CHRISTIAN FAMILY STORY

Chapter One

A Bad Report

She had been pregnant before. Her daughter, Tay, was now a beautiful strong two year old. She had long curly brown hair which flowed softly to the middle of her back and her eyes were bright and full of life. My sister said to me one day that she should be glad that she and Bill had one child. All of the specialists said that they should not attempt to have any more babies.

Leigh's life would be in danger, as well as any child that they would try to have, the doctors would tell her after the birth of Tay. Leigh so much wanted a house full of children. She had started classes at a local Christian college to earn her degree as to be able to teach children. This had been her childhood dream. The Doctors had cautioned her earlier about the fact that she had endometriosis and told her that if she and Bill wanted children, they would have to start immediately. So, with the coming of her first child and having trouble toward the end of that pregnancy, she quickly dropped out of school as to concentrate on building a family.

Tay had been born four weeks early, but had no medical complications. With Leigh, however, she had developed gestational diabetes, which was dangerous enough and would happen again with another pregnancy. An ultrasound revealed that the placenta had detached from her uterus and this was the reason that Tay was born so early. Leigh spent the last 4 months of her pregnancy on total bed rest. Because of Leigh’s continuing problem with the endometriosis, it would be practically impossible for her to conceive another child; so the doctors would tell her.

She and Bill, against doctors' recommendations, decided that they would still try to have another child. They would take no precautions against conceiving. There were babies conceived and babies lost. Both Leigh and Bill believed that there was a higher power. They would even go as far as to call Him God, but He was out there somewhere and appeared to be unconcerned about the daily lives of the everyday family. He probably had bigger things to worry about.

Chapter Two

Hope Against Hope

Several months later, Leigh called me elated. She and Bill were pregnant!! As we talked about the possibilities and decided that we didn't care if she had a boy or a girl, as long as the baby was healthy, it became apparent to me that we were not giving God the glory in this. I believe I said at that point, "Praise the Lord, sis!"to which she replied "Yeah"in what seemed to be an unsure voice. Up till then, she and I had come to a mutual understanding that she didn't believe the same things I had come to believe when it came to faith. She saw the Lord as being distant; as unapproachable; as too big and high to be concerned about whether someone wanted a baby or not. This was all left up to the forces of nature, in her mind. Whatever happened, happened. In her heart, her deepest desire was to know that there was something more; something stronger than she; something that actually could control what happens and did have a bigger say in what that was … someone stronger than she.

In my walk, I had just begun to understand who God was and how very weak I was. I had given birth to a child who had several birth defects. Along with dealing with his problems and surgeries and constant hospitalizations, there was this relentless voice that kept telling me that I had done something wrong in my pregnancy that caused his problems. This child had to have several operations and there were more threats to his health presenting themselves every day. I cried non-stop, he cried nonstop. Though I knew God existed and did care about what was going on, I didn’t know where He was in it. I told myself that although I knew HE could heal my son, He was choosing not to. I became angrier and angrier every time this little boy was hospitalized. Through every surgery, every tear, my heart screamed out to a God that I believed wasn’t listening.

At one point, through pure emotion, pain and frustration I said to Him, “If this is the kind of God you are, I want nothing to do with You”. I wonder how many people have done that. I was a baby in Jesus and thank God, He knew my heart. As a side note here; if you have ever done the same or said something similar to Him, let me tell you … if you think that God has abandoned you because of your thoughts at that time … if He had, you wouldn’t be reading this. Your mind would have been turned to reprobate and you would have no interest in reading anything that had to do with hope. You would not have been called to Christianity Oasis. And believe me, you aren’t here by accident. He is calling you and you are still His child. He judges the heart.

At my breaking point, we'd had a guest speaker at our Church. This man told of how as a teenager that he had become involved in drugs and alcohol. His mother begged him to go to Church with her every week and would pray unceasingly for him. One day, the Lord told her to stop asking him to go to Church. When the next Sunday came, he was relieved to not have her breathing down his neck to go with her. Within weeks however, this young man was convinced that the only person who ever cared for him and his salvation had stopped … yet secretly, she had never stopped praying for him. She simply gave him back to his Father and trusted that He would reach him. He was delivered from drugs and alcohol and was now a pastor of a Church along with traveling to evangelize to others. This opened my heart to the fact that I had to do the same with my son. He was, after all, God's child first and He knew him better and loved him more than I ever could. He wanted me to know that I could do nothing but care for and love the son He had given to me and leave the rest to Him. Let go and let God. Put my faith in Him and know that He would work His own plan in my son’s life, for His glory.

