Sunley’s THIRD birthday is fast approaching, and we are celebrating BIG. We have more than just a birthday to celebrate! Sunley recently had a check-up in Houston at TCH, and we really thought that we may be told to start preparing for her Fontan procedure. Instead of needing surgery this summer, Sunley’s echo looked strong enough to go a WHOLE YEAR between appointments! Lord willing, our girl will have no pokes or hospital trips for a year!! We are blown away. I was praying so hard that she wouldn’t need surgery yet, but I never would have dreamed that she would be doing so well. Yes, she will still need surgery, but hopefully we get to skip managing a toddler’s open heart surgery during the COVID craziness. Now we are praying for the health crisis to be over before her surgery, so that we can be there together as a family, and not have to switch off caregivers, or pass up visits from siblings. God is doing big things every day, and I am believing He will give us this win. Why not pray for another year?! Am I being too hopeful? Peace. I will pray for peace with the timing of her next surgery, whenever that may be.

I also have another God-is-here story to share: In January of 2018, when we got Sunley’s final blow diagnosis (after a LENGTHY misdiagnosis process), we left the exam room and sat down to eat lunch at the cafeteria. I remember the exact table where we sat, as I would often visit that spot in the following year when I needed to feel physically close to Jesus. I got a phone call, but missed the call, so it went to voicemail. That voicemail was a friend who had just heard our news. He poured out his heart in that voicemail, and I think it was the first time I truly experienced what it felt like for someone to “speak life” into me. His words were PERFECTION, and absolutely everything I needed to hear. That voicemail physically, emotionally, and spiritually built Derek and me up in a very low moment. I was weak, I listened, and I became strong. Of course, I meant to save that voicemail, but somehow I lost the recording, and I was devastated. Recently, I reminded Derek of it, but it has been so long that I had forgotten the exact words and it made me so sad that I had failed to save it. I poured over all the old files I had, every recording, every video, through 3 hard drives, and I just couldn’t find it. It was gone. I prayed again and just said “God, I know it’s gone, and I know You don’t work this way, but I really would like that voicemail back.”

Guys. Not two days later, I got an alert on my phone that said something like Your phone memory is almost full, click here to delete old files. And there it was. I could barely breathe. I called Derek in the room, and we listened to it together and cried. Derek said, “I can’t believe you found it,” to which I replied, “I did NOT find this — GOD literally threw it at me!”

Of course, I called that friend and shared my lost coin story with him. I knew I didn’t NEED that voicemail back, but I sure wanted it, and I am still so overjoyed that God gave it to me! My friend told me, “Sometimes, God’s fatherly love shows up in the same way a grandfather gets joy by handing his granddaughter a cupcake. And you have been given a cupcake.” That voicemail, Sunley’s last checkup — God is giving us more than we could possibly had ever hoped for and I am fully absorbing that joy. Praise God for cupcakes.

(You can hear the voicemail in the beginning of this video)