The first day we met Sadie Drews, my wife and I could tell that she was a good nurse, but we had no idea how great she truly is until a few weeks later.

My wife and I had been trying to have a child for nine years when our little miracle finally came into the world at 31 weeks and 2 days and was taken to the NICU at Cooks a few days later. We were worried, as you can imagine, so it was important for us to have someone who would care for our little miracle with devotion and would always advocate for him and us.

On Sadie’s first day, with our son, we noticed how she treated him with tenderness and care by doing the little things that, as parents, we notice.

One day, we found out how much experience she had and how much she cared and looked out for her patients. Early that day, our son had seemed to be doing very well, when Sadie noticed something was not right, even before we did. She took action immediately, calling the doctor to come take a look, but when he came by, our baby looked stable, so he said just observe, leave everything as it was.

Sadie did not seem convinced because by this point she knew Nathanael and knew that he was not ok. Sadie kept a close eye on him, so when he had another event, she reacted quickly to get him stable. She called again so that the doctor could come and see him.

Once again, he was stable when they came by, so not much had changed. We could tell that she was still not convinced, so as soon as she saw something going on with our baby, she called again and was insistent. This time, they were able to see what we were seeing, and they decided to intubate.

That was one of the scariest days of our lives to see our son lying there being intubated, not knowing what would happen. That night, Sadie stayed well past her shift, making sure he was ok, and we were too.

The way she knew so quickly that he was not ok, her insistence with the doctors and staying so late to make sure everyone was ok, we wanted her to primary him, so when she said yes, we felt some relief on a very hard day.

We have been in the NICU now for almost four months, and Sadie has been with us on this roller coaster of ups and downs. Not only looking after our son with tender love and care, but looking out for us as well.

She convinced us to go out to dinner, knowing that my wife hadn’t gone anywhere besides the hospital and church in three months. It was something we both needed. We know that when he is with her, it is like he’s with us because she is going to watch over him and do what is best for him, so we were able to go out to eat.

We thank God for the blessing of our son and for Sadie Drews. It hasn’t been easy being here so long, but she has made the weight of it all lighter by being there for us., by having patience, explaining things to us when we were a bit confused, guiding us through important decisions, and making sure that we, as parents, were in a good place to take care of our son by reminding us that with God, nothing is impossible.

God definitely knew what he was doing when he put Auntie Sadie in our lives. We have so many stories and memories with Sadie that I wish I could share because she has truly been there for us. She is a nurse who does her work with vocation, dedication, and love.

Thank you, Sadie!