Shortly after coming to this understanding and the realization that life was much easier, circumstances weren’t so huge when I gave things to Him and totally surrendered everything to His will, I could breathe again. My son did get better. The threats he had faced before, and there were many, were removed. They were removed only by the mighty, healing hand of God. There was nothing I could take any credit for. All the glory was His.

So, Leigh and I continued to talk daily. She was overfilled with joy and I was praying for her and Bill. Then, it hit. Leigh, at 16 weeks into the pregnancy began to go into full-blown labor. Much too early … much too soon … no bed-rest would keep this child, not this time.

Chapter Three

Darkness, Fear and Surrender

Leigh was admitted into the hospital. The doctor told her that they could not do much. They would take it one day at a time and do what they could each day. They began, when they could, medication that would stimulate the growth of the baby's lungs and would give her medication to try to slow the labor down, but they held little hope. My sister's body was placed in a position that would cause gravity to help slow the labor and keep the baby in her womb; head down, legs higher than the rest of her body.

A few weeks later, the baby's leg and part of the sack were out. They were out of time. The doctor finally came in and said they had done all they could do. They would allow my sister and Bill to hold the child for a few minutes to say goodbye, once the baby was born. Leigh was twenty-one and a half weeks into the pregnancy … only one week past halfway there.

The room was filled with unbearable grief. This placenta too, had detached and was no longer feeding the baby. All hope was lost … or was it?

It's important to understand that the medical field at that time did not recognize a baby as being a baby until twenty-three weeks into the pregnancy. Up until then, the baby was a fetus. I don't know how they see it now, but to us, this was a child. This was a life … full of hope … full of chances … slowly being taken from us, one day at a time.

On April 29, 1994, I got a call from the hospital. It wouldn't be long now. The baby was not holding. The meds had failed. I'd heard all the doctors' reports but my spirit was torn. None of this made sense to me. As I sat in my home praying, the Lord told me in His still voice to go to the hospital. Fear shot through me like an arrow. God, I didn’t want to go. I didn't know what to say to my sister. I couldn't stand seeing her in so much pain, her heart broken into a million shattered pieces. God, please don't ask me to go. I don't know what to say.

For what seemed like hours, I argued with the Lord. Over and over He told me to go. Over and over He told me that He would give me the words to say when I got there … to have no fear. Over and over, I said, I don’t want to go. Halfway to the hospital, in tears and filled with fear, I was still praying. Lord, God … I don't know what to say to her. See, my spirit had been communing with the Spirit of the Lord and though there was a peace there, it was so remote … but still, it was there. As I got to the hospital, still putting off what I knew was inevitable, I went into the chapel to pray some more. I wrote Leigh's name in the prayer book … Leigh and the baby girl.

Finally, remembering Gideon's fleece, in surrender I prayed again. "Lord, I don't want to say anything that isn't from You. I don't want to give her any false hope. If this is truly from You, cause her (Leigh) to accept my prayers for her. If this is from You, she will allow me to anoint her with oil and pray for her. You will give me the words to say to her and she will know they are from You." That was it … no still small voice even to say … "ok". See, I've heard and read that we should not test the Lord. And this is true. There is a difference, however, in testing the Lord to see if He can do something and asking Him to show His will. Wanting to be sure that this is His will is quite different from testing Him to see how omnipotent He really is.

Chapter Four

"I AM the Lord, Your God"

When I got to her door, I stopped in the doorway. There she was, head down, feet up. The sadness in the room was like a dark thick cloud. The grief on her face and in her eyes was the deepest sorrow I had ever seen. She had fought so hard to have this baby. This deep down spark of hope she had once had (that she didn't even know was faith to begin with) was all but quenched. As I stood there trembling, I asked her in this little tiny meek voice, "Leigh, can I pray with you?"She looked up at me and answered with the same meek but tired voice, "Yes". I then asked her if I could anoint her with oil. This is where she normally would have looked at me like I was involved in some cult and laughed at me. But she, through hopeless tears, said, "Sis, anything".

As I anointed her and began to pray the Holy Spirit became so much stronger in me than He had ever been. He did give me every word to say and these were His word to her." I Am God Almighty and I am still on the throne. As long as I am on the throne, there is hope. Now is not the time to be grieved, for now is the time of hope. By the time I am finished in this, everyone involved and anyone who hears will know that it was My hand that moved. Be still, my child, be still and know that I Am the Lord, Your God."I can't tell you the joy that I felt. I can't describe the utter peace that I felt. And the gift of faith that He had given in that instant was not to be matched with any other thing that I had ever seen Him do.

