Noah had his appointment with the cardiologist today, and we got some great news…! One of the “holes” (the PDA) in Noah’s heart was all closed up!
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update on our little superman.
Please pray for God to change our son’s heart (literally) :)
(A nice little picture of Noah’s heart that the cardiologist drew for us when he was born.)
It’s been an amazing 9 1/2 weeks getting to know our son Noah. Without a doubt, it’s been the “funniest” weeks of our life! Words can’t describe how fun it is being a husband to Abbie, and a father to Noah. I love it!
If you have been following our story, then you know that one of the “surprises” we learned about Noah upon meeting him for the first time is that he was born with two small “holes” in his heart.
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My Fridays (and everydays) are a lot more awesome!
Abbie and I had a great time going on a walk with Noah to see the ducks tonight!
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it a million times….being a dad is seriously awesome!
I pray that God gives us many, many more Friday nights just like tonight!
If you are reading this, I hope you take some time this weekend to simply enjoy your family!
-Rick
Eddy (and Jared) Rocks…!
I am seriously amazed daily at the awesomeness and creativity of my friends, and Jared and Eryn Erickson are certainly at the top of my awesome list….for several reasons.
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Even batman is powerless again fear.
It’s hard to believe our little Noah turned 2 months old yesterday.
There are no words to explain how much I love this guy.
I’ll be very honest, I have good days, and I have bad ones. Today for some reason has been a bad one.
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8 weeks of awesomeness
8 weeks ago, at almost the same time it is as I type this now, our life was forever changed. Words can not begin to describe the deep, intense love I have for our son, Noah David Smith. The last 8 weeks have been a roller coaster of emotions for our family, but the number one emotion is love. True, Christ like, selfless, no words can explain, love. Being a husband is awesome, but being a dad and a husband is beyond anything that I could have ever imagined. I fall more in love with my son and my wife everyday. I’m so thankful that God is allowing me this great privilege of being a part of HIs story!
“Thank you Father for these last 8 weeks, and for blessing our family with this little boy. May you give us wisdom on how best to parent, love, and guide him. Help us to teach him how great you are, and how much you love him, and desire a relationship with him. I can’t wait for the day that I can worship you with both my son, and wife. WOW! What a day that will be. Please watch over him, protect him, and help him to grow and develop, and become the person you created him to be. Please help his little heart to heal without any surgery, and most of all that his life would be a testimony to Your love, and grace. May many people come to know You through the life of our son. I love You and pray these things by the power of The Holy Spirit, and through Your Son, Jesus Christ.”
-Rick
Dallas SnowCation 2011
Today was day number four of the Dallas SnowCation of 2011. We’ve had a great time this week hanging out, and cuddling (a lot) with our 7-1/2 week old son, Noah!
Dallas (where we live) has gotten an amazing amount of snow in the last 24 hours, so we took a little walk today and snapped a few pics.
By the way, I may be a bit biased, but God sure did hook us up with a cute little guy, don’t ya think…! 
Noah Update (or) The best text message I’ve ever got.
When your wife calls when she knows you’re in a meeting it can only mean one of three things; Something really bad happened. Something really good happened. She forget you were in a meeting. Thankfully yesterday, it was all good!
For those of you who have been following along, we have been waiting for Noah’s tests to come back regarding Glutaric acidemia, type 1 (GA-1). We were told it would take four weeks from last Thursday to receive the results, and we just had to wait. (We had already been waiting four weeks before that, and let me just say that waiting is scary. Very scary. But that’s another post, for another day.
At 11:10 yesterday morning I was sitting in our monthly staff meeting at church, when my phone rang. I knew we were about to break for lunch, so I was planning on calling her right back, but I still like to check to make sure everything is ok. And as you can read, she was very, very ok The final test we were waiting on, Noah’s gene sequence, came back negative!!! I interrupted our meeting by blurting out the news I had just received, and we paused as a staff and gave thanks to God for answering our prayer regarding this! (By the way, not only did the test results come back negative, but they came back fast. Very fast. I attribute this to the fact that we have been praying that the tests would not only come back negative, they would come back fast. Hey, if you give me an inch, I’m taking a mile…!)
