{"id":291576,"date":"2023-05-24T08:43:22","date_gmt":"2023-05-24T13:43:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=291576"},"modified":"2023-05-23T10:10:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T15:10:11","slug":"mothers-day-special-nicu-family","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/","title":{"rendered":"Mother&#8217;s Day takes on special meaning for this NICU family"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px;\" class=\"sharethis-inline-share-buttons\" ><\/div><p>After 142 days at Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, Alexandria Hicks was not disappointed to spend another holiday &#8212; this time Mother\u2019s Day &#8212; in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with her premature daughter, Esther Grace. Instead, she was grateful for all of the positives in their lives.<\/p>\n<p>WTVM <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wtvm.com\/2023\/05\/15\/mom-spends-her-mothers-day-nicu-with-baby\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">reported<\/a> that Esther Grace has spent nine holidays in the hospital so far, with Mother&#8217;s Day being the most recent. But Hicks used this time as an opportunity instead of a setback. Hicks explained, \u201cI had figured out very early on that I could either feel sorry for myself, feel sorry for her, or I could look to it as we\u2019re here, we\u2019ve made it, we\u2019ve survived and every day she fights, I\u2019ll fight behind her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">She added, \u201cI\u2019ve started to notice what\u2019s important and what\u2019s not important. Things that I thought ahead of time would be \u2018Oh my god, I hope we don\u2019t celebrate this holiday here&#8217;, to &#8216;Oh look I get to spend it with the nurses.\u2019 It\u2019s just there\u2019s always two perspectives and I try to look at it as the more beautiful side as we can either feel bad, or celebrate.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Esther Grace was born on Christmas Eve, and weighed only one pound. \u201cThey said that her life and my life were both at risk the longer she stayed in. So, at birth because of all of her conditions and everything she was going through, they gave her a 20% chance of survival,\u201d said Hicks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">On <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100090320941461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">social media,<\/a> Hicks shared, \u201cAfter a very distressing pregnancy leading to a traumatic delivery, my daughter Esther was born fourteen weeks premature. She has triumphantly fought for weeks we prayed and sat at her bedside speaking life.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The premature baby girl is now five months old, weighing a very healthy nine pounds. The family doesn\u2019t know when baby Esther will be allowed to go home but Hicks said, \u201cThroughout all of this we\u2019ve never once felt like we\u2019d lose her, we just felt like we should keep praying and trusting that she will make it through.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/walgreens-cvs-petition\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-283198\" src=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg\" alt=\"Walgreens CVS banner\" width=\"700\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--700x180.jpg 700w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--300x77.jpg 300w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--768x197.jpg 768w, https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Keep-Abortion-Pill-Out-Of-Walgreens-CVSLAN-Horizontal--500x128.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI believe that every child is given exactly to the mom that they need them to have, and I didn\u2019t know I was capable of being a NICU mom until I was thrown into it,\u201d Hicks continued. &#8220;This is a chance to love and grow and become something I never knew I could be.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>During their time in NICU, Hicks was only able to clothe her premature daughter with hats. She had a two-week hospital stay leading up to delivery, during which she crocheted 30 hats for the NICU. After Esther was born, Alexandria brought handmade items to share with other NICU moms. She believes it\u2019s important for them to connect with their babies by dressing their little ones while in the NICU.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBeing able to see the hats I crocheted on my own daughter and other babies has brought such a joy to myself but also to other moms to be able to pick out colors or patterns that they specifically desired,\u201d Hicks explained. This was how\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/profile.php?id=100090320941461\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Project 4:14<\/a> began. It\u2019s a non-profit organization that sends love to NICU moms. The ministry was founded by Hicks when Esther Grace was only three weeks old.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEsther 4:14 says, \u2018Perhaps you were created for such a time as this\u2019 and she was born 14 weeks early,\u201d she said. \u201cOur mission is love. We send out care packages free of cost to new NICU parents all over the country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Project 4:14 has blessed 35 babies and 30 mothers so far. You can support this ministry by donating handmade hats and blankets, notebooks of any size, personalized cards with kind thoughts, pens, and yarn. Hicks said, \u201cMy heart is so overfilled constantly with the amount of love that people have shown us to help make these care packages happen.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/give.liveaction.org\/general-donation\/?utm_source=lan&amp;utm_medium=display&amp;utm_campaign=monthly&amp;utm_content=article\"><i><strong>Did you know that as little as $10 a month is enough to reach more than 3,000 people with the truth about abortion that no one else is telling them? Click here to start saving lives 365 days a year.