They said they spent the first night at Providence Hospital while Rachel underwent a series of tests and ultrasounds. The next day, doctors scheduled a c-section for the following morning, and Josh’s commanding officer recommended they move into the Fisher House during their stay in Anchorage.

He recalled feeling a great peace of mind that night, settled into the home and preparing for Devi’s birth. They ate at the Red Robin at Tikhatnu Commons that night, he said, and the ice cream was on the house in celebration of their daughter’s impending birthday.

Crawford said the gravity of their situation had not yet sunk in.

“We were going to have a perfect baby, perfect timing, no complications,” he said. “It hit me a few days later.”

Driving back and forth between the Fisher House and the hospital in their rental Nissan, holding their breaths while doctors performed a series of surgeries on their infant daughter in the weeks after her birth, they said they began to realize what could have happened.

“It’s been kind of a blur, every emotion you could think of,” said Rachel, long red hair falling loosely over her shoulders, eyes tired from sleepless nights spent looking after her child.

Now, they’re finally ready to fly back to Fairbanks and introduce Devi to her real home and ocean-blue home office turned nursery.

But after spending a month at the Fisher House, “The transition to our house shouldn’t be that difficult for her,” Josh said.

“It could have been so much more stressful,” Rachel said. The Fisher House took the stress away, and with a still-uncertain medical future for Devi, born more than a month prematurely ,Josh said the House will be a frequent home-away-from-home for his family.

“It’s inevitable we’ll be back down here,” he said.

The doors will be open.