New Year’s Day is a great day to reflect. Today I remember New Year’s Day 2007, the day
tragedy turned into miracle.
Just days before 2007 began, I told Tad that
the New Year’s Eve I enjoyed most was one with friends watching a live band and
bringing in the New Year singing in worship to God and praying with a large
group of other young adults who loved Jesus.
New Year’s day 2007 began with a miracle, an experience of God’s love
and power and the reassurance of His ultimate control and goodness…and it topped
them all. So far ;)
I was 12 weeks pregnant and was woken from my New Year’s day
nap by my water breaking. Of course I considered whether or not I had just lost control of my bladder in my sleep, but, without getting into the yucky details, I knew
without the slightest doubt that it was amniotic fluid. After a toilet full of blood, pain, pressure, dizziness,
ringing ears, black spots and hot flashes, I sank toward the floor where I laid
in a small puddle of blood, cramping intensely for the next few hours in Tad’s
arms at times and alone with God the rest of the time. (Oops, so much for sparing you the gory details.) He made all the necessary phone
calls and called many to ask for prayer. Each time I tried to sit up, blood came out
and the faintness returned. Tad covered
me with towels, prayed with me and stayed with me until the pain subsided
enough for me to get up and get to the car.
The doctor and the midwife performed an ultrasound. We saw an amazingly clear picture with a
perfectly gorgeous, intact baby with a strong heartbeat, active, moving all
around and kicking. They couldn’t see
anything wrong or abnormal at all. I had
not begun to dilate. And…there was
plenty of amniotic fluid! Amazing!
God’s grace is when we receive blessings that we do not
deserve.
Hebrews 4:16 “Let us then approach the throne of grace
with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our
time of need.”
I am unspeakably grateful for my
son, Gideon Arthur Sellers. The Great Artist
created on him a smile that will warm any heart and a giggle that will bring
joy to the gloomiest day. Thank you, Creator,
for giving him life and Omnipotent, Great Physician, for saving his life that
New Year’s day.
Props to Photographer Madeline Hunter for capturing his sweet spirit
New Year’s day 2007 is also a day
that reminds me of how thankful I am for a God who hears our prayers. Here is another perspective of that day,
written by Tad’s cousin, Christi:
“I was leaving the aquarium and on my way home to put the
boys down for a nap when Tad called… “I’m calling you to ask you to pray.” ...I told him I didn’t know what exactly to
pray for. I said that because I felt
like I was supposed to pray for a miracle but obviously it wouldn’t be a small
miracle by any means that I would be requesting and that took me way out of my
comfort zone. Tad’s response was for me
to focus right now praying that she wouldn’t be in pain and to just pray as the
Spirit led me to.
“The minute I hung up the phone I belted out a tearful
prayer from the spirit. I think I must
have scared my son in the back seat for all of a sudden in the middle of my
fervent cry for help on the sake of my friends I hear a timid, “mommy?” “Why are you crying?” I told him that I was praying for Wendy. He responded as any 2 year old would,
“oh” then he said, “God make weeny
bettr’” (Such childlike faith) So I echoed that prayer, “God make Wendy better and make that baby’s
heart that you constructed with your own hands start beating strong. After praying Psalm 139 and Jeremiah 29:11
for a couple minutes and asking God for her womb to hold the baby and the fluid
to fill back up and the blood to stop and the baby to start moving and be
healthy, I felt like I needed someone to agree with me that not only could God
do this but I wanted someone else to pray with me that He would. …So I felt led to call my friend Dalynn… and emailed
Travis…so he would be praying as well.
Then I continued praying.
“We don’t know nor can we understand why God chooses to answer
some requests just the way we ask and other times do things different. But I do know for certain that sometimes you
can almost audibly hear in your heart what you are supposed to ask for. And in my experience it is those prayers that
he is already in the process of answering.
I think of the verse in Psalm 139 “Even before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely.” I think when
you hear the Lord and his Spirit is interceding for you we are experiencing a
foreshadowing of what is in store and during the course of casting our
anxieties on Him, he fills us with hope and promises and peace. I feel so blessed to have been able to pray
and hope and wait and see, and now share the testimony that nothing is out of
His reach. And I can’t wait for the next
time for the Almighty to put his arm around me and whisper in my ear, “brace
yourself, I’m about to move in a mighty way.”
“Praise God, for His mercies are new every morning.
“To him who is able
to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that
is at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus
throughout all generations, for ever and ever. Amen. (Ephesians
3:20)” -Christi
