First, Abbie and I want to thank you so much for the many kind words, phone calls, text messages, emails, and everything else we have received since the birth of our son Noah. Above all of this, we especially appreciate the many prayers on Noah’s behalf. Abbie and I are convinced that prayers and petitions to the Triune God can and do cause things to happen which are unexplainable to anyone. (If you don’t believe me check out this amazing story that happened to our new friend, Seth.) With that in find we wanted to update you on our son Noah, and ask you to pray with us for some very specific things.

First, Abbie and I both received a phone call from Noah’s pediatrician this afternoon asking us to come into her office today to discuss some test results that came back for our son. Of course, this isn’t a call that anyone enjoys receiving, and doesn’t help to relax you at all. We went to her office and were told that one of Noah’s newborn screening test came back positive for an extremely rare metabolic disease (Abbie won’t tell me what it is, because she doesn’t want me, and everyone else, googling it right now!) The doctors told us, and my wife, (who is a pediatrician), confirmed their remarks, that these newborn screen tests show false positives “all the time” and that there is no need to worry. Our pediatrician said that Noah isn’t showing any of the other symptoms that go along with this, and that she is fairly certain it doesn’t, and not to worry (easier said that done.) Noah has to undergo a series of tests in the coming weeks, including another newborn prescreen that he did today (which you can see below that he didn’t really enjoy.) There are a lot of things that go into ruling out this metabolic disease, and we won’t have a definite answer for a few months until the results of a skin biopsy comes back. So we have LOTS OF TIME to pray, and ask you to please join in prayer with us. Noah’s chromosome test also came back today, and it confirmed that he does indeed have trisomy 21 (down syndrome), which is ok in our books! God has truly prepared our hearts over the last seven days for this.

My wife said that if he had this metabolic disease, and also down syndrome that we hit the “genetic jackpot” with Noah! Still, we worry. (Or at least I do, my wife’s faith is crazy, amazing!) The emotions we are experiencing are intense. We ask, “Why us?” They we ask, “Why not us?” Then we cry. Then we laugh. They we praise God. Then we do it all over again. What a roller coaster the last 7 days have been. (Today is Noah’s 1 week birthday, in fact as I write this, I remember that Noah was born about 40 minutes ago this time last week! Praise God!) We have some specific prayer requests that we would BEG for you to pray for as often as they come to your mind (and if you’d like to post a post it note in your car, on your desk, around the house, etc. so you’ll be reminded to pray for Noah more often; that’s ok to!)

1. Pray that Noah would come back negative for anything other then what we already know; especially for this metabolic disease. We are BEGGING GOD for a negative, and that that the results we go today were a false positive!

2. Pray for Noah’s heart, and the two issues he has with it would heal quickly, and without any sort of surgery.

3. Pray that Noah would eat, and eat well. It is VERY important that Noah doesn’t drop any wight, and in fact, he needs to gain wait. This is even more important as we wait the results of this next round of testing. We has to eat, and eat well!

4. Pray that every little cell in Noah’s body would develop at an extraordinary rate, and that he would blow the doctors away!

5. Pray for me as I lead our family well, and that I am a constant reminder to them that God is our strong tower. If you know me well, then you know I am prone to worry, and anxiety; so this is a huge thing prayer request for me. I want to set an example of trust in God, not one of worry and panic. (Plus I really do know better then to worry about stuff we have no control over!)

6. My sweet, sweet wife, Abbie. If you don’t know her personally, let me tell you there is no one like her. No one. She is crazy, amazing, and the strongest women I have ever meet. She is loving, gentle, caring, giving, patience, and so much more; all of the things I want to be, and all the things I desire for our son, Noah to be. Please ask God to give her a special peace, the peace that suppresses all understanding. The peace that only those who go through something like this learn. A peace that few have. Her smile is amazing, and seeing her smile makes all thing better to me. I can see Christ in her smile. It’s awesome. I’m truly blessed, and thankful to God for giving me someone like her to go through life with. Please ask God to wrap her in His arms.

8. Pray that we would not waste time! It would be very easy to worry our time away, instead of enjoying it! We want to enjoy Christmas, and having our sweet son home with us. Not worry all the way through it. Ask God to give us an amazing peace, and that we can really enjoy all of our time together, and not constantly think about all the “what ifs.”

9. Finally, pray for all of the mommies who are getting news every day that there child will be born with down syndrome. 9 out of 10 children with down syndrome are aborted before they are ever given a shot at life. This shatters my life. Please ask God to touch those moms ever day, and that they would be surrounded by people who encourage them, and remind them that through Christ, they really can do this. Those precious, little babies want a mommy and dadddy.

There is much more, but I’ll leave you with that for now. I’ll be honest, I’m scared. Scared like never before. I worry. I”m anxious. I go back and forth (and no, I’m not bi-polar) between every emotion you have ever had; and ones I didn’t even know existed. However, I have also NEVER been closer to God, EVER, then now. I have NEVER been closer to my wife, EVER, then now. I thought we had the best marriage ever before all of this, but now it’s at a whole different level! I know God will see us through this. We will walk through this. We are not alone. Again, we BEG you to pray for Noah EVERY. SINGLE. DAY. I will keep you updated. I promise!

(Oh, one more thing. Please don’t say “I’m so sorry for you” or anything like that in the comments. We don’t want to be felt sorry for, or pitted. It doesn’t help us. If you feel that, please kindly keep it to yourself. God is doing something crazy awesome. I’m not sure what it is yet, but it’s going to be interesting to see it unfold. Even if the very worst thing happens, we will trust God. As hard as it is to see sometimes, He knows what He is doing!)

I cling to Psalms 28:7 –
“The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and I am helped.”

-In Grace, and Truth
Rick, Abbie, and Noah