A Cradle Full of God's Love
Merwyn Caldeira of Goa, India writes this touching, courageous, and inspiring testimony that should teach all of us something:
Judith and I got married on the 30th of December 04. We live in Panjim and work in Margao, a 90 minute drive from our home. She teaches in a college, and I work for the Government of Goa. I am in the music ministry of the Panjim Charismatic prayer group; Judy, a very active member of 'Singles For Christ'.
The morning of 13th June 2005, the feast of St. Anthony, Judy took a pregnancy test and we were delighted that it was positive. We thanked God for His wonderful gift of this baby. We consulted a gynecologist, and went for the regular checkups.
At our 5th month appointment, the doctor was disturbed after the scan. He asked us to take a second opinion, which we did and then... the numbing news! Our baby had no kidneys (bilateral renal agenesis). The doctor advised us that in such cases the babies are stillborn in more than 40% of cases while those born, die within 4 hours. Other abnormalities included: dehydrated skin, cleft lip and palate, wide set eyes, parrot beak nose, receding chin, large low set ears, major abnormalities of the head, limbs, etc.
Medical opinions in Bombay and abroad echoed this. Many doctors, friends and relatives advised us to abort as they felt that it didn't make sense Judy going through all the usual complications of pregnancy, knowing our baby would survive a maximum of 4 hours. Besides the horrific experience of seeing our baby so deformed, and then the breast milk suppression drugs Judy would need to take, which could be cancer causing. For us, though, this baby was God's gift to us, and we loved and cherished our gift. NO WAY we would abort! We knew our baby had a problem, we knew what to expect, God was merciful to us.
We prayed, for hours, everyday, with daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament, for a total healing in our baby. We read the word of God. As days went by our prayer gradually stepped up into praise and thanksgiving, then just went on to total surrender, and as God's infinite love unfolded for us, we trusted Him completely and prayed "Thy will be done." Amazingly, throughout, the Lord never let us feel bitter about what had happened, we never ever asked 'WHY US'! God had given us the gift of faith.
Slowly we began to see how God was providing for us, a kind lady from my office who lives close to our work place, offered the entire first floor of her house for us to live in, provided us with excellent food and took great care of us. People we had never met before would come, introduce themselves and tell us they were praying for us and offer help. God loved us, and cared for us.
We would come across passages in various spiritual books a day before we would need them. Like one night I showed Judy a passage about thanking God for everything. The next morning Judy couldn't feel baby's movement, the doctor had instructed us that if this happened we had to rush to hospital, as it would mean that our baby had died in the womb. Judy just prayed, "Lord my baby isn't moving, I don't need to understand why, but I thank you for this." Within 15 minutes our baby started moving again. Hallelujah!!
Some weeks later Judy also had an asthma attack, which could have induced labor, in between her blood pressure too was shooting up, but we always got timely treatment. God was protecting our baby and us. We were now at 35 weeks, close to full term. Our baby was not supposed to survive beyond 30 weeks.
Our gynecologist advised us to consult at the Goa Medical College, as he felt that the baby had to be delivered soon as there were some complications.
25th January 2006: At the Goa Medical College, the very able assistant professor in Gynecology, told us our baby's chances of surviving a normal delivery were ZERO. But there was a slim chance our baby may survive a couple of hours if by caesarian section. God strengthened Judy, she opted for the caesarian. Many reviled her for this decision, but she stood firm. This was the only way our darling baby could be baptized. The surgery was scheduled for 5:30 pm, but Judy was rushed in at 1:30 pm itself, as her blood pressure was going up and our baby's heartbeat had dropped from 140 to 80 beats per minute. All throughout a tension filled hour outside the OT, our friends and relatives maintained a prayerful vigil. 2:30 pm, the surgeon came out and told us that our baby was alive, but for how long she couldn't say.
The priest arrived to baptize our baby and we rushed to the neonatal unit. I was very nervous entering. I didn't know what to expect. When the doctor led us to this beautiful baby boy, I thought she made a mistake. I didn't see any of the abnormalities I was told to expect. He seemed so perfect. What a compassionate God!! He yelled when we began to pray. Our son was baptized DERON ANTHONY. He survived a full 26 hours, thanks to wonderful pro-life pediatricians who gave him the best medical care.
26th January, 4:15 pm. God took our baby back to Him. Blessed be His name! I was devastated when informed. I went to Judy, I didn't need to tell her, she saw it on my face. We fell into each other's arms and had a good cry, and then amazingly, we spontaneously began thanking God. We said a prayer thanking God for this wonderful period in our lives, a period during which He gave us the gift of parenthood, and inundated us with graces and blessings. He carried us, to achieve the goal of being ideal parents; parents who led their child back to Him. God had rewarded us, with our very own intercessor.
Our little angels' thanksgiving mass and funeral was a beautiful and touching service; celebrated by Fr. Patrick Viegas, who had baptized Deron, I called Judy on her cell phone, and left it on through the service, so she could be part of it from her hospital bed.
