8 ounces

Posted by will | Filed under Elizabeth, Thoughts

On Saturday May 16th at 6:58PM Kelly gave birth to our daughter Elizabeth. She was 9 inches and weighed 8 ounces.  With the exception of her cranium she was perfect in every way, all the way down to her tiny little fingernails.

We had 5 days between when we found out that Elizabeth had anencephaly and when she was born. Over those first 4 days, I began to expect that when she was born I was probably going to lose it emotionally. I figured that the birth was going to be the most difficult part of this whole ordeal.  I assumed that I would probably pass out at some point during the birth because I don’t do well with the whole medical/blood/etc. stuff. I thought that Kelly and I would both be so devastated that we might not even want to see Elizabeth.

I was wrong. Very wrong.

The peace that the LORD provided for us and the calmness that he put in our hearts during the time of Elizabeth’s birth defies any explanation that I can even begin to give.  As we sat in our room holding our daughter Kelly and I began to talk about the past 5 days and we realized that there was nothing that we could have asked for during that time that God had not provided for us, short of a miracle cure. We feel sure that curing Elizabeth was not God’s plan for this situation and know that because of that, he must have an even greater reason for all of this.

Over those 5 days we have been surrounded and lifted up by family and friends in ways that I would never have believed.  We have learned how truly blessed we are with friends that would do anything for us at anytime of the day. We have been covered over and over again in prayers. We both agreed on every choice that we had to make during that time, which is huge- we usually have very different opinions on everything. We had a doctor that treated us with the respect that one would have for his own children. We had a delivery that couldn’t have gone any smoother. We had the peace of knowing that because of our great God, Elizabeth was with Him and had been healed.

I wish that I could describe the presence of God that was with us in that hospital room, but I can’t. Even if you know Jesus, it would probably defy your comprehension, like it still does mine. It is just one more thing in life that I don’t understand, but I do know that God is sovereign and He reigns over all of this and all that is to come.

This is not the end of the story, but rather the beginning of a great work.

Permalink | May 18th, 2009

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