Great is Thy Faithfulness
This morning at church we sang, "Great is Thy Faithfulness." Life always has challenges. It also has joy. Some days it is easy to see God's goodness and faithfulness. Other days, I need to more actively look for it.
One of the verses in the song is "morning by morning new mercies I see." This rings true. Every day we see God's hand of mercy upon us. When we look back at Isabella's story, I see tremendous mercy toward us and new mercies are being revealed to us daily.
When we talk about Isabella, we frequently talk about her "story." The story that God wrote for her is not the story we had planned, nor the story we would have written. Shortly after we checked into the hospital and the nurse determined our baby was not tolerating contractions, a team was quickly assembled. I vividly remember being on my hands and knees, attempting to hold an oxygen mask on while someone tried to take off my shirt over the IV, and I'm desperately praying that our daughter lives to be 90 years old. That was my story for her. That is not her story.
Her story is a hard story, but a good story. It is a story of God's mercies toward us, in ways we never could have foreseen. The fact that Isabella was born alive is a tremendous grace. Our OB said that typically when there are issues with clots in the cord, the babies die in utero and are stillborn. We got to meet our daughter and had that hope that she would live to be in her 90s. We got to hold her as she died; she was in our arms as she was called to heaven. That is God's faithfulness and mercy in our lives.
There were seven women at our church with babies born between January and June. It was God's mercy that Isabella was the second from last baby born in that group and that the other family gave birth the same day Isabella died, so they did not have to watch us bury our child while worrying about theirs. God's mercy and grace to us and those around us.
God, in his mercy, allowed her to be born full term. It is hard enough for us to feel like we are parents when our child is gone. If we had lost our daughter when I was 16 weeks pregnant, or 26 weeks pregnant, I don't think we would have felt as much like parents. It also would have been a different mourning experience. God could have taken her earlier, but in his mercy, did not.
One of my biggest prayers throughout my pregnancy was for a typically developing child. I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and only work with children who have a speech or language disorder. I love the children I work with and I desperately wanted to raise a child who is typically developing. God answered this prayer, although not in the way I pictured. My story for my daughter would have been her hitting every developmental milestone. Instead, she was typically developing the entire pregnancy and God, in his mercy, took her home when her body was compromised. Because of my training, I know what hypoxia in utero looks like 5, 10, 15 years out, and it is a challenging journey. God could have called us to walk that road, but, in his mercy, did not.
My other prayer during pregnancy was that our daughter would come to know the Lord at an early age. My story for her would have been that she accepted Christ at age five or seven. God's story was that she would live with Christ and know God in ways I cannot even imagine, at age 29.5 hours.
Isabella's story, as written by God, is one of mercy and faithfulness. Even though I was singing through tears this morning, I can praise him saying, "Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."
One of the verses in the song is "morning by morning new mercies I see." This rings true. Every day we see God's hand of mercy upon us. When we look back at Isabella's story, I see tremendous mercy toward us and new mercies are being revealed to us daily.
When we talk about Isabella, we frequently talk about her "story." The story that God wrote for her is not the story we had planned, nor the story we would have written. Shortly after we checked into the hospital and the nurse determined our baby was not tolerating contractions, a team was quickly assembled. I vividly remember being on my hands and knees, attempting to hold an oxygen mask on while someone tried to take off my shirt over the IV, and I'm desperately praying that our daughter lives to be 90 years old. That was my story for her. That is not her story.
Her story is a hard story, but a good story. It is a story of God's mercies toward us, in ways we never could have foreseen. The fact that Isabella was born alive is a tremendous grace. Our OB said that typically when there are issues with clots in the cord, the babies die in utero and are stillborn. We got to meet our daughter and had that hope that she would live to be in her 90s. We got to hold her as she died; she was in our arms as she was called to heaven. That is God's faithfulness and mercy in our lives.
There were seven women at our church with babies born between January and June. It was God's mercy that Isabella was the second from last baby born in that group and that the other family gave birth the same day Isabella died, so they did not have to watch us bury our child while worrying about theirs. God's mercy and grace to us and those around us.
God, in his mercy, allowed her to be born full term. It is hard enough for us to feel like we are parents when our child is gone. If we had lost our daughter when I was 16 weeks pregnant, or 26 weeks pregnant, I don't think we would have felt as much like parents. It also would have been a different mourning experience. God could have taken her earlier, but in his mercy, did not.
One of my biggest prayers throughout my pregnancy was for a typically developing child. I am a Speech-Language Pathologist and only work with children who have a speech or language disorder. I love the children I work with and I desperately wanted to raise a child who is typically developing. God answered this prayer, although not in the way I pictured. My story for my daughter would have been her hitting every developmental milestone. Instead, she was typically developing the entire pregnancy and God, in his mercy, took her home when her body was compromised. Because of my training, I know what hypoxia in utero looks like 5, 10, 15 years out, and it is a challenging journey. God could have called us to walk that road, but, in his mercy, did not.
My other prayer during pregnancy was that our daughter would come to know the Lord at an early age. My story for her would have been that she accepted Christ at age five or seven. God's story was that she would live with Christ and know God in ways I cannot even imagine, at age 29.5 hours.
Isabella's story, as written by God, is one of mercy and faithfulness. Even though I was singing through tears this morning, I can praise him saying, "Great is thy faithfulness, Lord unto me."
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