A 2 Year Old Miracle

What you see is what you get...but not always. Enter our daughter, Joelle Elizabeth.

As we stand on the cusp of experiencing first-hand miracle after miracle in our new assignment, we are humbly reminded of the modern day miracle we encountered two years ago on a humid August day.

Note to the reader: If you do not believe that God still heals, keeps His promises, and is faithful beyond description, you may have a change of heart by the end of this post.

For those of you who do not know, our precious angel almost didn't make it at birth. She was severely ill in utero, with system after system rapidly shutting down prior to her delivery. In fact, at her birth, the pediatrician and obstetrician thought she was going to be totally still-born. (She was deprived of oxygen for a prolonged period of time). After working to resuscitate her for more than 5 minutes, the amazing team of specialists and doctors quickly realized that Someone else was at work on Joelle's behalf.

These pictures were taken 5 days after her birth. Even though she was born on the 23rd,
we couldn't hold her or take any pictures until the 28th.

Immediately after they resuscitated Joelle and had her somewhat stabilized, they had to begin the arduous task of tapping out the excess fluid that had caused her right lung to collapse. She was rushed to another city to be in a more advanced NICU where they intubated her and inserted a chest tube. It was more than 5 days before we ever heard Joelle make a sound!

Joelle spent a total of 19 days in NICU, fighting for her life. Her footprint was placed
on the "Wall of Survivors" outside the NICU when she was discharged on September 11, 2008.

We were told by every specialist in our region that a baby as sick as Joelle could not possibly live. And if she did, there would be extensive brain damage. Doctors gave us very little hope that we would see her walk or talk. But our God is a God of hope. We are a people of faith and of prayer. We knew when we held our frail daughter that we needed a miracle. We also knew one day we would stand on foreign soil and once again be in need of a miracle.

The same God who delivered Joelle from death and healed her completely is the same God who hears us today. The same God who heard our cries then is the same God who hears the cries of the daughters of Southern Asia today.  When we could finally hold Joelle, we knew great things awaited. Now, as we get closer every day to holding out hope to Bangladesh, we also know that great things await. Thank you for being a part of the journey.

Celebrating year after year of God's faithfulness

So, if you are in need of a miracle or just a reminder of how good God is, our prayer is that we can hold out that hope to you as well.