GOOD MORNING from Ponte Vedra, FL rather than Jacksonville! Yahoooooo! Baby Isaiah is home! We are so incredibly blessed by the doctors, especially Dr. Driscoll, and the nurses at Wolfson Children’s Hospital, who all fell in love with our little guy and refer to him internally as the “little miracle”. Dr. Driscoll, our primary care nurses Laura and Ashlene and the overnight nursing staff went above and beyond with our “little miracle”. We are so thankful.
The bible verse above speaks for itself… some need no explanation.
I (We) prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me (us) what I (we) asked of Him.
~ 1 Samuel 1:27
This post will be a little bit shorter as we now have a newborn at home and are trying to adapt to a schedule but I wanted to share the daily devotional book that our entire CHICKS (Confident, Holy in Christ Kingdom Seekers) bible study group refers to each day. It’s a book someone recommended to me a few years back and I’ve bought what feels like dozens of copies for friends/family.
Yesterday, as we were waiting on some final decisions about when Isaiah might be able to go home, I was resting with him in his “room” when Laura, one of his two charge nurses came in and asked me if I’d heard of Jesus Calling, a daily devotional. I told her our CHICKS have been using that as one of our devotionals, and she asked if I’d seen yesterday’s post. I actually had my copy with me in one of the drawers at NICU, and pulled it out. I told her we read Jesus Calling to Isaiah every single day, and that I hadn’t yet read him today’s. She said I had to. She had it pulled up on her phone in a really cool app they have. Here’s a screen capture of my book:
The bible verse above speaks for itself… some need no explanation.
I (We) prayed for this child, and the Lord has granted me (us) what I (we) asked of Him.
~ 1 Samuel 1:27
This post will be a little bit shorter as we now have a newborn at home and are trying to adapt to a schedule but I wanted to share the daily devotional book that our entire CHICKS (Confident, Holy in Christ Kingdom Seekers) bible study group refers to each day. It’s a book someone recommended to me a few years back and I’ve bought what feels like dozens of copies for friends/family.
Yesterday, as we were waiting on some final decisions about when Isaiah might be able to go home, I was resting with him in his “room” when Laura, one of his two charge nurses came in and asked me if I’d heard of Jesus Calling, a daily devotional. I told her our CHICKS have been using that as one of our devotionals, and she asked if I’d seen yesterday’s post. I actually had my copy with me in one of the drawers at NICU, and pulled it out. I told her we read Jesus Calling to Isaiah every single day, and that I hadn’t yet read him today’s. She said I had to. She had it pulled up on her phone in a really cool app they have. Here’s a screen capture of my book:
Copyright Sarah Young.
So as Laura grabbed lunch, I read the above to Isaiah. And realized how special today’s reading is. It’s all about TRUSTING God. Letting go of control. It’s about prayer requests, about pouring out your heart. I was moved to tears thinking of the hundreds / thousands of people who have seen Isaiah’s story on the Golf Channel or in their local paper or have friends who know us, etc., and how HARD I know these people have prayed. Hundreds upon hundreds of you have sent us notes/comments/emails from the website sharing with us how you’re praying. Your prayers are intentional. They are specific. They are for our sweet son to our glorious God. Collectively, I am so humbled at how GREAT you guys are at praying. Thanking God for his perfect will, regardless of what that is.
Today we found out some more preliminary numbers on Isaiah’s super special extra chromosome. We may have to name #47 something special. I’m open to suggestions. 🙂 In the meantime, let’s call it Chromie. As you know, the doctors suspect Isaiah has Mosaic Down Syndrome (Ds) which means that only some of his cells actually got that extra Chromie. Today, Dr. Driscoll got some of the preliminary numbers. They extracted 20 cells to test from Isaiah. Thus far, they have measured 5 of those cells. 5 of 20. 25% of his cells. And so far, all 5 of those cells have Chromie. Those of you who know me, or especially those (in addition to my husband) who were in the delivery room with us (Aunt Wanda, Shelly, Liz, Dr. Austin), will appreciate this more than some of our new friends we haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, but my immediate reaction was to say outloud to Isaiah, “well, buddy, you’re 5 for 5 so far. If there’s one area we DON’T want you to overachieve, it’s this!” (There’s a great story I may share some day about labor and overachieving so it’s become somewhat of a joke in our inner circle).
Before Jesus was in my heart, before I had a true relationship with Him, which includes when I thought I knew Him, but truly only had Him in my head, this 5 out of 5 would have likely devastated me. Paul and I hugged, we held each other tight. He grabbed my hand. Dr. Driscoll gently reminded us we have more to test. We won’t have those results back for days, then we have to wait to sit down with Dr. P, the geneticist, who is booked up for, like, months. We thanked God that answers were coming. We know the very best in the world are taking care of our son from a scientific standpoint. From a Heavenly standpoint, there is no comparison. Because Jesus lives in our hearts, we can thank Him for what we know is coming, no matter what that is. We know that it is perfect.
