My mom came to visit today to pick up my brother who was in town visiting, and also to love on our son. Noah loves when either of his grandmothers come to visit because even at almost six months old, he knows that there is a good chance he will be getting spoiled!
When Noah was born we quickly become aware of the many new surprises accompanied down syndrome brought with it. One of those surprises was low muscle tone which effected his ability to drink from a bottle. This required that Noah (at just 3 1/2 weeks old!) visit a speech therapist on a weekly basis! (Whom, by the way, did an incredible job with our son!)
Watching this short video and remembering how scared we were just five short months ago, caused me to reflect on the overwhelming faithfulness that God has show towards our family.
In seems like only yesterday that my wife and I put on a pair of matching cold, heavy, lead vests, and stood in an ice-cold examination room watching a radiologist preform a swallow study on our sweet, little, four week old. We were scared. We were worried. We were afraid. There was so much going on in our life at that time, and on top of that we were worried about our little boy not being able to get the food he needed. To be honest, it was terrifying.
However, even through our life had suddenly become overwhelmed with a million unknowns, there was one thing we knew for sure
God made a much better god then we did.
He runs the show. He calls the shots. He is God. I am not. He is the Creator. I am the created. He knows Noah better then any doctor on the planet. He knew about his extra 21st chromosome long before my wife’s OB-GYN did. He knows the future. I do not.. Noah belongs to God, not my wife and I. Noah is simply on loan to us. (This, by the way, is a very hard concept for me to wrap my mind around, but it’s true.) I also knew that God loved Noah even more then I do. I also was fully aware that God alone held the entire world in the very palm of his hands, and that world included me, my wife, and our sweet, loving, unable to eat from a bottle, son.
And we trusted God. With everything we had.
Everything being our son, Noah.
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Fast forward five monts to today, and Noah here you see Noah eating out of a spoon! (And quite well, I might add.)
Wow…!
God sure does an incredible of job of being God.
It’s didn’t stop there, God has continued to demonstrate mind-blowing examples of His grace toward our family!)
I’ll be honest. This is quite the journey that God has us on, but honestly we wouldn’t change a thing. Down Syndrome is sort of like the monster under my bed when I was kid. It scared me. It kept me up at night. It caused me to cry. It caused me to worry. Then, one day, I realized there was no reason for me to be afraid. That monster, was no monster after all.
Today, we can absolutely say that our fears have been replaced with a supernatural joy that can only come from a loving, caring, graceful God. Sure, there are some days when fear tries to win, but guess what…
In this house, fear loses!
This little guy is seriously amazing. Being his dad is without a doubt the coolest role I’ve ever been in. I can’t stop looking at him, holding him, praying with him, playing with him, loving on him, and staring into those big, blue, eyes. I’m captiviated by him.
Gosh, I love this kid. Thank you God for finding us faithful that You would give us a child as incredible as Noah.
Here’s a few pictures of Noah’s fun day with his grandma!
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About Rick Smith
What an adorable little boy! “He is on loan from God” I remember coming this realization when I was pregnant with my son. He is God’s precious child and I get the honor of raising him. 🙂
Thanks for the comment, we agree – he is adorable! 🙂 Once parents understand that God loves our children even more then we do, and He is working in their life to bring about His will, parenting becomes a lot less “worrisome.”
Does your son have any type of “special need?’
Great post!
“In this house, fear loses!” I’m going to introduce that to my family today. You are an inspiration, keep it up!
Wow. Thank you so much. I really appreciate that encouragement.
My hope is that people can see that our life is much more “normal” then it is “un-normal!” 🙂
He is SO CUTE! Love the video of him eating. 🙂 We had issues with eating at the beginning too (went through a g-tube, swallow studies, etc), but our little guy eats like a champ now. Glad to see things are going well for you all.