For all of you who have been praying so diligently for our son and for our family – THANK YOU! There are no words to express my gratitude to you all. From the deepest part of my heart I want you to know that it means the world to us that you would go to God on my sons’ behalf. That is seriously the best thing anyone could ever do for us, and I am deeply moved by so many peoples willingness to continually pray for Noah, and for us. Thank you again.
I’m no expert on prayer by any means. I’m not sure how our prayers, and how God’s plan for our life all work together, (Sure, I’ve been “trained” to “understand” all of the different theological arguments regarding the immutability of God, but I”m not sure I’ll ever be able to understand this facet of God.) but I do know this; I’ve prayed guts out the last six weeks. I have wept. Kneeled. Fasted. Sung. Tossed and turned as I tried to sleep. Laughed. Smiled. Asked every person I know to pray. Passed out pictures of Noah (lots of actually) so people could post them on their refrigerator to remember to pray for our son. And in the end God saw fit to line His will up, with my (and all of you who have been praying) prayer request. And it is awesome.
As a Christian I know I’m supposed to sort of “top-of” my prayers with, “….if it is your will, Amen.” I’ll be honest, the first few nights I prayed about this I didn’t say that. In fact I believe I said something like this to God,
“God, I’m know I”m supposed to say ‘if it’s your will, please don’t allow my son to have this’ but I don’t want to! I want this to be your will. I’m BEGGING you to let this be your will. I don’t want this NOT to be your will. I DO NOT WANT MY SON TO HAVE THIS! PLEASE GOD, ALLOW THESE TESTS TO COME BACK NEGATIVE, AND THAT THE FIRST TEST WE GOT WAS A FALSE POSITIVE!”
It may not be a very theological “correct” way to pray, but I’m sure there is something about being honest before God that is “correct.”
Make no mistake, God would have been just as good, and just as awesome if for some reason these tests came back negative. I really mean that. He has given us an incredible amount of peace the last six weeks, and we have learned that He really is an, “ever present help in time of great need.” Placing your child in the hands of God is the best place any child (or any adult) could ever be. (This is a lot easier said then done by the way.)
Please, continue to pray for Noah. Specifically two small issues with his heart which we will visiting a cardiologist next month to determine the what our course of action will be. (We are praying that God would allow these issues to heal on their own with no surgery required.) Also that he would continue to grow and develop well, and that as we interact with the various doctors, nurses, therapists, receptionists, etc., Noah’s life and our response would be a testimony to our great and wonderful God!
On last thing. Today as we celebrate, I am well aware that there are many parents today that aren’t. Parents that are waiting for test results. Parents that scared. Hurting. Fearful. Anxious. My heart is heavy for them, and would ask that you would please take time to pray a special care of comfort for those who are in that position today. If you are in that place today, please know I am praying for you. That God really does care for you, and really will give you joy and peace even when you think there is no way He can. (I can really proclaim this with integrity now.) If there some specific way I can pray for you, or you need to connect with some people, please contact me. It’d be my great honor to know what you are going through.
Joyful, thankful, and still praising God for the small things,
-rick
This kid is so cute, I just thought I’d post another picture. Just because.
(And yelp, I”ve become one of those mushy dads.)
Life belongs to God. Not us.
Today is Sanctity of Life Sunday, which is the Sunday that falls closest to Jan 22. Jan 22 is the day in 1973 when the United States Supreme Court decided on the Roe V. Wade and Doe V. Bolton cases which legalized the murder and dismemberment of unborn (aka – abortion) babies in the United States. Sanctity of Life is the Sunday closest to that horrible day where we celebrate life. Not destroy it.
Do me a quick favor; stop reading this post for a second and find a mirror. No seriously. Go look at yourself in it. Don’t you like living? Life is pretty cool, huh? (I’ve yet to meet anyone who says, “You know Rick, I really wish my mom would have murdered me before I was born.”)
