My Aunt Peggy shared with my mom a passage from the Bible that stated
that 'we should share these stories for all ages'. I don't know where
it came from, the Old or New Testament, but it has resounded in my
heart. What I am living now, is a continuation of the Gospel. A modern
day parable, that Christ is slowly unraveling, capturing the hearts of
so many. I wanted to take a moment today to share some stories that
haven't been shared involving Vivian, and how she is taking the world by
storm.
As I am sure everyone who reads this blog
knows, there is a walk being organized in Vivian's honor to help offset
medical costs as well as living costs while Rod and I are not working.
Clare, my sister who is a junior at Mt. Notre
Dame, has a project that each student who goes through the school
participates in called a Capstone Project. On March 8, when we found
out the news of Vivian's heart, Clare's first reaction was one that was
proactive and full of Hope--Vivian would be her project. In only a few
short weeks, the ball began rolling and is in full swing as we prepare
for the exciting event we are calling Vivian's Victory--Vivi's little
life already is winning over the hearts of thousands and bringing so
many to believe in God's amazing goodness. For more information on the
walk, this is the website http://viviansvictory.eventbrite.com/.
Clare is also involved with Kenosis, a youth group at Ruah Woods. Ruah
Woods is a center devoted to spreading and promoting the Culture of
Life through Theology of the Body. It is an amazing center that is
unique to Cincinnati and is acting as a model for other centers
throughout the US. Because of Clare's faithfulness to her vocation as a
young Christian woman, she has been able to make connections with local
businesses that support Ruah Woods, who are also going to give donations for the walk.
Once we found out about Vivian's heart and learned more and more about HLHS,
all different people started to come out of the woodwork who knew
someone whose child had the same diagnosis, or similar experience. It
was overwhelming the numbers, the emails, the messages we received from
people that wanted to console us as we began our journey. I felt like
advice they would give, or stories that would be shared all spun around
outside of my head. Not that it wasn't helpful, or that I wasn't
grateful for the openness of others to share, but I myself was just
becoming accustomed to the reality, learning the verbiage and trying to
stay on pace with the doctors. In the past week, I realized I am ready
to ask concrete questions to prepare myself for the upcoming months. My
mom had received an email from someone whose sister's son is 3 and is
doing fabulously after all 3 surgeries. Their story is similar to ours,
in the sense that we were both diagnosed at 20 weeks which hasn't been
the case for any other person we have spoken with. Everyone else found
out after the baby was born which is a completely different reality from
the one we have, are and will be experiencing.
At work
today, I had a woman pick-up her daughter's veil. She asked when the
baby is due, and told me I have a real glow. Not the normal pregnant
mom glow, but there was something special about it. I was taken aback,
and flattered and of course this lead to continued questions of when the
baby is coming, if its a boy or a girl, how much she loves the name
Vivian, where I am delivering, you know the drill. Usually when I am at
work, I don't go into much detail about our situation because when the
women who come in are here, it is all about them, and it should be. But
for some reason, I started to share our story. When I finished, she
looked at me smiling and said, "I now understand the glow. You are
living through a challenged faith. I will be praying for you and
Vivian." What encouragement! It gets crazier--I just put Vivian's
prayer cards in my purse this morning. No rhyme or reason as to why,
but I just had an impulse to do so. I ran back and grabbed a few to
give to her, and she was elated--loved the idea, loved having a picture
of Vivian and is going to share them with her prayer group, and send the
request through the prayer chain at her church. God is here!
These are just a few of the amazing God stories Viv is creating
by being so perfectly her. If you have one, I would love to hear it and
have record of it. Our journey, the story we are living, is one of
faith that is bringing Glory to God each day. It is humbling to be a
character is such a perfectly constructed web of God's love that
hopefully will illuminate and inspire through the generations.
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