Out of every dark storm comes a rainbow. One 23-year-old revealed she gave birth to a miracle baby 9 months after her husband tragically died in a waterskiing accident.
The widow called her baby boy a "miracle." Mari Kuhlman revealed she gave birth to her son, Raphael Patrick, on July 18. Sadly, that came nine months after her husband died in a water-skiing accident on Oct. 31. To make things even sadder, the couple had married just days before. They wed on October 28 and went to St. Lucia for their honeymoon. Nate ended up drowning while waterskiing. Bystanders failed to revive him.
The 23-year-old said she often prayed for a miracle. She said, "What if God answers this in another way — that I'm pregnant?" Fast forward a month later, and Mari found out she was pregnant on Thanksgiving. She took a pregnancy test after missing her period.
"This has to be a miracle," she recalled, per The Tampa Bay Times. "I was so overjoyed that God would give us this gift of new life. I was wishing Nathaniel was here with me. But there is overwhelming joy. I could feel his joy. He already knew [about the pregnancy], but I was just finding out."
Derek Wildman, a professor at the University of South Florida who teaches reproductive biology, weighed in on a miracle birth. He says that "You only have a day or two, tops, when you can get pregnant." Mari said that she ovulated days before her wedding to Nate. That makes the chances of getting pregnant smaller.
23-Year-Old With Miracle Birth
"Maybe [Mari's] math was off [regarding her ovulation date]?" the professor continued. "Or maybe, it's very rare, but possible, that an egg dropped from the second ovary." Wildman also said, "She could have conceived a child up to five days after [Nate] died," he said.
Despite being gone, the 23-year-old tries to find ways to include her late husband. She posted about him on social media.
"Happy birthday my angel. ... Clearly God had a plan bigger than anything we could have ever imagined. He answered our prayers, and prayers of those around the world, just in a different way than we had expected," she wrote in the post.
She later announced the birth of their son in an emotional post.
"Nate, our son is here!" she captioned the post. "I cannot believe it, thank you for carrying me through one of the hardest days of my life! But the reward of holding our son in my arms was obviously so worth it!"
"I know you'll be praying for him, for us each and every day, and he will know without a doubt how much his father loves him! We'll feel your love in the sunshine, in the rain, in the breeze and the butterflies we see," she added.
