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Baby born 4 months early spending first Christmas out of the hospital

Posted at 9:43 PM, Dec 20, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-20 21:44:19-05

LOWELL, Mich. -- It'll be an exciting holiday season for one West Michigan family because this will be the first one they spend together at home, something they've been dreaming of since last Christmas.

All Dave and Cheryl Emmette wanted was to hold their baby daughter Josephine when she was born last year, but it wasn't that easy.

"My wife and I had been trying to adopt; at the time it was probably three years," Dave said. "We had just returned from visiting family up north."

That's when the two got the call they'd been waiting on for years.

"My wife got a call form Bethany Christian Services, who we worked with, and said, 'There's a baby girl, if you want her.'"

Enter Josephine.

She was was born four months early and weighed only a pound and a half at birth. But the Emmettes didn't care.

"Went to the hospital where she was in the NICU, and there's just no questions. In our heart and our minds we knew she was our daughter," Dave said.

But first, they had to wait. "She was in the NICU for 86 days," Cheryl said.

They spent hours, even entire days and nights, keeping watch over their daughter, Cheryl said.

"We talked to her, we read books to her," Dave said.

Now, a year later and just in time for the holidays, baby Josie is home and ready to celebrate her first Christmas out of the hospital.

"Here we are a year later, and she's just a beautiful baby girl," Dave said. "She's our Christmas miracle."