宁笑勿语

A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small hospital room of Diana Blessing. She was still groggy from surgery.
当医生走进Diana Blessing狭窄的病房时，三月的寒风正在达拉斯上空呼啸。她还未从手术中完全清醒过来。

Her husband, David, held her hand as they braced themselves for the latest news. That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo an emergency Cesarean to deliver couple's new daughter, Dana Lu Blessing.
她的丈夫David握着她的手，一起等待最新的医疗结果。1991年3月10日的那个下午，并发症使得怀孕只有24周的Diana不得不接受剖腹产手术，早早地将他们的女儿Dana Lu Blessing带到人间。

At 12 inches long and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.
生下来时只有12吋长、1磅9盎司重，他们已经知道她是生命悬于一线的早产儿。

Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs.
尽管如此，医生温柔的话还象炮弹般震撼。

"I don't think she's going to make it," he said, as kindly as he could.
“我认为她不一定能活下来，”他尽量温和地说道。

"There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one."
“她活过今晚的可能性只有10%，即使她勉强挺过来，她的未来可能会非常残酷。”

Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Dana would likely face if she survived.
David和Diana听着医生描述Dana即使生存下来，将来可能会遇到的艰难处境，心里却被不愿相信的痛苦而麻木。

She would never walk, she would never talk, she would probably be blind, and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy to complete mental retardation, and on and on.
她永远也不会走路、不会说话，她可能会是个瞎子，她肯定还会容易带有严重缺陷，从大脑麻痹到智障、等等等等。

"No! No!" was all Diana could say.
“噢，不！”这是Diana唯一能说出来的。

She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four.
她和David，以及他们五岁的儿子Dustin，一直都梦想生个女儿，变成四口之家的这一天。

Now, within a matter of hours, that dream was slipping away.
可是现在，就在几小时之间，这个梦想就在悄悄溜走。

But as those first days passed, a new agony set in for David and Diana. Because Dana's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially 'raw', the lightest kiss or caress only intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer the strength of their love.
但是随着头几天过去，新的烦恼又向David和Diana袭来。由于Dana的未发育的神经系统还极其脆弱，最轻的吻和爱抚都只会加重她的痛苦，所以他们甚至不能将小小的女儿拥入怀里，将爱的力量传递给她。

All they could do, as Dana struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
当Dana独自在导管、电线的紫外线灯下挣扎时，他们所能做的，只是祷告，求上帝能守在他们宝贵的女儿身边。

There was never a moment when Dana suddenly grew stronger.
Dana没有某刻忽然变得强壮起来。

But as the weeks went by, she did slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
但随着时间流逝，她的确慢慢添了份量，长了力气。

At last, when Dana turned two months old. her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very first time.
终于，当Dana两个月大的时候，她的父母可以第一次把她揽入怀中。

And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Dana went home from the hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
又过了两个月，尽管医生继续和善但严肃地指出她存活的可能性还接近于零，更不要提过正常的生活，Dana还是告别医院回到家，象她的妈妈希望的那样。

Five years later, when Dana was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an unquenchable zest for life.
五年后，Dana长成了娇小淘气的女孩，拥有一双闪着光的灰色眸子和对生命不屈不挠的热情。

She showed no signs whatsoever of any mental or physical impairment. Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more. But that happy ending is far from the end of her story.
她看不出有任何智力或身体缺陷。她和任何一个小女孩一样，甚至更活泼。但幸福的结尾并非她的故事的结局。

One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home in Irving , Texas , Dana was sitting in her mother's lap in the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing.
1996年夏季一个炎热的下午，在得州欧文市她家附近，当地棒球公园的看台上，Dana坐在妈妈的腿上一起观看哥哥Dustin的棒球队训练。

As always, Dana was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby when she suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Dana asked, "Do you smell that?"
象往常一样，Dana和妈妈以及旁边的几个大人叽叽咕咕说个不停。突然，她静下来，把两只手臂交叉抱住自己的两肩，小Dana问到，“你闻到了吗？”

Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, "Yes, it smells like rain."
Diana耸了耸鼻子，闻到暴风雨来临的味道，便回答说，“对啊，闻起来象要下雨了。”

Dana closed her eyes and again asked, "Do you smell that?"
Dana闭上眼睛，又问一遍，“你闻到了吗？”

Once again, her mother replied, "Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain."
她的妈妈也再次答道，“是啊，我看咱们要挨淋了。闻起来象要下雨。”

Still caught in the moment, Dana shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and loudly announced, "No, it smells like Him.
还沉浸在这一刻中的Dana摇了摇头，用她的小手轻轻拍拍自己瘦瘦的肩膀，她大声宣布：“不对，这是祂的味道。

It smells like God when you lay your head on His chest."
这闻起来就象是你把头压在上帝怀里的味道。“

Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Dana happily hopped down to play with the other children.
当Dana欢快地跳下去和其他孩子玩的时候，泪模糊了Diana的眼睛。

Before the rains came, her daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their hearts, all along.
在大雨来临之前，她女儿的话证实了Diana和Blessing大家庭所有成员这么久以来，一直在心里掩藏的看法。

During those long days and nights of her first two months of her life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her, God was holding Dana on His chest and it is His loving scent that she remembers so well.
在Dana生命最初的两个月里，当她的神经脆弱到甚至不能接受大家的触摸时，是上帝一直把她抱在怀里。她清楚记得的，是祂充满爱意的气味。

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