Written by: Rachel Neville
Article source: JOY! Magazine

Isaiah 43:19 is a verse from the Bible that kept coming up for me in the first few weeks of my pregnancy, weeks before I would find myself in the darkest place I’ve ever been. I know now that God put this verse in front of me to remind me of His power to do the unexpected and to bring hope where there is none…

German measles is dangerous
I contracted German measles when I was eight weeks pregnant. The first thing that the gynaecologist told us to do was our research. German measles in the first trimester of pregnancy is devastating. The research told us that 99% of children born from mothers who contracted German measles during the first trimester would be born with more than one abnormality, and that there’s a 95% chance that the child would be born deaf and blind. We started to think about whether it would be right to bring a child into the world, knowing that they may never be able to communicate.

Dreading the data
While continuing to do our research, we discovered that the other two areas that the measles would attack are the child’s heart and brain. There was a 90% chance that our baby would need heart surgery at birth, and that he would be born autistic with severe cognitive delays. My husband and I were both faced with our biggest fears. My husband’s younger brother had died of a heart complication that he was born with, so the thought of the measles attacking our boy’s heart was overwhelming for him.

Filled with fear
The more we read and the more doctors we spoke to, the more hopeless our situation became. We were filled with fear and devastation. On top of this, the burden of having to decide whether to abort or not was too much. We prayed so hard that God would take the decision out of our hands, that I would just miscarry naturally.

Turning to the God of the universe
I woke up one morning with a sense of God saying to us that He had never put the decision in our hands in the first place. We decided to close Google and open our Bibles. I was reminded of the verse that I kept reading in those first weeks of pregnancy – God can place rivers in the desert, He can bring hope where there is none. We were reminded of the story of Daniel in the lion’s den – God protected Daniel amongst all the threats that he faced. As we turned to God, we started to find hope in our situation. We chose to feed our faith and not our fear.

God of miracles
When our boy, Daniel, was born, the paediatric cardiologist was waiting to take him to surgery, but his APGAR score was 10/10, so she left him with us. She did a sonar scan on his heart a few hours after he was born. Her words were, “I don’t know how, but the measles missed his heart.”

Growing into a wonderful young man
Daniel’s hearing was affected, but of all the areas that measles generally attacks, hearing loss is the only area that you can actually do something about. Daniel was fitted with cochlear implants at a young age, and has developed into a “normal” hearing child who loves music, loves the company of people, and never stops talking, even when he’s on his own!

Thriving, not surviving
When we see Daniel succeed and achieve new heights, we are often reminded that God provides rivers in the desert, and not a trickle of water. He’s not just surviving, he’s thriving, exceeding all of our expectations! We are forever grateful for God’s faithfulness, for His hand of protection over Daniel, and for the privilege that we have of entrusting our most difficult situations to Him!

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Date published: 07/10/2023

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