Since Easter 1994, Keren will have started school full time. In January 1994, she was very excited when she started mornings at Stanley Green school with three of her friends from nursery. A few months previously, we had received a letter confirming that our request for her to attend Stanley Green school had been rejected. The fact that she got to go to that school will remain with her as a testimony to one of God's miracles in her life.

Thank you for those who prayed for the right outcome. God cares for each one of us. God has no favourites. Nothing is too small for Him. We wanted Keren to have the same opportunity to go to the same school that her sister, Keziah and brother, Micah had gone to also. Keren simply wanted to go to Stanley Green because her friends would be there. She told her Mummy that she believed that God wanted her to go there. Just one month earlier, Keren asked God to come into her heart and her attitude had changed. We had wanted her to go to that school because of the Christian influence within the school (which was not evident within our local school). Before the letter arrived, we were aware that all seventeen out-of-area children who had applied were to be turned away because of the council limits. Keren cried when she heard the news.

Even as we contemplated moving house, we decided to attend an open evening at Canford Heath First School. We were so impressed by the healthy caring attitude and the professional approach by the headmaster and teachers, that on the same evening we enrolled Keren, and even bought her a uniform. Everything happened within a few days. Keren had convinced herself that she would be happy at this other school. Her friend, Lisa from across the road was at the same school (albeit a few years ahead). The next day, Hazel got a phone call from the headmistress at Stanley Green to say that a place at the school had been arranged for Keren. Hazel was confused. She tried to sound enthused. What should she do now? What did God want for Keren? The other school had better facilities and was closer to home. We prayed and asked others to pray. Delicately, we expressed the dilemma to both school administrations and said we would let them know by Monday. We asked Keren again where she wanted to go? When we asked at first, she had not realised that she now had a choice. Over the weekend, it became clear that she wanted to be in the school with her nursery school friends.

Keren may remember these events as the first sense of the hand of God. But for the record (as a reminder of God's promise to us and also for her to read and perhaps treasure), I would like to testify to the first miracle in her life. Then the hand of God was upon her and on those who would be entrusted to care for her. For the squeamish, you may wish not to read any further. Five years have passed, but I won’t forget some of the detailed events of that precious Easter.

Keren has two birthdays usually. She was born on Good Friday. Perhaps not that unusual - 0.3% of all babies are. On Maundy Thursday, Hazel went into hospital in the early phase of labour because Keziah and Micah were both breach-born and the doctors were concerned to avoid leaving this one cooking too long. However, Keren (already having been informed that she was a girl) was not ready to come out to suit the pre-holiday efforts, and not for the first time in my life, I was sent home to get some sleep. The next day, the activities escalated and around 3pm Hazel's waters broke. For the next few hours, as the effect of the injected painkiller wore off, Keren was making moves towards birthlight, and praise God, this one was the right way round. For Hazel, the labour was not as long as usual, and by 8:30pm, Keren was born. As Hazel was being repaired and the doctors and nurses were to-ing and fro-ing, I relaxed back in the chair and held Keren in my arms and sang softly to her:

I stayed for a few hours longer because there appeared to be a few difficulties. Hazel felt herself drifting and said to me, "I don't think I'm going to make it." At first, I became a little disturbed, and when the doctor said that Hazel would need a unit of blood to top up the loss, I casually retorted, "You had better make it three!" As I drove home to relieve Jan who was baby-sitting, the burden of Hazel's predicament hit me fully, and I wept as I realised the significance of her words.

After Jan left, I dutifully began phoning the ready-prepared list of relatives and friends to tell them the good news of Keren Teresa Dougall, and a few close friends, I asked for prayer that Hazel would make it through. About midnight, when I had just finished phoning, a nurse called - they had been trying to get through to me. Hazel had been taken into theatre because the bleeding had not stopped. I said I would get there as soon as I could. I arranged for Hazel's friend to come and sleep the night, and then headed to the hospital. When I arrived, I wanted to be beside her - just to be there, but that was not possible. My worst fear was confirmed when they said that she was to be moved into the main theatre for major surgery. I sat in the room next door with a trolley containing Hazel's personal belongings. I picked up her Bible and continued reading from the point that I had been reading the day before (Psalm 100). For three hours, I prayed - I cried out to God: "Why?" - I read 50 Psalms - I listened - I heard God quiz me to the core. Reading Psalm 121-123, I wept and felt His Peace. Reading Psalms 126-128, I claimed God's promise of the best for Hazel and myself.

I had known God's blessing upon us three years previously. From my state of spiritual exhaustion, nervous collapse and physical weakness, God was able to work His will for us. I had left one job on Thursday, having an interview on Good Friday, everything falling apart on Saturday (even the car broke down), before being offered the job and, still in a severely depressed state, having the strength to accept the job on Easter Sunday. There was no doubt that this was God's timing that He had prepared us for this, and I knew His outcome. After twenty-one units of blood (that is two bodies worth washed through) administered at 4 degrees Celcius, a nurse came to explain to me what Hazel had been through and forewarned me of the months she would take to recover from the shock to her system. Looking at me, she said, "I can see that it has not hit you yet". Perhaps Hazel's words hit me first. But the truth is she did not realise Who had touched me or Hazel. How could she have understood the Peace from God? As a matter of course, after one of the surgeons emerged from theatre, I asked him, "How did it go in there?" I was not surprised when he said regarding the job, "It was touch and go at one point." Hazel was then transferred to the Intensive Care Unit at the main Poole hospital.

At 4 am, I was allowed to go and see Keren and realised how precious indeed she was. Then, seeing Hazel with dozens of tubes feeding in and out of her, I could bring little comfort to her. On Saturday, the nurses brought a photograph of Keren across to her. On Easter Sunday, Hazel was still under the Intensive Care Unit, but Keren was brought across to her and she was able to see her and hold her for a little while. We were very grateful to the doctors and nurses for all their care and efforts.