A double blessing
Christina Nicole Leaf is easily spotted during the winter months, thanks to the Minnesota Twins jacket she wears around campus. The Jacket was a gift from her father, who received it from the baseball club as recognition for his years of community service while coaching youth sports in Andover, Minnesota.
The word “twins,” however, took on an even deeper and more personal meaning for Leaf (right) the night of Nov. 20, 2009. She remembers vividly the two major points of her rather urgent prayer that evening.
“I was praying that the babies would be safe, and that I wouldn’t have to deliver them,” Leaf said.
The Maranatha sophomore saw both prayers answered that night. Leaf, who had stopped to help a woman in labor, was able to call for an ambulance. And, just 15 minutes after the mother arrived at the hospital, twin girls Christina and Nicole experienced a safe delivery.
It was quite a night for Leaf, who was returning from Milwaukee after having dropped friends off at the airport. Leaf was going to stop for coffee when she noticed the car in front of her driving erratically. The car took the same exit as Leaf, then pulled off to the right side of the road at the bottom of the ramp.
“I had been taking a first aid class that included CPR training, and I thought maybe I could help if it were a medical problem,” Leaf said.
Indeed it was. The woman had waited for her husband as long as possible, but he was at work with his cell phone powered off. She finally left to drive herself to the hospital, but the labor pains became too intense for her to continue.
Leaf helped the woman into the back seat, called 911, then called the husband. She held the woman’s hands and helped keep her calm until help arrived 5-to-10 minutes later.
“She didn’t want to let go of me,” Leaf said. “When they finally put her in the ambulance, I was just standing there with all the police and other first responders who had shown up.”
The parents left a phone message later that evening indicating that the birth had gone well, and they had decided to name the babies Christina and Nicole. They had used grandmothers’ names for the girls’ middle names, but had been unable to decide on first names. The parents called about a week later to report both mom and babies were doing well.
“The Bible says there is a time and a place for everything, and I guess that was just in exactly the place God wanted me to be, at exactly the right time,” Leaf said.
--Posted Dec. 28, 2009