The Daniels Family got a scary surprise when Cathleen's water broke just 23 weeks into their pregnancy while they were over an hour outside of San Antonio, Texas. They rushed to the hospital and hunkered down at the Fisher House to support their premature son and two other children.
Cathleen Daniels knew when her husband told her that he wanted to join the military that being part of a military family would be tough, but she quickly realized it was the right path. David, a son of missionaries, knew in his heart that this calling was the path that God had decided for him, and
Cathleen felt a sense of peace with their decision. Several years later, though, the family was faced with a series of unknowns that they never anticipated.
At the end of 2021, their experience, while challenging, wasn’t all that unusual for a military family. David, an Air Force aircraft structural mechanic, had just returned from a year in Korea. The Daniels were preparing to relocate from Florida, where Cathleen and their two young daughters, Adalyn (5) and Elayah (3) had spent the last year, to their new duty station in New Mexico. In December, they received the exciting news that Cathleen was pregnant again. The growing family had most of their belongings picked up in April and, at the end of May, made their way across the country. That is when the real unknowns came.
When the family was about an hour and a half outside of San Antonio, Texas, Cathleen’s water broke — at just 23 weeks. They went back to the nearest hospital they knew of, in San Antonio, where they were told she could not go anywhere unless it was by ambulance or helicopter, so she was admitted. At first, they depended on friends of their parents for a place to stay but knew this wasn’t really a practical solution. After they reached out for resources from their medical team, a social worker referred them to Fisher House.
On May 28, after just 23 weeks and 5 days of pregnancy, Luke was born weighing just 1 pound, 5 ounces. As a micro-preemie, he faced numerous complications, so he remained in the neonatal intensive care unit. Staying at the Lackland Air Force Base Fisher House allowed Cathleen and David to take turns watching Luke’s sisters and bonding with him, letting him hear their voices and allowing them to hold him as much as possible at Methodist Hospital where he was born.
The Daniels family has had months of unknowns. “Our whole story is ‘We don’t know,’” explained Cathleen. “How long would we be here? When will he be able to come home? When can we leave? Where will we go?”
What Cathleen does know is that family is all she really needs to be home.
“Home is where heart is, and family is where home is. As long as we have our family, we are home.”
Both Cathleen and David’s parents live in Africa as missionaries, and their siblings live all over the country. With almost everything in storage and so many unknowns, Fisher House became a family to them, which was very important to them.
