Talking about surpassing all understanding… Paul and I were asked to do an interview yesterday for a great church here in Charlotte. Our task? To share the story of Isaiah and how God has worked through that “lower story” to create the “upper story” in our lives. Neither of us are big fans of doing interviews, and both of us could entirely do without cameras and lights and all that jazz, but we KNOW we are called to share Isaiah’s testimony on his behalf which is why you’ll continue to see us out there talking about Jesus’ love for us, his sacrifice. Tired of us yet? Sorry about that. We’re not going away! We have the responsibility to use the platform God has provided for us to share the good news of Jesus. Period.
It strikes me that in each interview, my husband continues to share the story of the moment that Isaiah was brought into us in an incubator shortly after his birth by paramedics, and we were given a few short moments to say goodbye to our son before he was whisked away to Wolfson Children’s Hospital to get the care he desperately needed. It was a defining moment in both of our lives. Our hospital room was filled with close friends, loved ones, including our pastor and his wife, our pediatrician, and our new friends (our doctors, nurses and medical staff at Baptist Medical Center South). Today I got to relive that moment again, and each time we share that story, I am moved by how irrelevant we truly are – compared to the COMPLETE relevancy of God in our lives.
I had just given birth to a beautiful baby boy, Isaiah. We had just learned he was sick. Very sick, we were told. He needed special care. He had been taken from us to the NICU immediately after he was born and was now being rushed to a hospital with the very best resources to help him. Isaiah was wheeled in. It was the first time I had been able to see him since his birth. A small window was opened, just large enough to stick my index finger inside to hold his tiny little hand. The plan? The plan was apparently that our pastor, Jack Millwood, would pray over our little boy with us and our family and friends. But I didn’t get that message. Or I wasn’t listening. Because I KNOW I am personally not capable of what happened next. I prayed over our son. I prayed for his peace. I prayed for no suffering. I prayed that he would know how much mommy and daddy loved him. I told him about the promises of the bible. Jeremiah 29:11. “God’s plans for you are so much greater than we could have ever imagined, baby boy!” Romans 8:28. “All things, Isaiah. ALL things for GOOD!”. Jeremiah 1:5. “He knew you BEFORE he formed you in the womb, sweet angel. He set you apart!”
And then I said this, tears streaming down my face, sobbing through the words…
“Isaiah, mommy and daddy love you very much. More than I could ever explain to you. But as much as we love you, as MUCH as we love you, Jesus loves you infinitely more…”
It’s a moment I will remember forever. For me, it was surrender. Jesus, I give our son to you. I can’t help him. I can’t take any of his pain and suffering away. We don’t deserve this perfect little boy. He is ALL yours. Please protect this gift you have given us. There are no greater hands on earth than YOURS. I know you love him infinitely more than we ever could, and your plans for him are greater than any we could have dreamed up.
As we relived that moment again, tears streamed down my face. Not tears of fear. Tears of surrender. Tears of understanding. Tears of the absolute clarity with which I finally understood what I’ve been reading all these years – what the disciple Paul prays for us in Ephesians 3 – that we will understand how wide, how long, how high and how deep Christ’s love is for us. In that moment, holding that tiny hand as it wrapped around my finger, I felt Jesus’ love. For me. For Paul. And most importantly, for Isaiah. Our prayer for you is the same prayer that Paul prayed in Ephesians – that you would feel God’s presence in your life. Feel his infinite love in your heart. Know that he is “able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). I pray God reveals that kind of love to you in your life.
This past Sunday, April 27, we had the honor of joining some of our best friends and officially dedicating our little boys to God. Isaiah joined some of his best buddies Eli, Ander and Easton and their mommies and daddies (Meaghan & Wes, Naomi & Matt and Ashley & Scott) at our church home, Crosswater Community Church. Surrounded by friends and family, we promised to raise our sweet little boy with Jesus as the center of his life, as referenced in 1 Samuel 1:27-28 – “I prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me what I asked of him. So now I give him to the Lord.” It was an amazing day, and we’re so blessed to be surrounded by so much love both for Isaiah and for us. Wish you all could have been there with us, but there are some fun pictures below…
So, what’s the latest with our little love bug? Well, had another awesome appointment with our favorite geneticist, Dr. P., last week. Isaiah got another exceptional report! He is passing every milestone with flying colors. His head control is extraordinary for a baby his age and he’s working on sitting up. His Daddy’s plan to get him to sleep through the night (12 hours?!), however, has not been quite as successful. Dr. P: “good luck with that!”. HA! Isaiah is down for about 12 hours every night with typically one feeding sometime in the middle of the night. Truth be told, it’s 3:28 am right now and I just go done feeding him – the storms outside are making it hard to get back to sleep so I figured this was a good time to write! The good news is I’m never alone – my new friend Tiffany who has a gorgeous family including a very special little girl named Ellie was up, too – ironically posting about mindfulness and how we should get away from constantly being “plugged in” to computers and phones… and we laughed and laughed that we were up messaging each other at this absurd hour. You can read her awesome stuff right here. Love having new friends to laugh with. Love it. Thanks, Tiff!
Back to Isaiah… he’s an incredibly happy and content baby. Dr. P says he’s right on track. Physical therapy has been a huge blessing and we’ll increase it slightly here in the next month as we start to gear up for some bigger developmental targets – sitting up unassisted, crawling (WHAT?!? How is he growing up so fast??), more controlled rolling over both directions. Isaiah will join the awesome folks at Hope Haven as we look toward prepping him for these physical tasks and Speech Therapy in preparation for him to start eating foods in a few months. I can’t believe how quickly time flies, and that we’re even talking about these things!
He took his very first flight on Monday, a short jaunt from Jacksonville to Charlotte, NC to join us this week at the Wells Fargo Championship. Slept from a few minutes before the plane took off until we were at Webb and Dowd’s home in Charlotte about 3 hours later. How ’bout that! I’m sure the people on the plane saw a newborn and thought “oh, no!” but he was the easiest traveler ever. Photos below…
We have so many great things coming up that we’ll tell you about in the next few posts including a golf tournament we’ll be co-hosting here in North Carolina this fall with our friends Tenth Avenue North and Kevin Streelman and a 5K walk/run later this summer (we had to change the date due to a US Men’s Soccer Team match in Jacksonville the same day, so stay tuned for the new date!) to help raise money for Wolfson Children’s Hospital. We’ve also launched a new page on our website you might wanna check out: Isaiah’s Angels, a place where you can meet some of the amazing kids and families that have reached out to us in support, in prayer request, in love. Warms my heart!
Also, Paul and I will be sharing Isaiah’s story and how God has worked through Isaiah in our lives at The Players Championship sunrise service on Sunday, May 11 at 7 am at TPC Sawgrass. If you’re in town for the tournament, we’d LOVE to have you join us. The more the merrier!
And stay tuned to the Wells Fargo Championship this week! Webb and Paul love this course (Webb’s home course!) and we’re excited to be playing with our friend Zach Johnson and Ernie Els.
Our prayers are with all of you. Don’t forget, if you have a prayer request, you can send it to us right here. We read every single one, and consider it an honor to pray for you. God bless you all, and may you feel the depth of God’s love for you in your life TODAY!