— Karla Jacobs read the account of a premature baby in the Easter Sunday edition of The News Courier and it brought back memories of when she gave birth to her daughter.

Sarah Lee Jacobs was born weighing just 1 1/2 pounds 18 years ago.

On the day of our visit with Sarah she had just gotten off the school bus and sat in her wheelchair surrounded by her dogs and wearing a brightly colored T-shirt, across which was airbrushed, “It is what it is.”

It seems a philosophy that suits Sarah who remains a joyful young woman despite the obstacles she has had to overcome, including cerebral palsy.

Her dad, Glen Jacobs, says Sarah’s life is, “all about not giving up.”

But Sarah says there have been times that she wanted to give up.

“Like the nights I didn’t have a life anymore,” she says.

Karla said her daughter grew discouraged in the last year as she took two grades at once –– 11th and 12th –– to be able to graduate with classmates her age. It would have been an exhausting ordeal even for anyone.

“She said to me one night, ‘I go to school all day, do homework all night and then go to bed. I don’t have a life anymore.’ So now she knows about Walmart and the mall,” said Karla. “If she doesn’t have homework, she and Ashley are gone.”

Ashley Brown has been Sarah’s five-day-a-week caregiver for the past two years. Karla and Glen run a typing service adjacent to their home.

Ashley assists Sarah with personal hygiene and grooming.

Trying to start a family was an ordeal for Karla when they lived in Neenah, Wis., before Sarah was born. Karla suffered three miscarriages, but then was able to carry a son full term. However, her old troubles returned when she was just 25 1/2 weeks pregnant for Sarah.

“Sarah was not given much of a chance of making it through birth alone, much less surviving thereafter,” said Karla. “My obstetrician and the neonatologist promised nothing. They said if she lived an hour she might have a chance of survival, but she wouldn’t be much more than a vegetable.

“She wasn’t due until Dec. 6, 1991, but was born on Aug. 31. She spent 10 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and actually came home on November 10, 1991, weeks before her due date, weighing 4 1/2 pounds.”

Karla pauses in her narrative to get a small cloth doll she said approximates Sarah’s size at birth.

“She was diagnosed at the age of 2 with cerebral palsy because her brain was not allowed to completely form in the womb. However, against all odds the CP did not leave her with any speech or mental problems –– quite the opposite. She will graduate from mainstream education at West Limestone High School this May 28, having been on the A and B honor rolls all through school.”

Karla has tried to avail her daughter of the best care she can afford. The family moved from Wisconsin when Sarah was just 4 because they wanted to get out of the cold weather.

While still in Wisconsin, Sarah was still unable to sit on her own, so Karla enrolled her in a therapy class that used horses. The saddle came equipped with back and side supports to keep her from falling, but in time she grew strong enough and her balance improved enough to be able to sit unassisted.

When the family moved to Limestone County, Sarah was enrolled at Tender Care day care and preschool. She attended school at Owens Elementary, but because of a surgical procedure and therapy three days a week, she fell behind her classmates.

In 2004, the family traveled to Florida, where Sarah was enrolled in Dolphin Therapy. She was immersed in a pool with a dolphin and her therapist, Dr. Jan. The therapy involved a lot of reaching to improve upper body and arm mobility.

“If they did what you asked, you had to feed them a squid and that was gross,” said Sarah.

“It was not a miracle cure,” said Karla. “But it did give her the drive to walk. We used to have a pool. It might have looked like she was playing, but she was doing hard work.”

Sarah said on the last day of her dolphin therapy, her dolphin, which ordinarily does not act without a signal, swam up and laid its head in her lap.

“Dr. Jan said, ‘Who’s giving the signal for the dolphin to do this?’” said Glen.

“It was like the dolphin knew it was her last day there,” said Karla.

In the meantime, Sarah participated in the Owens Elementary School Beauty Walk in 2000 and won first place in the Owens first through third grade science fair with her project showing the cycle of water evaporation and rain. Her sister-in-law, Nicki Jacobs, helped her write up the project.

Sarah does not volunteer any of this information, but Karla likes to tell of her daughter’s accomplishments.

“It’s not like me to brag,” said Sarah. “I do sometimes, but it has to be a pretty big thing, like ginormous.”

Sarah says she’ll take a year off to rest after graduation. She knows she wants to go to college and she wants to work with animals.

Her mother said that at one time Sarah wanted to be a veterinarian, but became a little squeamish when she heard someone describe delivering a baby calf.