Please  read before viewing picture - it's worth it!

A  picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,'  or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact,unless you obtained  a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen  it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named  Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph  Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spina bifida and would not survive  if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an  obstetrics nurse in Atlanta She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable     surgical  procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville ,  he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the  womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section  and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the  surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully  developed    hand  through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr.Bruner was  reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional  moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just  frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event  with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text  explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week- old fetus Samuel  Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr.  Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little  Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. Sh e  said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness,  it's about a little person.' Samuel was born in perfect health, the  operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture, and how   awesome  and completely incredible it is... pass it on. The world needs to see this one!