Tag Archive - Noah
update on our little superman.
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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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
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.)
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.
shots are no fun, but stickers are…
Noah did great at the doctor today while they drew all the blood they needed to run the (hopefully) last set of tests. I had to hold him while he screamed today, and that was not very fun. At all. But he endured like the champ he is, and the nurse gave us some sweet Spiderman stickers…! So it was a win!
They are running two tests from today’s blood, that we should get back within the next four weeks. Please keep praying for Noah that he does not have GA-1. We are still scared, and worried, but trusting our great God. He is holding Noah (and us) firmly in His hands…and I’ll say this; there is no better place to be. He has provided so much peace the last 4 weeks. It’s amazing. This is the sort of peace I’ve only read about. It’s pretty awesome to be actually living in it.
-Rick
Tomorrow is the beginning of the end
It’s hard to believe that Noah is four weeks old today! We are so thankful for the awesomeness that has been the last four weeks! Noah is simply amazing. Only God could design someone as cute as this kid!
For those of you who have been following Noah’s story, you know that Noah is in the process of being tested for a very rare metabolic disorder called GA-1. His newborn test came back positive for this, but there are “lots” of false positives we have been told. We have gone through two rounds of testing, and those tests have came back negative. However that doesn’t mean Noah does not have GA-1, it means that that test was negative. Tomorrow we are going to a geneticist that will draw blood to run several more tests on Noah, one being a DNA sequencing. (Crazy stuff for a four week old, or any week old.) These tests are the only ones that can rule out GA-1. It will take 4 weeks from tomorrow before the test results come back, which is just a little less then 8 weeks that we have had to wonder if Noah has this. But in 4 weeks all of the wondering will end. It’s scary, but God is good. We are trusting Him, even through waiting is hard. So many people have been praying for Noah, and for our family. Please do not stop. These next four weeks will be a LONG four weeks as we await for these results. GA-1 is very serious, and the chances of Noah having GA-1, and down syndrome would be very rare; but still we worry for our son. We are scared for our son. However, we trust God, and ultimately He is in control. He can see places in Noah’s body where the smallest microscope could never see. Noah is in God’s hands, and there is no better hands to be in. God loves Noah more then we do. Much more. This is a hard concept to understand. But I’m learning…..
Please join us in prayer, especially over the next four weeks as we beg God to allow these next tests to come back negative. Thanks again for your love and concern for our family.
-Rick
