>Since we are celebrating a “milestone” in Emily’s sojourn on this beautiful planet, I thought it would be appropriate to remember her entrance into our family. Emily was a blessing even before she was born. My pregnancy with her was totally uneventful, a true blessing after a difficult pregnancy with Jared. She is the only true “Selman” in the family, having been born in the local hospital shortly after our move here from Florida. We had a choice of dates for her birth by Caesarian section-either the 19th or 27th of December and decided she had a better chance of getting a true birthday celebration before Christmas than after, but I’m sure she often felt cheated as birthday presents were sometimes combined with Christmas. After Emily was born, the first time the nurses brought her in for me to nurse she was inside a bright red fuzzy stocking. She looked so cute! This was her Christmas stocking for many years.
Before Emily was born we alerted the doctor to a blood group incompatibility that Bruce and I have that causes severe jaundice in our babies. The bilirubin level in the blood has to be constantly monitored to avoid having it rise to dangerous levels. We became aware of this problem when her sister Alicia was born. The bilirubin levels in Alicia’s blood became so high she had to have a transfusion to prevent the bilirubin from building up in her brain and causing brain damage, so we were concerned that Emily not have similar problems. We were sent home from the hospital with the assurance that everything was fine, but by the next morning it was obvious that she was very jaundiced so we took her back to the hospital. They weren’t able to care for her here so she was sent to Valley Children’s Hospital in Fresno.
Those days were very difficult for us. We had just moved into a new home a few days before Emily was born. Lloyd and Georgeanna Johnson, friends in the ward, brought dinner and set up the beds for us, but we were still in the process of unpacking. We had four other little ones at home expecting Christmas and now we were splitting our time between home and the hospital. I was at the hospital most of the day so I could continue nursing Emily and Bruce was back and forth as work permitted. I don’t think we even had a Christmas tree up yet and it was just a day or two before Christmas. Thankfully, my parents came to help out. Abuelita and Abuelito shopped for presents on Christmas Eve, watched the other children while we were at the hospital with Emily, and made sure that Christmas happened for our family. As we sat in the hospital that Christmas Eve and held our sweet little baby girl, praying that everything would turn out well, we were grateful for the Priesthood that had sealed us as a family and had blessed Emily. We were acutely aware of what is truly important-the love and support of our family, our love for each other, our knowledge of Heavenly Father’s love for us, the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation, good health, good friends. Those were true gifts from a loving Heavenly Father that very difficult Christmas of 1978-Emily’s first Christmas.
PS. As I am writing this I realize that since my story about Emily is about her birth, I have failed to voice what makes Emily such a special person. She is a very caring person, always concerned about others and their happiness and welfare. She is easy-going, even-tempered, slow to anger, always giving others the benefit of the doubt. Even as a child, she was the peace-maker, the mediator of conflicts, careful not to hurt anyone's feelings. As parents, our greatest joy comes in seeing that she remains true to the covenants she has made and is a great wife and mother. We are proud to be her parents.
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