Her blood-sugar level was far above normal and her immune system was shutting down, Linda Ackley wrote under the heading "Survivors" on the National Necrotizing Fasciitis Foundation website.

She had diabetes, doctors determined, and she spent about a week in a coma and on a ventilator. Some of the muscles in her stomach had to be removed.

Doctors did not think she would live, Mike Ackley said.

"God wanted me here for something," Linda Ackley said.

Looking back, she said she confused the baby's movements for expanding and contracting muscles and twitching nerves caused by her surgery.

It never occurred to her she was pregnant, she said.

Her menstrual periods always have been irregular. She was not in pain and did not notice significant weight gain.

At the hospital, she and her husband made phone calls, informing family members of the pending birth of their first-born.

All were in disbelief. They called it a joke, Mike Ackley said. "Who can make this up?"

Konopka at first thought maybe Linda Ackley hid the pregnancy, but Linda Ackley is too honest to keep such a secret, to spin such a tale. Her excitement would have blown it, she said.

"They always wanted children," said Konopka, who has two daughters, a son and four grandchildren.

The couple is good with them and others. "So, I am so glad they have one of their own," she said.

Just last month, Konopka and Linda Ackley, two of four sisters, lost their mother, Sandra Linabury, to cancer, and Kimberly shares Linabury's middle name.

Her birth brings joy at what has been a sad time, they said, sitting near the courthouse entrance.

As all the number of well-wishers dwindled, they prepared to go home for the first time.

The apartment is not prepared; for years it has been occupied by only the Ackleys and their pets, but plenty of people are offering help. They have been getting donations and gifts from family members and others.

Kimberly was bundled Monday in a car seat given to the Ackleys by a cousin.

Clothing Carousel, a consignment shop on Franklin Street, donated two bags of clothes.

There will be other adjustments, too.

"I got to get used to saying mommy," Linda Ackley said, and told her husband how odd it felt to recently make an appointment for "her daughter."

Kimberly already has a "mommy's little miracle" T-shirt.

Mike Ackley is feeling fortunate. There have been two extraordinary events in two years.

"First my wife came back to me, and now, I have a baby girl."

--Information from: Jackson Citizen Patriot