On Saturday evening, May 26, I looked at my wife and knew she was miserable with the pregnancy. We were very grateful to have been at this place, especially since we had miscarried the last child, and thought we lost this one. God proved gracious and faithful! So on that evening I looked to my wife and said, "I know you're miserable. I know you're ready to have this baby, but could you at least not go into labor on Sunday morning. That is the worst possible time for me." Yeah. Sure. Right.
Around 4:45 AM on Sunday morning my wife woke me up and said it was time. As a pastor, I had to find someone to preach for me (wasn't too hard thankfully). As a father I needed someone to watch our other two kids. Again, my secretary who lives close by came immediately and then one of our members came and relieved her. This was quick and easy. So off to the hospital we go!
He's born!
After arriving and getting checked into the hospital they got ready for the c-section. Everything went great. Judson was born. He looked good. Mommy looked good as well. At least, mommy and Judson appeared to be good. My wife came back to the room having a major reaction to one of the medicines she had been given. She was bright red, swollen, and had difficulty swallowing. They gave her a major dose of meds and she was quickly feeling better. Praise the Lord!
On the other side of the room was our precious little boy, who looked fantastic, but was breathing very rapid, shallow breathes. The nurses felt it would pass soon, but after about 4 hours it was still happening. This led them to do a blood test on our little boy, which showed a possible infection. That night we received word that he was heading to the NICU for antibiotics. This is not what any new parent wants to hear. We were exhausted, and obviously quite emotional.
In that moment I began asking myself whether I truly believed God was sovereign over all things. Do I truly believe He's in control here? Do I really believe He works for His glory and our joy? In that moment the Spirit of God reassured me that He is sovereign. That didn't mean I knew the outcome, but I did have faith that God was able.
To make a really long story short, Judson spent 7 days in the NICU. It was heart breaking and difficult. My wife and I came home on Wednesday of that week without him. We drove back and forth trying to take care of him while having two other children at home. By the way, we were blown away with the love and care we received from our church family through this. They took care of the two older kids for us.
In the NICU
As of Sunday, June 3, Judson was home with us. He was doing very well. The infection was gone. We were finally home as a family. God has been very kind to us.
Judson is doing very well!
And since there is never a dull moment in the Alston household, my two year old son, Owen, decided to run through the living room, trip and fall, hit his head on the fire place, and thus have us back at the hospital for him to receive one staple in his head. At least he was able to act like a pirate while they gave time for the medicine to kick in!
My pirate:
No comments:
Post a Comment