Our sweet, beautiful Selah James went to be with Jesus this morning around one o'clock am after 10 and a half hours of fighting like a little warrior. She passed away peacefully in her mommy's arms with the room full of our family and Pastor Laura. We all stood around and were able to talk to her all the way to the end and give God praises for His true love for us and for her. Selah continuously defied the odds that were against her little life and never gave up for one second.
One of our prayers leading into these last few weeks was that if it wasn't God's will to heal her completely, that we would at least get to hold her while she was alive for a few moments. We prayed that she would not be stillborn and that she would be able to know her mommy and daddy's love for her over her short time on this Earth. We know that the Father's love is so much stronger and bigger than we could ever fathom and so we're so glad that the Lord did not allow her to suffer for one minute and took her in the most peaceful way. But we're also glad of the fact that we got to hold her against our skin and give her as much love as possible while she was with us.
The doctors never expected her to make it out of the operating room, but she showed all of us her incredible strength. Over the 10 and a half hour period we experienced so many miracles. God showed His face in every way imaginable. We were able to hear her little whimpers and cries...things that we never knew we'd get to hear. We were also able to read her a bedtime story just a few hours before she passed. The room was full of tears as Brittany held her and I read "On the Night You Were Born," by Nancy Tillman.
Another blessing for us was being able to hold her in our arms, skin to skin. She nestled against our chests and opened her eyes several times to look at us. She has Brittany's nose and mouth and my eyes and eye brows (poor thing). We even got to put some lip gloss on her perfect, little lips. She looked like an angel the entire time and we know that she's in the arms of Jesus and not suffering through anything of this world anymore.
We can't thank you all enough for your support and prayers. We truly felt the presence of God with us all day yesterday and even now. There is an overwhelming sense of the Holy Spirit pouring its power over us and flooding our hearts and the entire room with the love of Christ. We never would have imagined that Selah's story would touch so many lives in such a short amount of time. Selah James Bennett will live well past her final breath on this Earth and we are so thankful for that.
Thank you all for your prayers and please continue to lift us all up in the coming days and weeks. Please remember, His ways are higher than ours and we submit to His will because He has aligned our steps and His love endures forever. Rejoice in the Lord always!
Until next time, God bless you all.
Proverbs 3:5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight."
Tuesday, October 30, 2012
Monday, October 29, 2012
Mom and Dad are taking turns holding Selah and cherishing every second of this journey. The ending outcome may not be what we want, but God continues to bless through so many not-so-tiny miracles. The doctors never expected Selah to make it out of the OR, but here she is and it's just a testament of God's grace and the hundreds, if not thousands of prayers that have been lifted up on our behalf.
Thank you for your great support and continue to pray for our coming minutes and hours. We will continue to give God the glory because that is what we're called to do and He is worthy of our praise. We praise Him in the storm because He carries us through and will not forsake us.
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Packing and Praying
Brittany and I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude for all of the thoughts and prayers that people have offered up for us and for Selah during the last several weeks. We have been completely humbled by the amount of people who have sent cards, called or sent texts, and/or sent Facebook messages to show their support and to encourage us in this most difficult time. Our family, our church family, and our friends have been incredibly supportive, not to mention the people that we don't even know that have been so kind to us. Our Pastor and his wife, Glenn and Laura Lee, have been incredible and we could never repay the blessings and pillars of strength and encouragement that they have been to us during this time. We are so grateful to you all and we pray blessings over you and your families.
Ok...let me quickly share a humorous story from this past weekend. As many of you know, I am a huge sports fan. I have been since I can remember and I'm incredibly blessed to have a wife that will not only go along with my obsession, but will, at times, contribute to it. My birthday was this past Monday and someone offered us free tickets to the Duke and Carolina football game on the Saturday before. Brittany was well aware that I would love to go to the game so she "talked me into" going even though she was almost 9 months pregnant and feeling every day of it. To make a long story short...it was a great game and Duke won in the final seconds, which of course made us both extremely happy. And minutes later, for the first time during the course of our pregnancy, Selah kicked and Brittany could feel her moving around! She hadn't kicked at anytime before this moment so I have officially deemed her a true Blue Devil.
Well, Monday is the day...we have a scheduled C-section with our specialist, Dr. Goodnight, and the team of doctors and nurses that have been taking care of Brittany and Selah for the past 7 months. Obviously we are pretty anxious about what is to come. However, we know that the Lord is in control and He will provide us with the strength that we need for whatever lies ahead. We have waited what seems like years to meet our little girl and we can't wait to hold her for the first time.
As I said in my previous post, we are continuing to pray for a miracle. But we know that God's ways are higher than our own. Whether He heals her completely or she passes not long after she's born, His ways are perfect and He will see us through. I told our church a few weeks ago that I would love nothing more than to walk my daughter to class on the first day of Kindergarten or walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. We have so many dreams of her growing up and being a part of our everyday lives, but none of those things are better than her being with Jesus and that is all that matters.
The Lord created Selah for a purpose and aligned her journey to His will from the beginning. If she serves a higher purpose by living for 30 minutes than she does by living for 80 years then so be it. We know that our God is able to save her and we pray that He's willing, but if not, she is His child and we find comfort in the fact that she will not have to suffer through this world. If she goes to be with Jesus, she will be completely healed of all the challenges that she might have had to face in this world.