No matter what the reports were after that, they were foreign to the promises that I felt and knew to be true in my heart. The whole room lightened, my sister's face lit up. We talked for hours after that about how she was going to get the kids into Church and search out Who God truly was!

Chapter Five

Sixteen and One Half Ounces of Joy

May 2nd came around. The doctors came in and told Leigh that they would let her have as long as she wanted with the baby until she stopped breathing. Little Joy, as they named her, was born weighing one pound and one half of an ounce. She was so tiny. Her skin was not yet formed. It was like jell-o all over her body. Her little eyes were still fused shut and her fingers and toes, all ten of them, were smaller than the writing part of a ballpoint pen. Then, Joy issued this tiny little squeak that totally melted the doctor's heart. At that moment he decided that they would do all they could do to save this little girl and not just wait for her to pass on. He even had to tell other hospital staff that she was twenty-three weeks gestation to put her into the Neo-natal Intensive Critical Care Unit in the Children's hospital. Over the next few weeks, preemie diapers were cut in quarters to fit her. My mom made clothes cut from doll clothes patterns to pass the time with the thought that she could wear them home when she was released.

The doctors placed Joy on an oscillator, not a ventilator, because her lungs were so tiny. The oscillator barely moved air into her lungs because any amount of normal oxygen would have blown and destroyed them. Leigh, through the urging of the Holy Spirit, became acutely aware that there was no place to stay in the hospital other than in the waiting room … for her or for the other parents who’s babies were hanging on to life in the Intensive Care Unit. The idea for rooms for these parents to stay in while they waited and watched these little sick precious ones took root and sprang forth. Leigh started meeting with administrators of the hospital and the idea took on life.

It was touch and go at first, but nothing they said penetrated that faith that had been instilled by the Holy Spirit in our hearts, including my sister's and her husband's. God did see. He did care and He was concerned about the desires of our hearts, down to the minute detail. Joy was the earliest born baby to be released from that hospital 2 months later.

Chapter Six

Miracles Abound

A few short years later Leigh became an advocate for life. She, Bill and the kids were in constant attendance at Church. Leigh went from state to state telling how the Lord had moved in their lives. She showed pictures to doctors in seminars, spoke out about late-term abortions and showed just how viable life is … upon onset. She spoke to more hospital administrators about developing programs and fundraisers to help with the costs of opening rooms for waiting parents who didn’t want to leave their babies. It was true. God had moved in such a miraculous way. Not only our lives, but in the lives of countless others who had been reached as well. Her baby doctor could only say that he had witnessed a true miracle in that birth and life. No science could explain it, nor could chance, where there was no chance.

Women decided not to have late term abortions. Doctors decided to stop performing them. I don't know how many, but God does. He could have used this situation to just bring my sister to Him but His plan was so much bigger. He could have used anyone to speak His hope into her life but He knew that I had to be reached too. He knew that the gift of faith being given to us through this whole situation would be the beginning of letting go and letting God have His will in our lives and that gift would grow and be firmly planted, no matter what life would bring. One seed has grown and has affected so many lives and who knows how many more He will touch through this. The promise is endless. Today, Joy is a bright, strong and lively 14 year old. She loves the Lord with all of her heart. She knows her beginning, and she knows her God. Her life is so full of promise … and Hope.

Since then, Leigh and Bill have had a set of twin boys as well. Leigh couldn't carry them herself, but had a surrogate mom who’s sister could not have kids. She had the heart of a servant and after carrying a child for her sister, found she loved being a vessel the Lord used to bless others. One of these boys looks like Bill and has his quick bright personality. The other looks like Leigh but his eyes … they have that same spark. The one that gleams. The one that shines.

When we think that God is distant, He does not hear us or is not concerned about what happens in the lives of His children, know this. Each one of us has a calling. For each and every one of us, He has a plan. When you feel that He isn’t concerned, remember the following verses … write them on your hearts. Let them speak His truth to you.

Jeremiah 29:11 (New International Version)
For I know the plans I have for you,"declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Psalm 20:5-7 (King James Version)
We will rejoice in thy salvation, and in the name of our God we will set up our banners: the LORD fulfil all thy petitions. Now know I that the LORD saveth his anointed; he will hear him from his holy heaven with the saving strength of his right hand. Some trust in chariots, and some in horses: but we will remember the name of the LORD our God.