<\/strong><\/i><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>After 142 days at Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital, Alexandria Hicks was not disappointed to spend another holiday &#8212; this time Mother\u2019s Day &#8212; in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) with her premature daughter, Esther Grace. Instead, she was grateful for all of the positives in their lives. WTVM reported that Esther Grace has spent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":820,"featured_media":291759,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false},"categories":[9455,3473],"tags":[20059,20060,1431,20058,5301,20062,20061],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v20.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Mother&#039;s Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother&#039;s Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mother&#039;s Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother&#039;s Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Live Action News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Untitled-design-2023-05-23T103551.234.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"650\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Tori Shaw\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@liveaction\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Tori Shaw\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Tori Shaw\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/70c77a025696420e7edf2127e46bff57\"},\"headline\":\"Mother&#8217;s Day takes on special meaning for this NICU family\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\"},\"wordCount\":697,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Alexandria Hicks\",\"Esther Grace\",\"Mother's Day\",\"Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital\",\"premature\",\"Project 4:14\",\"WTVM\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Human Interest\",\"Newsbreak\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\",\"name\":\"Mother's Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00\",\"description\":\"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother's Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mother&#8217;s Day takes on special meaning for this NICU family\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Live Action News\",\"description\":\"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Live Action\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png\",\"width\":701,\"height\":710,\"caption\":\"Live Action\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/\",\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/70c77a025696420e7edf2127e46bff57\",\"name\":\"Tori Shaw\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36c8834de52a0844aebd33e9975cd79?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36c8834de52a0844aebd33e9975cd79?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Tori Shaw\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/tori-shaw\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mother's Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby","description":"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother's Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mother's Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby","og_description":"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother's Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.","og_url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/","og_site_name":"Live Action News","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","article_published_time":"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00","article_modified_time":"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":650,"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/Untitled-design-2023-05-23T103551.234.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Tori Shaw","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@liveaction","twitter_site":"@liveaction","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Tori Shaw","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/"},"author":{"name":"Tori Shaw","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/70c77a025696420e7edf2127e46bff57"},"headline":"Mother&#8217;s Day takes on special meaning for this NICU family","datePublished":"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/"},"wordCount":697,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"keywords":["Alexandria Hicks","Esther Grace","Mother's Day","Piedmont Columbus Regional Hospital","premature","Project 4:14","WTVM"],"articleSection":["Human Interest","Newsbreak"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/","name":"Mother's Day has special meaning for mother of premature baby","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-05-24T13:43:22+00:00","dateModified":"2023-05-23T15:10:11+00:00","description":"This mother of a premature baby girl has spent nine holidays in the NICU, including Mother's Day, but she sees it as an opportunity.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/mothers-day-special-nicu-family\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mother&#8217;s Day takes on special meaning for this NICU family"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","name":"Live Action News","description":"Covering Human Rights, Abortion, &amp; Pro-Life Issues","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#organization","name":"Live Action","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/Live-Action-Logo-Black.png","width":701,"height":710,"caption":"Live Action"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/twitter.com\/liveaction","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/liveactionorg\/","https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/LiveActionFilms\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/LiveActionFilms"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/70c77a025696420e7edf2127e46bff57","name":"Tori Shaw","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36c8834de52a0844aebd33e9975cd79?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b36c8834de52a0844aebd33e9975cd79?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Tori Shaw"},"url":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/author\/tori-shaw\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291576"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/820"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291576"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":291760,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291576\/revisions\/291760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/291759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}