A HUGE thank you to all of her sponsors! Together you helped Anna raise $1,645.00 and a total of $7,725.00 for Team NICU!!
Thank you to Mahea, baby Rylan, Jenny & Tiara for walking with us! It was a very memorable day! Enjoy the video!
Anna’s hilarious card for March for Babies
Check out Anna’s hilarious ecard for her March for Babies walk this Saturday! She still has $280 to go to reach her goal of $1,000 to help fellow preemie babies! Thanks for helping her out!
Anna’s walking in the March of Dimes!
On April 28th, Anna will be walking in the March for Babies to support fellow preemies! Please join her by either walking with us or helping her raise money to bless other preemie babies!
http://www.marchforbabies.org/AnnaDestiny
Thanks for your support!
Finally, Anna’s first year of life video (Part 2)
Sorry to all of you that have been unable to view Anna’s video until now. I used Bruno Mars song titled “The way you are” for the last minute of the video and due to copyright it would not play on YouTube. So I changed it up and used one of my favorite songs by Kari Jobe called “Healer” which fits the end perfectly by stating “nothing is impossible for you.” The bible says ” with God all things are possible.” Anna’s life is truly a testimony to this truth! Thanks for watching!
Part 1 to this video can be found on the first post to this blog 
Happy 1st Birthday Anna Destiny
Beyond thankful for all the sweet birthday cards, texts, calls and messages on Anna’s 1st birthday! So grateful for all the miracles that happened over this past year and the supernatural sustaining power of our Lord Jesus Christ. Anna is so full of joy and loves life! In just the past month she made it into the newspaper and starred in a movie! She loves going to Church and singing along with Daddy and preaching with Papa. She always has a lot to say! Grandma Kay is coming next week for her 8th visit this year! We have been abundantly blessed by her servant heart and Anna simply adores her! Anna enjoys physical & occupational therapy as well as infant education. Her face lights each time she sees Laurie, Jenny and Cindy. She works out hard and its paid off! She’s 12 lb 5 oz (that’s 12 times her birth weight!!) and 25 inches long. Catching up to her peers quickly and moving into size 12 month clothes
Here’s the video of her first 4 months.. almost finished with Part 2 which I will post this weekend! Thanks again for all your support and prayers. We are so blessed!!
Merry Christmas from Anna!
“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
Merry Christmas to all of you! I hope this post finds you doing well! Anna is almost 9 months old and celebrating her 1st Christmas!We are very grateful to Jesus for our precious miracle. My whole family is out here to celebrate Christmas and Anna will be dedicated tomorrow on Christmas day at Church. (You can watch on line at www.abidingplace.org at 6pm pacific) Praying that you have a very Merry Christmas and remember Jesus is the reason for the season! To Him be the glory! Anna’s miraculous story will be featured in the first ever Rady Children’s NICU newsletter this January. Here’s a preview:
Our early bird, Our miracle from God
Anna Destiny Spitsbergen was born on March 29th 2011 at 29 weeks, weighing just 1 lb 3 oz. Before delivery, Anna’s outcome did not look good. In fact, they told us she probably was not going to make it. However, when Anna made her debut into this world she was feisty, alert and looked the Neonatologist straight in the eyes! At that moment we knew we witnessed an amazing miracle and Anna was truly one of a kind.
The NICU staff told us that the days following would be similar to riding a roller coaster. So we decided to fasten our seat belts, pray hard and enjoy the ride. The ride in the NICU lasted 105 days, but our faith in Jesus Christ saw us through! Anna was blessed to have the most incredible primary nurses who advocated for her and were involved every step of the way. They became apart of our family and we will be forever grateful for them. It amazed us to see how many people were invested in our little girl. To all the NICU MD’s, NP’s, RN’s, CHET team, Social Work, Dietician, Lactation, OT&PT, thank you for your outstanding care. Anna is the happiest baby who loves life and constantly reminds us that miracles still happen!
Our God is MIGHTY
“The LORD thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; he will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy; he will rest in his love, he will joy over thee with singing.” Zephaniah 3:17
Less than a week after her open heart surgery, Anna is home! Her incredibly quick recovery amazed the whole medical staff! We serve a MIGHTY God who heals and saves! Miracle after miracle… Thank you Lord Jesus! She is drinking double the amount of breast milk and is all smiles being home! (Please pray that my production increases so I can keep up with her!!)
Anna continues to be an awesome testimony of God’s miracle and amazes us each day! Thank you Lord for our sweet daughter…We are forever grateful! And thank you all for your powerful prayers and support. We have been abundantly blessed
And we know that all things work together for good…
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.” Romans 8:28
We are so incredibly grateful for all your prayers and support during Anna’s heart surgery. I am happy to say she is doing BETTER than expected!! The doctors had thought she would be on breathing tube for a few days but she got off it the day after surgery! They also thought she might need to stay in ICU a few weeks but we are praying that she will go home in a few days!! I was even able to hold her yesterday only 72 hours after surgery! She isn’t on any pain medications either which is just amazing!! Please keep up your prayers, as you can see they are very powerful!! Thank you!
To God be the glory…
Thank you all for your prayers! Each one was felt and answered! Anna’s open heart surgery was a success! To God be the glory! Please keep the prayers coming for a miraculous recovery! She is such a fighter and trying to wake up but it’s too early for that yet! We are so incredibly grateful for each one of you! May God bless you abundantly for standing in faith and prayer with us during this time
Another miracle (and huge answer to prayer) was that the surgeon was able to do a transverse incision (right under her breast tissue) so Anna won’t have a large scar showing on her chest. Once she develops more you won’t even be able to see the scar since the breast tissue will cover it!! This was a miracle because of her small size (still only 5lb 10 oz)!!
Please pray with us:
she will have a quick & easy recovery… She sure deserves it!
she gets the breathing tube out today
she comes off the pacemaker
and never returns to the hospital again!!!
Thank you again for walking along side of us in this journey. Words can’t express our gratitude. It’s been a crazy 6 months but with all of you supporting us we’ve enjoyed every minute!
Be blessed,
The Spitsbergen Family
God never ceases to amaze me
In 24 hours, Anna has had 9 units of red blood cells, 2 units of plasma, and 1 unit of platelets directly donated from family and friends for her heart surgery Tuesday. God never ceases to amaze me. Her outfit says “love you tons” and we sure do! Thank you to all of you who dropped everything to donate to our precious miracle!
