A Little Dragon for a Brave Beginning

Her aunt had seen some of my work before, and when the family wanted a special stuffie for this brand new baby girl, she showed her dad some of the different options I could make.

He chose the dragon. 🐉💗

Of all the little animals and characters he could have picked for his daughter, that was the one that stood out to him.

And somehow, for this particular little girl, a dragon felt especially fitting.

She had already had quite the journey.

At 9 pounds, 12 ounces, she had difficulty during delivery and needed help breathing after she was born. With concerns about her lungs, she was transferred from Statesboro to Savannah for additional NICU care.

Her mom was recovering from a difficult delivery of her own, while both parents were trying to spend as much time as possible with their daughter and take part in her care.

There was a lot happening all at once.

So this dragon wasn't meant to fix any of those things.

It was simply something her daddy chose especially for his little girl during a very uncertain beginning.

A little reminder that said:

You are loved. You were thought about. And there are people waiting to love on you through all of this.

A stuffed dragon might seem like such a small thing compared with everything happening around a NICU stay.

And it is.

But sometimes the small things are what we can do when the big things are completely outside of our control.

We can choose a gift.

We can make something soft.

We can remind a family that we're thinking about them.

And we can give a little girl something that will still be there when the hospital rooms, monitors, drives back and forth, and uncertainty are hopefully far behind her.

One day, she won't remember any of this.

But her family will.

And maybe someday they'll be able to tell her that her dragon was chosen for her by her daddy right at the very beginning.

This dragon's story didn't begin with a favorite color or a character someone had been searching for.

It began with a father saying that he wanted his baby girl to have a stuffie.

He chose a dragon.

I got the privilege of making it.

And somewhere between the yarn and stitches, it became part of the story of one very loved little girl's arrival.

For now, I'm hoping this tiny fighter and her family get plenty of time together, lots of healing, and a much quieter road ahead.

And when she's older, she'll have a little dragon forever with her. 🐉💗

Have you ever given a handmade gift simply because you wanted someone to know you were thinking of them?