Sweet Willow Grace

I love facebook. Sure, it can be a MAJOR time sucker, but for reasons like the one I am about to tell you about…I LOVE facebook. See, I went to high school with a guy named Timothy. After high school we didn’t see each other for years. And then, one day, while shopping for a mini-van with Collin, there he was! Timothy! It was so great to catch up with him and learn about what he had been up to in the past 7 or so years. I found out that he had married a girl from our school. She was a few years younger than us and was never really a close friend of mine, but I was so happy to hear that they were married. We chit-chatted for awhile, bought a van and that was pretty much it. Timothy and Alicia ended up moving to Florida with a ministry opportunity. They had two precious boys. Finally, a couple years later I was walking the aisles at Hobby Lobby, and there he was again. They were home from Florida! It was always fun to see a familiar face at Hobby Lobby, and he helped me out with purchases on more than one occasion. Hobby Lobby ended up moving the family to Augusta, and about that time is where facebook enters into this whole story.

See, I became friends with Timothy and Alicia on facebook. Like I said before, Alicia and I weren’t necessarily friends in school. It’s not that we didn’t like each other or anything, we were just a few years apart and our paths didn’t cross all that often. But for some reason, we really clicked on facebook. We were both stay at home moms…both pondering homeschool…we just had a lot in common, I guess. We ended up promising to pray for each other’s families everyday. For our kids, husbands, their jobs…whatever. It was really nice to have a prayer partner a few hours away in Augusta!

And now I’m going to let sweet Willow Grace’s momma tell you the rest of the story. Because my words could never come close to explaining to you all that happened. All I can say is that this sweet, sweet baby is a miracle. And I am SO Thankful that she is here today!! Here’s what happened:

{the following was written to me in a letter from Alicia}

“A couple years after our Second born, Tim and I felt as though it was time for a 3rd little one to join the Sawyer crew. After a few months, I found out I was expecting, but shortly thereafter lost our sweet angel. Then on Brayden’s 3rd birthday, we found out we were expecting again, only to experience another loss a couple days later. At this point we felt like something was seriously wrong because our other two came so easily. This is the time that I asked you to pray that we could conceive and have a child.

I went to the doctor a short while later and they ran a slew of tests which indicated an autoimmune response in my body. They told me this was why I had been miscarrying and more that likely I wouldn’t be able to carry any children full-term. Before all of this news, I had been praying that God would give me a child for mother’s day. And in my sin nature, Mother’s day weekened, I had a pity party because God hadn’t given me the desire of my heart. Tim encouraged me to trust the Lord and His plan. That night at bedtime, I felt a pressing urgency from the Lord to simply trust Him and the floodgates broke. I gave Him my future regardless of whether or not it included more Children and then came something I will never forget….a clear promise from the Lord for a baby girl named Willow Grace….the verse came to mind from 1Samuel 1:27. I didn’t know when, but the Lord had given me a promise and I had a peace…a deep peace.

The very next day I went to help my friend paint her new house…after a couple hours I shared the news of God’s promise with her. We started jumping up and down and celebrating like I was already pregnant….thing is..I found out the next day I was pregnant!! Sure I was concerned over the baby’s safety, but God made a promise to me and I knew He had a plan.

The next several months proved to be very trying. I threw a bloot clot only 9 weeks into the pregnancy. They ran more tests which showed 4 different blood clotting disorders. My OB was quick to tell me that I was now considered “extremely” high risk and more than likely the pregnancy wouldn’t go very far and with each passing week I would be risking my own life that much more. And if by some rare occurrence we both made it….delivery was “highly unlikely”…it continued from there. She was growth restricted at one time…Ha! Hard to believe she was EIGHT pounds when she was born!!

I would love to say we didn’t doubt…there was actually one time when Tim and I were both down in the dumps. Generally when he was up, I was down, and vice versa. But this specific time we were BOTH down. They had told us her placenta was abnormally large and it might not be anything or it might be something more serious….God had already proved himself to us so many times over, but still I doubted Him. I’m so glad He doesn’t give up on us or get frustrated with us. He was quick to show Tim and I both His love. Tim was opening a box at work and talking with the Lord about our baby girl and what if, after all these months, we were to lose her….and then he pulled something out of a box that now sits on her dresser….God’s hands holding a tiny baby girl…Oh, how God loves her more than we ever could, and then in the quiet time of my day, God brought a conversation to my memory just as clear as the day it happened. The month after I lost baby angel #2, the boys and I were in the kitchen talking before supper. Out of the blue, Bryson told me we needed to pray for our baby… I didn’t want to bring back up that our baby was in heaven, so I let him just pray….then God reminded me the TIME of this sweet little prayer…it was right around the time I would’ve conceived baby girl. I’ve already told Willow Grace that her brother was the FIRST to ever pray for her. 🙂 He’s a might big God isn’t He? 🙂

There are so many little BIG things like this through out this pregnancy that God touched. Baby girl was born healthy, I made it through surgery just fine. The doc’s still can’t explain how my blood levels stayed so great almost like i didn’t even have surgery! 🙂 I’m sure I left a bunch out Aron, but these are the main things I can remember 🙂 Thank you for everything!”

According to man, this sweet baby should not be here. Her parents were told that delivery was “highly unlikely” and were advised to end the pregnancy for the safety of Alicia. But she is HERE and she is Perfect! And Momma is healthy, too!! Tim and Alicia give God all the glory for Willow Grace’s life. I can’t wait to watch this sweet one grow up…isn’t she Gorgeous?!?

Thank you, Tim and Alicia, for being so transparent with Willow Grace’s story. And thank you for sharing your sweet girl with us in a session!