The Smell of Rain, (Or Heaven Scent)

The Smell Of Rain… Or Is IT?

This is a true story.

THE SMELL OF RAIN

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery. Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news.

That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Caesarean to deliver the couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound and nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.

Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. "I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could. "There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one".

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived. She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.

"No! No!" was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.

Through the dark hours of morning as Dana held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and out of sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live and live to be a healthy, happy young girl.

But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their daughter's chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his wife with the inevitable.

David walked in and said that we needed to talk about making funeral
arrangements.
Diana felt so bad for him because he was doing everything to try to include
her in what was going on, but she just wouldn't listen, She couldn't listen. She said, "No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don't care what the doctors say. Dana is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home with us!"

As if willed to live by Diana's determination, Dana clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. 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. But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there. At last, when Dana turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time. 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.

Then, five years later, Dana is a petite but

feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for
life. She shows no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she is everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.

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?" Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
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. It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children. Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along. During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.

Smell the rain.

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Out of pure curiosity, I Googled this to see about the truth, or a follow-up… since Dana would now be 20 years old. There are many many references to this story, all with the same details. Snopes verifies most of it, but of course they dismiss the possibility of a child that young to have any developed sense of smell, and claim it is not likely for a child to know, or recognize what God is… or to be able to recall such details. But for those who KNOW, God IS Recognizable, And We all know we Can and DO recall such details from such a young age. There are many credible sources sharing this same story. I believe it, and will let you decide for yourself. Nobody can convince another of something they know. Each Person has to discover some things for themselves. God is one of those things I KNOW, and will stand by. If you do not yet know God, that is OK. We each have different experiences in life, and come to different conclusions. We each find our strengths in different places. For some reason, Dana’s name is recorded as both Dana, and later in her life as Danae. But Everything else in this story is validated. This story originally was titled “Heaven Scent”. Cute, and accurate! :)

A Special thanks to my Wonderful Friend, Cara for sending this to me when I most needed it in September of 2005. I just found it again, and thought it worthy to pass along to all who might need it, too! Perhaps You are in need of “Smelling The Rain”, Or Know someone who is.

I Hope You Have A Wonderful, and Safe Day! Thank You for Reading My Blog! Jon~=:-)