I graduated college on a Monday. Cindy and I got married the following Saturday. Three weeks later we are starting our first ministry assignment as Student Pastor at a church in Clearwater, FL. Our future looked absolutely amazing!
Fast forward four years and we are now serving at a church in Virginia Beach, VA. While there we experienced the birth of our first born, a son we named Joshua. Within hours of his birth the pediatrician rolled Josh into Cindy’s hospital room. Both her mother and I are there on either side of her bed. The doctor then precedes to tell us that she has to run some tests to confirm, but the physical signs all point to Josh having been born with Down Syndrome.
Our world was rocked to its core. We had no idea what that meant at that time. Never in a million years did the idea that our son, our first child at that, would be born with a disability.
Navigating through those early days was rough. Within hours it was discovered that he was also born with a major heart defect. He had to be rushed to the pediatric ICU at another hospital in Norfolk.
We didn’t know anyone with Down Syndrome–We knew very few families that had kids with any disability for that matter. We lived over 200 miles away from both of our families back in Maryland. We felt all alone.
Apart from a dear sweet friend named Sandy who passionately prayed with and for us, and another dear sweet friend named Cheryl, whom God graciously placed at just the right time to be there to actually receive Josh from the ambulance at that hospital in Norfolk; it felt like God had made a mistake.
Little did we know what the next days, weeks, months and years would bring. Health challenges, weight challenges, developmental challenges, academic challenges, social acceptance challenges, and the list goes on and on.
Through it all, we have often felt alone—Very alone. God’s grace has sustained us.
He graciously brought different people into our lives at different times to encourage us and to remind us that God was and is at work. Family has been a constant refuge as well. Yet still there are times, 30-plus years later when we ask—Does anyone really understand, or is it just us all alone?
“And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them.”
–Romans 8:28