Our son Noah was born on December 15, 2010. It was seriously one of the most awesome days of my entire life. Here is a crazy statistic, on the same day we were celebrating the birth of our son, we should have been mourning the murder of the other 115,000 babies who were killed that day. (There are approximately 115,000 babies murdered by abortion every day in the world. Crazy, huh?)
I was recently introduced to the website Abort73.com by John Piper. Their website is the most accurate, and informative I have ever seen. (They are also the ones who created the video posted above.) I would HIGHLY suggest visiting their website and clicking through all of the links about this horrible injustice. They do a much better job then I ever could, so please take the time to read through their site.
I really enjoy their section on personhood. Here is an excerpt;
“Embryos and fetuses are fully and individually human from the moment of fertilization on. If this were not true, if unborn children were not genetically-distinct human beings, there would be no need to even talk about rights of personhood. “Removing a fetus” would be the moral equivalent of pulling a tooth.
Finally I can’t say enough about how much respect I have for John Piper and his strong stance on the murder of unborn babies. He was written and spoke much about this, and tonight will be broadcasting live about this very topic (I highly suggest tuning in.) I have posted one of videos that I really liked in the past, and below you’ll find another. His website has lots of great resources if you’d like to learn more about the proper response we should have toward this great injustice.
One last thing. I know that this is a topic that brings a tremendous amount of pain, and heartache for those who have participated in this in their past. First, let me say that God can heal the deepest of pains. He loves you more then you could ever fathom. Even though some say God is simply an “imaginary being,” He isn’t. He is very real. And one day those who think He isn’t will meet Him (sadly the hard way.) He longs to know you, to love you, and to heal pains you never thought could be healed. If you have any questions about this at all, please contact me. I’d love to pray for you, or help you any way I can.
My friends at Focus on the Family have some great material that you can read if you have ever gone through this process, or are thinking about it. I highly suggest visiting their site, and reading through some of their material.
As you’ll hear John Piper say in the video above, I’m thankful that God knitted me together in my mothers womb. That He is the creator of life. And life belongs to Him, and to Him alone. It is absolutely none of our business, and to tamper with things that belong to God alone is incredibly dangerous. Let me be very clear, I HATE ABORTION! It sickens me that we live in a world that you even have to discuss if it is “right or wrong” to murder millions of babies every year. Babies that can’t run from their murders. Babies who have no choice in the matter (even those who promote this injustice claim to be “pro-choice.”) Babies who want a mommy and a daddy. Babies who want to cry. Babies who want to smile. Babies who want to be loved. Babies who are fearfully and wonderfully made.
Dear God, please have mercy on us for how bad we have messed this world up.
If you are a Christian, please take a few minutes right now to stop and pray for God to put in end to this horrible tragedy. That God would touch the life’s of moms and dads thinking about murdering their unborn baby. And that God would protect these wonderfully, made in the image of God, babies.
I have more to say, but I hear our 5 week old son in the other room, and I can’t wait to go hug on him!
Browers’ to the 2nd power….
Big ups to our friends Johnny, David, Holly, and Lindsey Brower for cooking (and bringing) us an awesome meal (from scratch) – including the most awesome of cupcakes! Johnny and David are brothers (if you couldn’t tell) and there sweet wives are Holly and Lindsey. They just left and I just realized that we had an entire house full of Browers’ in our house tonight. I’m not sure it can get any more awesome then that…!
Big ups to again to all of the Browers’, and to all of our awesome friends who have been bringing our family meals since Noah was born. You all have no idea how much of a help you are being to our family by your incredible generosity.
So to everyone who has brought us meals, sent us gifts/cards, called us, texted us, emailed us, facebooked us, tweeted us, prayed for us, and on, and on, and on….word can’t say thank you enough…! We are blown away by the love so many people have shown to our family, and are honored to call all of you friends.
We love you all. Seriously.
