Easter Opportunity

Jared and I were given a pretty amazing opportunity on Easter morning. The theme for this Easter season at our church was God's unbreakable, unshakable truth. They wanted to interview someone who has experienced God's truths in this way recently. My pastor's wife has been reading my blog, so she thought that we, as a couple, were pretty good candidates for said interview! Well, I agreed. God has definitely been our unshakable rock; looking back at this blog is evidence of that. We jumped at the chance to tell over 1000 people how amazing He is and what He's done for us and in us. We were both pretty nervous. I didn't know if I'd break down in the middle of "our story", or if we'd be able to clearly communicate the truths of who God is...and I was so nervous that we'd come across as looking all spiritual-giantish or something. Which is sooo far from the truth! Anyway, God went before us, gave us the words, got us through it, and everything went really well. It was a great time of sharing , knowing that there are so many others in a Body that size that are hurting and questioning God. I'm so thankful for the opportunity we were given to share with those people that God's faithfulness and goodness are very real, and He does love us no matter what. And now there are even more people praying for us and for Judah.

This was the email we sent to our senior & worship pastor to let them know what we were planning on saying.

Hey Steve & Rob! Jared & I are humbled to have been asked to share our experience, but we're also excited because we love telling people about what God has done in our lives! This is a tremendous opportunity to reach lost, searching, and hurting people with the truth of who Christ is and how amazingly sufficient He is no matter what we face in our lives.
To go off the questions you gave us, Rob, in a nutshell...Jared & I have been married for almost 9 yrs. and we have 3 children with our 4th on his way. We were both raised in godly homes and have chosen to walk with the Lord for most of our lives. God has led us through some very difficult and painful circumstances since we've been married; but He's always been faithful and He's always made us stronger in our faith and more sure of His goodness. 7 mo. ago we were shocked to discover that we were going to have another baby. That was not a part of our plan! We had to go back to the basics of believing that God's plan is perfect, He loves us completely, and He knows what is best for us. I struggled a great deal emotionally with this change in plans and expectations. Then, at my 20 week ultrasound, we received news that completely rocked our world. Our little boy had several symptoms of Downs Syndrome or what could be some other chromosome defect. I was referred to a specialist right away, who determined that an amniocentesis was necessary to rule out a major defect like Trisomy 18; in which case our son would not survive life outside the womb. We had to wait 30 hrs. to get the initial results from the amnio, telling us if our son would live or not. We've never experienced that kind of pain, grief, and uncertainty! BUT GOD, in the midst of that horrible grief, met us with such love and grace. God gave me, as the mother of this child, the grace to give him back to the Lord, recognizing that he is a gift from the Lord and is not really mine. He gave me the grace to love my other 3 while I was hurting so much over this 1. He gave me peace and assurance that regardless of the outcome He would not abandon me, but would sustain me and give me the grace and strength I needed to meet each new day. All the tests came back normal and we rejoiced and praised God. And 2 weeks later the final chromosome count was normal as well. However, our son Judah has excess fluid in his brain that will need to be drained after birth, as well as several other symptoms that lead our doctors to believe that he has some kind of syndrome and will have special needs. It's amazing, though, how God has been so present with us in every day, through every bit of bad or scary news, and through all the uncertainties! He has enabled us to say, "for Your glory, Lord"! His faithfulness and goodness are real, and we know that His perfect plan for us has always included this special little boy!We believe that no matter what the future holds for Judah and our family that God is good, faithful, loving, He will sustain us, and He will give us the grace to meet any and every challenge we face. He will not abandon us. He will continue to use difficult and painful circumstances to draw us into deeper intimacy with Him and make us more like Christ. But He will also bless us and enrich our lives more than we could have imagined through the life of our son Judah. It's hard for me to gauge what this will sound like out loud. And it won't come out exactly like this on Sun. morning, either. Our prayer the last couple days has been that God would allow only what will bring Him glory and what He wants to be communicated to come out of our mouths. We don't want this to be about us. We don't want anyone thinking that we have such a strong faith and we must be "so spiritual", because the way we have been able to handle this is so beyond us! This is Christ in us. This is Christ at work. Let us know if there's a different direction you'd like to go, if I said something confusing, or any changes you think of that would make us better able to communicate how phenomenal God really is.