Scuba Adventure.
"When we first saw her isolette and then her CPAP mask at the time, just like her respiratory mask, I was like it looks like she's scuba diving and this is her submarine," her mother explained. "It just lightens everything and just reminds us that we don't have to take it all so seriously, it doesn't all have to be so intense. I'm now considering making her nursery at home like under the sea themed. I think it's just her vibe now."
From the hardest times to now, the Van Farowes explained reading the Book of Psalms brings great comfort.
"The Psalms are like a rock to us," Elianna Van Farowe said. "They're just a wonderful way to cry out to the Lord in rejoicing but also in lamenting and confusion."
It is even the place in the Bible where they found inspiration for Selah's name.
"Selah, it comes from the Psalms," she explained. "It's something that means to pause or reflect. We're hopeful that her name can just remind us to sit and reflect on the Lord's faithfulness in the high risk OB, from my water breaking, to the emergency c-section, to everyday in the NICU from when she was really up and down in the beginning to many more stable days which she's still in the ICU and she's still a tiny girl, there's just so much to reflect on and to know that the Lord is really faithful."
The Van Farowes do not know what tomorrow holds, but as they lean evermore into their faith, they are ready for whatever life throws their way.
"We're grateful our daughter is safe," Elianna Van Farowe said. "We would not wish an emergency c-section or a NICU stay on anybody, but we wouldn't change it for ourselves because it's been a way that the Lord has just made us really rely on Him and that is a gift."
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