Lily's testimony continued...

Kings Community Church, Lancaster

He has shown us in an amazing way that we can always trust in Him...

We shared the news with our church and asked them to pray for our unborn child. We prayed every day. We didn’t ask for survival, but for complete healing – we asked for a miracle. Throughout the next few months, we were so overwhelmed and blessed with the number of people, even non-Christians, praying for our unborn baby: from England to the Philippines, Australia, New Zealand, Canada and many more places across the earth. Every time we spoke to someone, they told us of how they had shared our news with others and they were praying too. This gave us strength and our faith for healing grew to levels we hadn’t experienced before. The church stood by us for the rest of the pregnancy, praying and interceding regularly. We were given words from God about how ‘all would be well’ and that he would give us ‘the peace that passes all understanding’. I found it hard at times; doubt set in and fear took over, but Mat was always so positive and together we kept trusting in God and He helped us through. People did not understand why we were so calm and how we could be so positive in the situation, but we knew it came from God - He had really given us the peace He promised and without Him, we would have been a mess! It was because of this we decided to call our baby Lily Hope (Lily means peace).

Finally, two weeks before I was due, the time came for me to go to Manchester where the doctors would induce me. The plan was to put the baby straight onto a ventilator as she wouldn’t be able to breathe for herself. We were warned that she would probably not cry and that we would not get a chance to see much of her until she had been stabilised and paralysed in an incubator. As the midwife began to examine me, she asked if I had felt any pain or contractions that morning. I said that I hadn’t and she was surprised and said I was already in labour and there was no need to induce me. The birth was quick, only lasting an hour and a half from that point. Our daughter was born during a power cut, surrounded by panicking medical staff! We remembered the words we were given by God and despite the chaos and my exhaustion, were not worried. The first thing we heard was her crying! After what they had told us, we were surprised but grateful.  

In the first few hours, the doctors stabilised Lily on the ventilator. The consultant came to see us and explained that she was puzzling them slightly as she seemed to be doing too well! He explained that she was breathing some breaths on her own and this shouldn’t be possible before her operation. After more scans and meetings between the consultants, they decided that there was no hole in her diaphragm and that she could come off the ventilator completely. She came off it without any problems and we were amazed! God had answered our prayers! Then the doctors began to talk about something called an eventation which they described as a ‘floppy diaphragm’. They decided that this must be what they had seen on all the scans as there was no hole and so they might still operate to tighten it because otherwise she might still have problems. They called a meeting with several consultants to decide what to do. After all the great news, we were disheartened by this but didn’t give up. It seemed to us that the doctors were trying to explain what they had seen – the unexplainable. We asked our church to rally round and pray again. We had to trust that God knew what He was doing. The meeting happened and they decided to hold off on the operation and wait to see how she coped without it. She coped well and they sent us home without the operation. Lily is our miracle baby and we thank God every day for her. From the start God has been at work in Lily’s life and we believe He always will be. He has shown us in an amazing way that we can always trust in Him, however bleak the circumstances look and that prayer really does work.