We have been singing a worship song at church the last few months that has the line, "We wait for You...to walk in the room." The song goes on to talk about the manifested presence of God and its glory. Every time we worship to this song, that line brings tears to my eyes. I have been praying and praying that God would walk into the room and change everything about Selah's situation. But the other day the Lord reminded me that He's been in the "room" with us this whole time. We couldn't have walked through these last 7 months if not.
Part of me feels grateful that the Lord has found us worthy enough to reflect His glory in this nightmare of a situation. Sometimes it can be easy for us Christians to reflect God's glory when everything is going great and we're not walking through hardships. But what is most important is how we reflect Him when we are walking through something that might be life altering. I pray that the Lord finds us to be faithful to Him on this path that He has put us on. We've gotten to praise Him and lift Him up during the good times, but now we get to praise Him and lift Him up in the hard times and I am so thankful for that. 1 Peter 4:13 "But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed."
Finally, we wanted to share some details with everyone so that you could be specific in your prayers as you pray with us. The C-section is scheduled for 12-noon on Monday so first and foremost please pray that the procedure goes well and as planned. Pray for Brittany's health and guidance of the doctors as she endures this procedure. Pray that God will heal Selah completely, but if not that He will shower us with His grace and comfort. Pray for our family as they endure this with us. And finally, pray against the spirit of fear as we go into this time, pray that we are strong and faithful to what God has entrusted to us.
Thank you again for your support, your thoughts, and your prayers. They do not go unnoticed and we will forever be grateful for them. Also, we are not sure who it will be, but someone will update this blog sometime next week, hopefully near the beginning of the week, even if it is a brief update. We want to keep people informed so they can be as specific as possible in their prayers. Thanks again and until next time...be blessed!
Ok...let me quickly share a humorous story from this past weekend. As many of you know, I am a huge sports fan. I have been since I can remember and I'm incredibly blessed to have a wife that will not only go along with my obsession, but will, at times, contribute to it. My birthday was this past Monday and someone offered us free tickets to the Duke and Carolina football game on the Saturday before. Brittany was well aware that I would love to go to the game so she "talked me into" going even though she was almost 9 months pregnant and feeling every day of it. To make a long story short...it was a great game and Duke won in the final seconds, which of course made us both extremely happy. And minutes later, for the first time during the course of our pregnancy, Selah kicked and Brittany could feel her moving around! She hadn't kicked at anytime before this moment so I have officially deemed her a true Blue Devil.
Well, Monday is the day...we have a scheduled C-section with our specialist, Dr. Goodnight, and the team of doctors and nurses that have been taking care of Brittany and Selah for the past 7 months. Obviously we are pretty anxious about what is to come. However, we know that the Lord is in control and He will provide us with the strength that we need for whatever lies ahead. We have waited what seems like years to meet our little girl and we can't wait to hold her for the first time.
As I said in my previous post, we are continuing to pray for a miracle. But we know that God's ways are higher than our own. Whether He heals her completely or she passes not long after she's born, His ways are perfect and He will see us through. I told our church a few weeks ago that I would love nothing more than to walk my daughter to class on the first day of Kindergarten or walk her down the aisle on her wedding day. We have so many dreams of her growing up and being a part of our everyday lives, but none of those things are better than her being with Jesus and that is all that matters.
The Lord created Selah for a purpose and aligned her journey to His will from the beginning. If she serves a higher purpose by living for 30 minutes than she does by living for 80 years then so be it. We know that our God is able to save her and we pray that He's willing, but if not, she is His child and we find comfort in the fact that she will not have to suffer through this world. If she goes to be with Jesus, she will be completely healed of all the challenges that she might have had to face in this world.
We have been singing a worship song at church the last few months that has the line, "We wait for You...to walk in the room." The song goes on to talk about the manifested presence of God and its glory. Every time we worship to this song, that line brings tears to my eyes. I have been praying and praying that God would walk into the room and change everything about Selah's situation. But the other day the Lord reminded me that He's been in the "room" with us this whole time. We couldn't have walked through these last 7 months if not.
Part of me feels grateful that the Lord has found us worthy enough to reflect His glory in this nightmare of a situation. Sometimes it can be easy for us Christians to reflect God's glory when everything is going great and we're not walking through hardships. But what is most important is how we reflect Him when we are walking through something that might be life altering. I pray that the Lord finds us to be faithful to Him on this path that He has put us on. We've gotten to praise Him and lift Him up during the good times, but now we get to praise Him and lift Him up in the hard times and I am so thankful for that. 1 Peter 4:13 "But rejoice inasmuch as you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when His glory is revealed."
Finally, we wanted to share some details with everyone so that you could be specific in your prayers as you pray with us. The C-section is scheduled for 12-noon on Monday so first and foremost please pray that the procedure goes well and as planned. Pray for Brittany's health and guidance of the doctors as she endures this procedure. Pray that God will heal Selah completely, but if not that He will shower us with His grace and comfort. Pray for our family as they endure this with us. And finally, pray against the spirit of fear as we go into this time, pray that we are strong and faithful to what God has entrusted to us.
Thank you again for your support, your thoughts, and your prayers. They do not go unnoticed and we will forever be grateful for them. Also, we are not sure who it will be, but someone will update this blog sometime next week, hopefully near the beginning of the week, even if it is a brief update. We want to keep people informed so they can be as specific as possible in their prayers. Thanks again and until next time...be blessed!
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