By PAUL SIMS
Last updated at 08:45am on 23rd August 2006After seven months of a difficult pregnancy, Laura Turner looked anxiously at the latest ultrasound picture of her unborn son.
She was reassured to see not just the baby sucking his thumb - but what she believes is an image of Jesus watching over him.
The 20-year-old nursery nurse was so amazed that she decided to give her son the Biblical name Joshua.
'I just couldn't believe my eyes,' she said at her home in Studley, Warwickshire. 'My partner and I had already been for four or five scans because my baby has a cleft lip, and it was another routine
check-up to make sure that everything was okay.
'We had already found out that we were expecting a boy at an earlier scan so when we went to the hospital we weren't anticipating any more surprises. How wrong we were.
'It wasn't until we got home and a friend pointed out that it looked like there was someone else in the picture with our baby that we realised.
'I nearly fainted. We were just happy that we had managed to get a picture of Joshua sucking his thumb.
'To see what looks like Jesus in a shroud was unbelievable. It still
hasn't sunk in. It's kind of spooky but also beautiful and we will always treasure it.'
Miss Turner said she and her partner David Meikle, a 31-year-old removals man, had endured weeks of uncertainty after doctors told them that the baby, their first, might be born with Down's syndrome.
'The pregnancy has been fairly difficult so to see a likeness of Jesus in the picture gives me a lot of comfort.
'It's as if someone is watching over Joshua. It's helped make us feel more at ease and although I'm not very religious, seeing the picture does reassure me that things are going to turn out okay and that Joshua will be our little miracle.'
