Our Story

At the end of those two cherished weeks, we were holding Ariella in a quiet room at the end of the hall in the NICU. When it appeared that Ariella had taken her final breath in our arms, we summoned the doctor to confirm. He checked with his stethoscope and said, “I’m so sorry–she has passed.” He walked out of the room, and I thought I had heard him say to the nurse that the time of death was 8:04 as he exited–but I wasn’t one hundred percent sure. I immediately began to pray with my wife. I asked God for Ariella to send us a sign that she is ok.

About 20 minutes later, I remembered the clock on the wall in the quiet room. It hadn’t worked since we had been going to that quiet room and doing our meetings with the doctors in there over the course of the two weeks. It had stopped at the time of 8:04. A little while later, we asked the doctor for confirmation of the time Ariella had passed. I had said, “What time did you call her death?” He said, “8:04.” I asked him, “How did you get that time? I’m just curious.” He looked at me very weirdly like why is this guy asking me this question, and said, “Well, when I exited the room I pulled my cell phone out and called it.” My wife and I just looked at each other in utter shock.

I looked out the window into the clouds and the beautiful sunset for several minutes. I tried to see anything of significance in the clouds. I looked so hard for a sign, but there wasn’t one.

This clock that had been dead for weeks and had stopped at the time of the passing for Ariella–that was our sign. We knew she was with us.

That moment right there is what started it all for us. We met several other families in the NICU at Vanderbilt going through similar situations–sad, hopeless situations no one should ever go through. Our mission is to give every family a care package–to show them support, inspire them to believe and to know that Jesus has them. They are NOT alone in this situation.

Let’s mend broken hearts together

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