Power of Praise

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. Psalms 150:6

 

Below is a testimony of how praising God in a difficult situation brought about a breakthrough.

 

 

Susan shares her story:

 

 

Living with sickle cell anemia was a roller coaster ride. Growing up with a disease that was not well known and understood affected me physically and emotionally. The stigmatization of being called a "sickler" made me feel harassed and sickly. I actually overcame and grew up with the help of God and the love of my family.

As a sickle cell carrier, getting a spouse is a totally different ball game, but God gave me mine,  God gave me a husband that loves and stands by me even during most terrifying crisis. My husband is God sent. Being a universal donor, I can't count the number of times he's donated blood for me.

We now have 2 children, which is a miracle. 

My second child, Tim, is the physical manifestation of God's grace and the fact that God loves our worship.
 

As usual, I experienced several crisis while pregnant with long hospital stays. While pregnant, I was exposed to strong analgesics, MRI's, X-rays and the strongest painkillers were used to alleviate my pain. Through it all, God protected my son. At 26 gestational week, I noticed reduced fetal movements, and called the attention of my doctors to it. I didn't get to see the gynecologist until the pregnancy was 29 weeks. By then, I may not feel my baby move a whole day.
 

Tests conducted showed that my baby had irregular heartbeat, in short my baby was stressed. I was rushed into surgery and out came my precious baby. He didn't cry and it was the tiniest baby I've ever seen. He weighed 0.9kg( 900 grams). At that moment I was so afraid to look at him. He was all bones and veins. The doctors worked, resuscitated him and moved him to NICU.

When I was able to visit my baby, I saw him in the incubator, looking so helpless, fighting to take the next breath. He was struggling to live. I won't ever forget a statement a nurse made, she said "oh is this baby still here?"
 

Just looking at my baby there, his chest going in and out, I felt so inadequate, a total failure. I wanted to pray but couldn't. I also could not relate to the fact that it was by the mercies of God he was born alive, and his being alive was a miracle.

 

Picture taken 2 weeks after birth

 

 

I was eager to feed and take care of my child but knew nothing about care of premature babies as their management is different from a full term baby. The pediatrician advised me to express and store my milk. I was elated when he was able to feed on my milk after a few days.

He had spent 2 weeks in the NICU, when we got an urgent call in the midnight to come to the hospital. At this point, I stopped trying to pray and  turned to praising God. All through the drive to the hospital that night we were praising God even though we did not know what news awaited us.

On getting to the hospital, we were told Temiloluwa had an infection in his intestines. The doctor called it Narcotizing Entero (NEC), Jaundice and Sepsis. The main reason we were called was that they needed to do an exchanged blood transfusion. My husband was able to donate blood for this purpose. He had five blood transfusions, cardiac arrests and hypoglycemia during his stay at the hospital.

I was informed that my baby would no longer be feed with milk. Looking at him struggling to live in the incubator was difficult. He looked so sick with a hard bloated tummy. I was fighting down tears and the fear of losing him. I had previously downloaded some praise and worship songs on my phone, so I literally walk around with the phone singing of God's faithfulness. Most of the time, I put the phone close to the incubator so my son can hear the songs.

After spending over a month in the NICU, we were approached by the doctor that they have tried their best and are considering a transfer to another facility for continued management. I remembered clearly how my husband refused and told the doctors to try more and if they insist, we should be given 4 more days before being moved to another facility.

At this point in time, the nursing and caring staff couldn't get a vein for intravenous feeds anymore, so I was asked to bring him milk. During the four day period, God intervened through a consulting doctor who ordered quite a few tests. Based on the test results, his antibiotics was changed and overnight, my baby started responding to treatment. 

To the glory of God we were sent home after 64days in NICU. He weighed 1.67kg.

Tim is now a year old. He's moving fast to catch up with his peers and he's a living testimony of God's goodness, greatness and mercy.

This testimony cuts very close to home for me. Throughout the duration of his stay in the hospital, there were quite a number of people praying for him across 4 continents. We experienced the mercy of God and His grace through answered prayers. Yes, God answers prayers.

Note: All names have been changed in the testimony above.


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