Though we don’t attend this church on a regular basis since we live out of state, we still feel a connection since my parents, and my sister, both attend this church. I was able to attend a service for the first time a few weeks ago, and we’re excited to make it a point to visit anytime we’re in town We just wanted to share this testimony as I know people a part of this church were fighting along side of us with prayer and we appreciate it so much.
A few weeks ago, our one year old daughter, suddenly started crying and moving in a way that showed her stomach was upset. As soon as I picked her up, she turned ghost white, lips purple, and went completely limp in my arms. I immediately called 911. The only other thing I knew to do while holding her was to repeat the name of Jesus and pray in the spirit.
She was rushed to ER and they began running their tests. Blood work, Xray, urine check, and ultrasound. They were able to quickly diagnose what’s called intussusception. Essentially, her small intestine was going inside of the large intestine. A life threatening condition if left untreated in a timely manner. She was immediately life-flighted to Wilmington Children’s hospital. By the time we got to Wilmington, she was showing no symptoms – so they did another ultrasound and it showed that the condition had resolved on it’s own. Praise Jesus. We were filled with relief.
They wanted to keep us overnight for observation, so we stayed. By morning she was starting to show symptoms again, so they sent her down to ultrasound and saw that the issue had reoccurred. They performed an air enema which has about a 75% success rate without the need for surgery. It immediately fixed the issue. We breathed another sigh of relief. But a few hours later, she started acting fussy again. Anyone that knows our daughter, knows that she is a happy, content baby so we knew something was off. While the staff tried to tell us that she may just have a virus she’s fighting off, we insisted that they do another ultrasound. Sure enough, her intestines had shown reoccurrence of intussusception. By this point, we started to come undone emotionally. The surgeon gave us 2 options, so we needed Holy Spirit to give us an answer quickly. And He did.
As much as nobody likes hearing that your baby needs surgery, we knew she was in good hands. They performed emergency surgery to correct the issue. They found 2 large lymph nodes that were causing the issue, and had to take out her appendix as well. The whole procedure took about an hour. She came out of surgery and woke up a completely different baby. We were hesitant to write this testimony, because during the process, things weren’t going the way WE wanted them to go. But looking back and recounting where God was in all of this, is nothing short of a miracle. So here’s the good part….
A few weeks prior to this, Holy Spirit beckoned me to fast. Had I not been in His word and in prayer as much as I was, I would have handled this entire situation from a totally different head space. The moment her body went limp, instead of acting in fear, I boldly plead the blood of Jesus over her. She went from vomiting profusely, in and out of consciousness, to riding in the back of the ambulance, peacefully. Jesus was there.
I reached out to my mom and sister and they began to declare that every single doctor, nurse, and tech that worked on her, be filled with supernatural wisdom. They diagnosed the issue promptly and conducted every test flawlessly. Jesus was there.
She was in and out of pain while we were in the ER at Onslow. I was supposed to be at rehearsal that night, so I reached out to our pastor and told her to gather the worship team and pray. Pastor Mac lead the team in prayer and sent the voice recording to us. He shared Matthew 8:5-13, and Isaiah 53:5. The word is a powerful tool. When Jesus was in the wilderness, He fought the devil off with scripture. We prayed and read scripture out loud. The baby immediately shifted from a place of discomfort to a place of comfort. She fell asleep during the entire ultrasound, so they were able to quickly diagnose the issue a lot faster than if she were to be as restless and she was. Jesus was there.
She slept the entire flight to Wilmington Children’s Hospital. All of her symptoms were gone by the time we arrived there. They ran another ultrasound and saw that the issue had resolved on it’s own. We were able to rest that night. God knew that’s what she needed. He knew that’s what we all needed. He was there.
In the morning, she started to show symptoms of pain again, so we replayed the prayer that the worship team had sent and played worship music in our room. She again shifted from a place of discomfort to a place of stillness. My husband took her down to ultrasound this time and I stayed back in the room, reading the word out loud and praying in the spirit. I was scared, but Jesus was there. Immediately after the ultrasound, they conducted the air enema, which resolved the issue right away.
A few hours later, she started to show symptoms of reoccurrence. Again. We were told there was a very slight chance of this happening, so for her to now go through this pain again for the 3rd time, we were starting to come undone emotionally. It felt like a roller coaster ride of ups and downs. In the book of James, it says to call for the elders of the church to pray over the sick. We needed help fighting this battle. We sent word to the pastors of our church to gather the prayer warriors to not only pray for her, but to pray for the strength for my husband and myself to keep running this race. The surgeon then gave us a few options. We needed Holy Spirit to lead us with an answer quickly. At that moment the surgeon said, “as a dad, do you want my opinion?” I knew that was our answer. Jesus was there.
Our baby isn’t a huge fan of strangers. At that point, she was so over the random doctors and nurses looking at her. But when we got to the operating room, the team that was ready for her, took her and held her like she was their own and said, “don’t worry, we’ve got her.” She didn’t even cry when they took her. Jesus was there.
We waited in the waiting room for about an hour, reading the bible. I remember looking out the window and seeing the birds flying around and Holy Spirit reminding me that He takes care of the sparrows. He loves our baby more than we love our baby, which is unfathomable to think about. How could we not trust Him? Her surgery went flawlessly. She woke up a totally different baby. Other than the fact that she was exhausted, she was content. Jesus was there.
We were sent home a few days later and she ran a low grade fever for about a week. They kept telling us it was probably a virus, unrelated to the surgery. She was getting back to her normal self, so we went to Virginia to visit family and celebrate her first birthday. The night we got there, I had an intense anxiety attack. Even after witnessing miracle after miracle during her whole procedure, the enemy started attacking my mind. I was overwhelmed with PTSD, unable to get the images out of my head of her limp body in my arms and the what if’s of this happening again. I felt horrible for doubting. I probably asked for forgiveness a thousand times when my faith got weak during the ups and downs in the hospital and at home during recovery. I’m Human, but thank God for His grace!!! I cried myself to sleep, but our baby was right next to me, sleeping so peacefully. Jesus was there.
The next day, she spiked a fever of 103.6. I was at my sister’s house at the time. As much as my flesh wanted to panic, I was overwhelmed with peace. Even my husband heard it in my voice when I called to tell him. My sister has a gift of healing. She took her and held her while repeating the name of Jesus over and over again. She then read out loud the story in Matthew 8 where Jesus took the fever from Peter’s mother in law. We held her hand and prayed over her. We read that verse out loud, not to remind Jesus of what He’s done and what He’s capable of doing. We read it out loud to remind ourselves, and to declare it over our situation. Our daughter’s fever broke and it never came back. Jesus was there.
It’s been a few weeks now, and the baby is back to her normal, fun loving self, praise Jesus! She’s been going to physical therapy for the past 6 months to work on her core strength and crawling. They wanted to send her to a pediatric neurologist as they were concerned she wasn’t making very good strides with her crawling. We figured she’d probably need time to recover with the incision site in her belly, slightly worried that she may be set back in her accomplishments with physical therapy, but y’all – she started crawling FLAWLESSLY, literally the day after surgery. Everyone was amazed by how well she all the sudden started moving around. JESUS WAS THERE.
Though we weren’t understanding why things were happening the way they were happening, especially in the middle of the storm we were going through – God saw the whole entire picture. He knew what He was doing. It’s not our job to understand. It’s our job to trust The One who created her. The one who created us. He loves us so much. He is good and He is faithful. HE IS THERE.
Thank you, Jesus.
-J
