1 Thessalonians 5: 16-18💙👼🏽💙

By no means am I an expert, experienced mommy or know it all when it comes to this mommy life. However, I am a God-fearing first time mommy, who has spent the last couple of months learning a lot about myself, taking care of the most beautiful gift I believe God can give a woman aside from Salvation, and wrapping my head around how to be the best momma I can to my son with the new journey of parenting that I have embarked on with my husband. I am an educator, turned “temporary” stay at home momma, who loves the Lord, her amazing husband (who too is kicking this Daddyhood lifestyle butt while working as a manager in IT and a youth pastor), writing, shopping, reading and mentoring.

Before my son was born, I knew I was going to do my stint of maternity leave (11 weeks) and return to work doing what I love-teaching 7th grade Reading. I never really was opposed to being a SAHM, I just didn’t see it as necessary or an option, because everyone puts their child in daycare or gets a nanny right? Ha! My was I so wrong! My attitude about going back to work and putting that Master’s degree I just earned weeks prior to work, quickly came to a halt when my son entered this world, full term on his due date, December 31, 2016 at 10:50pm, weighing in at 8lbs, 8oz 20.5 inches long. He was and is perfect! After being in labor at home, hospital, and back at home for nearly 13 hours with contractions, he quickly kicked that scheduled C-section to the curb and forced us to let him out on his special New Year’s Eve due date he was promised months prior. So my doctor who was NOT ON CALL at the time and on her way back from Kansas City with family, scrubbed up and came and delivered my little boy! I was overjoyed to see her and truly grateful that she came on her night off to deliver my little man. Because let’s be honest, having a complete stranger deliver your baby was not ideal, on what could be viewed as the scariest moment of your life as a new mommy.

Doped up on anesthesia and tired beyond belief, I held him on my belly and chest and watched him make his way up to my breast to partake in his first of many feedings. My husband video chatted our sisters, introducing Duce to them and I just laid there in love by the amazingness that had just left my body and was now in my arms. He was mine. All mine. And he was everything I could have ever imagined and so much more! After we made our way to our mommy and baby room and got settled in, breast fed some more, and even had the nurse come in and give him a bath, my husband and I were just so in love. I fed him, and my husband held and rocked him to sleep every couple of hours. Yes, there was a bassinet in the room with us, but my husband never put him down. It was a beautiful sight to see, and my heart was so full.

I would have never imagined that some 14-15 hours later the on call pediatrician would come in and check his vitals and send him down to get an EKG that our life would turn upside down (He was pre-diagnosed in the womb with VSD-Ventricle Septic Disorder, and we were informed that he would be fine because either it would close on its own or he would just live with it. The cardiologist just wanted to check it out once he was born). It was just our luck that we didn’t have to wait another week or two to get the EKG done because a radiologist didn’t mind coming in during the holiday to do it. Praise God she did! Because on that EKG is where she discovered that our son was having trouble with his oxygen levels due to a heart condition called Transposition of the Great Arteries. Somehow his left and right arteries grew flipped, and he needed to be rushed to Children’s Hospital where he would have to undergo open heart surgery.

I never needed nor called on God like I did that very day. Terrified by the process and outcome, my husband and I prayed, cried, and asked thousands of questions as they prepared my son to be transferred to a new hospital. He went with my son and I stayed back another couple of hours with my best friend until they were able to secure a room for me-I was still recovering from labor and C-section. The scariest 24 hours we had experienced only drew us closer, as we prayed, fasted, sought out prayer from close family, friends and church families, and prayed over our son. Through God’s grace and sovereignty, our little boy’s arteries were corrected, he was healed and we were overjoyed at the opportunity to finally take him home 9 days later. I can honestly say it was one of the toughest trials God has put me through. BUT…He also saw my husband and me through it all, and for that I am humbled and forever grateful for His plan on our lives and especially the life of our dear son.

~Soli Deo Gloria💜

Copyright © 2017 by Da’Quisha Whitaker
All rights re served. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the writer.