I'll tell you-my heart has ached the last few weeks...I've been following a blog of a friend of mine whose life has been one that has been filled with trials. When I say filled , I mean it. Just over 5 years ago, my friend Jess married a man named Josiah Johnson. I went to their wedding and it was positively beautiful. In April of 2006 Baby Ava was born with the heart defect TAPVR...the following is a paragraph of Ava's story taken from
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/avajohnson/
"Ava was diagnosed with the heart defect TAPVR and was in surgery at 26 hours old. She had a very rough week and after many prayers turned a corner and came home almost three weeks later. We had five wonderful days home as a family and went back for a check up and discovered that Ava had severe stenosis in her pulmonary veins. She was put in the hospital for the weekend for observation and we planned to fly her to Mich. on Monday. Ava caught the ROTA virus and went downhill much faster than anyone expected. It was decided to life-flight her to Iowa City as she wouldn't make the trip to Mich. Upon arrival in IC Ava went into cardiac arrest and was placed on ECMO to give her body much needed rest. She remained on ECMO for five days and then had her second open heart surgery. They were planning on sending us home when four weeks post-op it was discovered that she had re-stenosis. She was taken to the cath-lab where they tried and failed to balloon her veins. The next day she went in for her third surgery at the age of 2 months. The day after surgery she started having seizures and we found out that she had suffered a stroke. Four weeks later we were able to come home. Ava is doing great, much to the amazement of her doctors. We continue to trust God for her future and enjoy every day with our miracle."
Just over 2 years ago, Jess was pregnant with Baby Grace. Grace was never born-God thought it best to take her to be with Him and Jess and Josiah praised God through yet another storm...Just about a year later, God blessed the couple with their son, Lincoln. A quote from Jess' blog "God has a purpose and a plan for all things. I firmly believe that. He took Grace to be with Him one Christmas, but then blessed me my precious son the very next Christmas. I do not always understand His ways….but I trust Him." The faith of this family literally puts me in tears. It is unwavering...their trust in God humbles me and rebukes me all at the same time...On May 3rd Jess posted nearly her last post to Ava's site...
"This will hopefully be my last post on this web-site. Ava is doing so well (thank you Jesus!), so I don't feel like we need this site anymore. That said, I will continue blogging about our happenings on another blog soon. I will keep this one open for a while, I just will be writing on the other one. We are working on getting the address prayforava.com to go to the other blog. That way you don't have to learn a new web-site address. This one will not send you notification when I update, so if you want to know what is going on you'll just have to visit the site periodically. This web-site has been such a great tool and such a God send for us. I do have all of this in a book to show Ava someday (thanks to a lovely young friend). Ava will have proof that she is greatly loved by all of you and more importantly by her heavenly Father. Thank you for your faithfulness.
That being said, I do have one last piece of news to share on this site and I will be writing more on the new blog as well. There is no good way to share this, so I'm just going to say it, we found out 3 weeks ago that my husband Josiah has cancer. He had a biopsy on a tumor in his leg and it showed cancer. It was a big shock to us as I'm sure it is to many of you reading this. We would so appreciate your continued prayers for us as we journey down this new twist in our path. We take comfort in the fact that this was not a surprise to our God. He is the SAME God that brought us though everything with Ava and He will be the SAME God tomorrow and the day after that and forever. We put our trust in Him. He is faithful. He is good.
Rejoicing day by day."
Since the beginning of May Jess has been blogging at the website I now follow...
http://prayforjohnsonfamily.wordpress.com/
If you have the time, I challenge you to read these blog posts from the beginning... Jess has such a unique ability to pour her heart out through words. I have poured out many tears for this family as I have read Jess' words. The desire of the Johnson family to glorify God is made known through these posts. The faith that this couple has moves me time and time again and makes me desire a greater faith. I know that through Josiah's life, he has desired to make God known...I know that through Jess' life, she has desired to make God known. Know that through their lives, God IS BEING MADE KNOWN...
As I was getting ready for work this morning I thought to myself, "who would have thought the trials this couple would endure at such a young age? Who would have thought on their wedding day, with the complete joy in their hearts, the hardships that were to come..." My heart breaks for their family-but my heart rejoices in their attitudes towards the path of life God has given them. I weep with them and for them almost daily...I know God is able to work miracles-He did it with Baby Ava. Unless God changes His plan, Josiah will soon be re-united with Baby Grace in Heaven with our Awesome Father...as I think about life and death I know I have nothing to be scared of when it comes to death...I know that Christ came down to earth over 2000 years ago to live a blameless life, to die on the cross for my sins, to rise again-victorious over death, and He IS my Savior.
I've learned so much through the Johnson family...I've learned that life can change at the drop of a hat and I cannot prepare for it. I've learned in ALL things I have to turn to God-He is my constant. I've learned that faith is a MUST...I've learned that life is short and while I'm here on earth I need to glorify God-there is NO greater purpose in life than that...I've been burdened to tell others about Christ and how He saved me from an eternal life of condemnation in Hell...it is real and God saved me...He can save you too...please read about the life of the Johnson family. I have grown to love them...please know I am only an e-mail or phone call away if you have any questions about Heaven and Hell-I want to answer them...If I don't know the answer-I'll help find it...I'll end with this-Jessica and Josiah Johnson's lives have glorified and magnified God 100%. I know that when God takes both of them home to be with Him He will say for sure "Well done my good and faithful servants!" I'm encouraged by that today...
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