I love today’s bible verses. Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). What a great, simple reminder. Easy to memorize. Easy to understand. Be still. Be silent. KNOW that He has a plan. And His plan is perfect.
And for all our prayer warriors, I love the verse from Colossians 4:2. Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Want to talk about overachievers? You guys. Our Team Tesori prayer warriors. You guys heard our cry for help. And you dove in with both feet (and both hands, and your heads, but most importantly, your HEARTS). I truly believe that God heard our prayers. I know he heard yours. You guys are like an army of prayer warriors. We LOVE IT.
So I leave you with this. As hard as you’ve prayed for us, pray for your children that way. Pray for your spouse. Your parents. Your friends. Someone who wronged you that you just can’t fathom forgiving. Someone you wronged, that God will open their heart to accept the forgiveness that you can pray He’ll open your heart to WANT to give.
We will be praying for all of you, that you will pour as much love and prayer into your own lives and your own families as you so generously did into ours.
God bless every single one of you. And don’t worry. The updates will not stop. We have a long road ahead of us. It’s gonna be awesome, and at times challenging, but we’re gonna RUN LIKE DAVID (that’s a blog for another day!) and we’re gonna need our TTPW (Team Tesori Prayer Warriors) right alongside us. And you can count on us to lead the charge when you have some intentional prayers you need coming your way.
Today we found out some more preliminary numbers on Isaiah’s super special extra chromosome. We may have to name #47 something special. I’m open to suggestions. 🙂 In the meantime, let’s call it Chromie. As you know, the doctors suspect Isaiah has Mosaic Down Syndrome (Ds) which means that only some of his cells actually got that extra Chromie. Today, Dr. Driscoll got some of the preliminary numbers. They extracted 20 cells to test from Isaiah. Thus far, they have measured 5 of those cells. 5 of 20. 25% of his cells. And so far, all 5 of those cells have Chromie. Those of you who know me, or especially those (in addition to my husband) who were in the delivery room with us (Aunt Wanda, Shelly, Liz, Dr. Austin), will appreciate this more than some of our new friends we haven’t yet had the pleasure of meeting, but my immediate reaction was to say outloud to Isaiah, “well, buddy, you’re 5 for 5 so far. If there’s one area we DON’T want you to overachieve, it’s this!” (There’s a great story I may share some day about labor and overachieving so it’s become somewhat of a joke in our inner circle).
Before Jesus was in my heart, before I had a true relationship with Him, which includes when I thought I knew Him, but truly only had Him in my head, this 5 out of 5 would have likely devastated me. Paul and I hugged, we held each other tight. He grabbed my hand. Dr. Driscoll gently reminded us we have more to test. We won’t have those results back for days, then we have to wait to sit down with Dr. P, the geneticist, who is booked up for, like, months. We thanked God that answers were coming. We know the very best in the world are taking care of our son from a scientific standpoint. From a Heavenly standpoint, there is no comparison. Because Jesus lives in our hearts, we can thank Him for what we know is coming, no matter what that is. We know that it is perfect.
I love today’s bible verses. Be still, and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). What a great, simple reminder. Easy to memorize. Easy to understand. Be still. Be silent. KNOW that He has a plan. And His plan is perfect.
And for all our prayer warriors, I love the verse from Colossians 4:2. Devote yourself to prayer, being watchful and thankful. Want to talk about overachievers? You guys. Our Team Tesori prayer warriors. You guys heard our cry for help. And you dove in with both feet (and both hands, and your heads, but most importantly, your HEARTS). I truly believe that God heard our prayers. I know he heard yours. You guys are like an army of prayer warriors. We LOVE IT.
So I leave you with this. As hard as you’ve prayed for us, pray for your children that way. Pray for your spouse. Your parents. Your friends. Someone who wronged you that you just can’t fathom forgiving. Someone you wronged, that God will open their heart to accept the forgiveness that you can pray He’ll open your heart to WANT to give.
We will be praying for all of you, that you will pour as much love and prayer into your own lives and your own families as you so generously did into ours.
God bless every single one of you. And don’t worry. The updates will not stop. We have a long road ahead of us. It’s gonna be awesome, and at times challenging, but we’re gonna RUN LIKE DAVID (that’s a blog for another day!) and we’re gonna need our TTPW (Team Tesori Prayer Warriors) right alongside us. And you can count on us to lead the charge when you have some intentional prayers you need coming your way.
