My son was born eight weeks early. It has taken me a year to write this because thinking about those first few months still brings tears to my eyes. After ventilators, chest tubes, transfusions, I realized my son and I would not be seeing home for a very long time and my vision of snuggling a newborn was just not going to happen. In addition to the obvious things to be upset about, I threw myself a pity party because I would never have newborn pictures of my son to hang on the wall next to his siblings. Something so little, but a forever reminder that he had such a rough start to life. There is a newborn photographer at the hospital but my son would need to have oxygen and again, wanting to have some normalcy, I just did not want pictures that would always remind of this very trying time. So after eight weeks in the NICU (of what ended up being a 16-week hospital stay) and weeks of Deana, as well as others, taking excellent care of my son, Deana did something to take care of me. Taking care of me is not in her job description and something she surely went above and beyond to do. She helped me take pictures of my son, not leaving his side, administering his oxygen when I was not clicking away and making sure that I got my pictures and he got what he needed medically. What she did for my soul that day I could just never repay. The NICU is an amazing place - filled with sadness and yet so much hope. The nurses who work there are truly angels on earth and when you have an extended stay like my family did, those nurses become your family. Deana is an example of a nurse who loves her job, loves her babies, and loves her families.