Yes! Losing our child is very painful. Psychologically we did take a battering. Judy went through many physical hardships as well. Never once did she complain. Through it all the advice & prayer support of our parish priests, Sr. Mareena, Aneel Aranha, Charismatics, Couples for Christ, Crusaders, and their intercessory groups, our friends & relatives, carried us into a new experience of the Lord's intimate love. We are overwhelmed by the way people reached out to us, we pray the Lord continues to bless them all!
Judith and I got married on the 30th of December 04. We live in Panjim and work in Margao, a 90 minute drive from our home. She teaches in a college, and I work for the Government of Goa. I am in the music ministry of the Panjim Charismatic prayer group; Judy, a very active member of 'Singles For Christ'.
The morning of 13th June 2005, the feast of St. Anthony, Judy took a pregnancy test and we were delighted that it was positive. We thanked God for His wonderful gift of this baby. We consulted a gynecologist, and went for the regular checkups.
At our 5th month appointment, the doctor was disturbed after the scan. He asked us to take a second opinion, which we did and then... the numbing news! Our baby had no kidneys (bilateral renal agenesis). The doctor advised us that in such cases the babies are stillborn in more than 40% of cases while those born, die within 4 hours. Other abnormalities included: dehydrated skin, cleft lip and palate, wide set eyes, parrot beak nose, receding chin, large low set ears, major abnormalities of the head, limbs, etc.
Medical opinions in Bombay and abroad echoed this. Many doctors, friends and relatives advised us to abort as they felt that it didn't make sense Judy going through all the usual complications of pregnancy, knowing our baby would survive a maximum of 4 hours. Besides the horrific experience of seeing our baby so deformed, and then the breast milk suppression drugs Judy would need to take, which could be cancer causing. For us, though, this baby was God's gift to us, and we loved and cherished our gift. NO WAY we would abort! We knew our baby had a problem, we knew what to expect, God was merciful to us.
We prayed, for hours, everyday, with daily visits to the Blessed Sacrament, for a total healing in our baby. We read the word of God. As days went by our prayer gradually stepped up into praise and thanksgiving, then just went on to total surrender, and as God's infinite love unfolded for us, we trusted Him completely and prayed "Thy will be done." Amazingly, throughout, the Lord never let us feel bitter about what had happened, we never ever asked 'WHY US'! God had given us the gift of faith.
Slowly we began to see how God was providing for us, a kind lady from my office who lives close to our work place, offered the entire first floor of her house for us to live in, provided us with excellent food and took great care of us. People we had never met before would come, introduce themselves and tell us they were praying for us and offer help. God loved us, and cared for us.
We would come across passages in various spiritual books a day before we would need them. Like one night I showed Judy a passage about thanking God for everything. The next morning Judy couldn't feel baby's movement, the doctor had instructed us that if this happened we had to rush to hospital, as it would mean that our baby had died in the womb. Judy just prayed, "Lord my baby isn't moving, I don't need to understand why, but I thank you for this." Within 15 minutes our baby started moving again. Hallelujah!!
Some weeks later Judy also had an asthma attack, which could have induced labor, in between her blood pressure too was shooting up, but we always got timely treatment. God was protecting our baby and us. We were now at 35 weeks, close to full term. Our baby was not supposed to survive beyond 30 weeks.
Our gynecologist advised us to consult at the Goa Medical College, as he felt that the baby had to be delivered soon as there were some complications.
25th January 2006: At the Goa Medical College, the very able assistant professor in Gynecology, told us our baby's chances of surviving a normal delivery were ZERO. But there was a slim chance our baby may survive a couple of hours if by caesarian section. God strengthened Judy, she opted for the caesarian. Many reviled her for this decision, but she stood firm. This was the only way our darling baby could be baptized. The surgery was scheduled for 5:30 pm, but Judy was rushed in at 1:30 pm itself, as her blood pressure was going up and our baby's heartbeat had dropped from 140 to 80 beats per minute. All throughout a tension filled hour outside the OT, our friends and relatives maintained a prayerful vigil. 2:30 pm, the surgeon came out and told us that our baby was alive, but for how long she couldn't say.
The priest arrived to baptize our baby and we rushed to the neonatal unit. I was very nervous entering. I didn't know what to expect. When the doctor led us to this beautiful baby boy, I thought she made a mistake. I didn't see any of the abnormalities I was told to expect. He seemed so perfect. What a compassionate God!! He yelled when we began to pray. Our son was baptized DERON ANTHONY. He survived a full 26 hours, thanks to wonderful pro-life pediatricians who gave him the best medical care.
26th January, 4:15 pm. God took our baby back to Him. Blessed be His name! I was devastated when informed. I went to Judy, I didn't need to tell her, she saw it on my face. We fell into each other's arms and had a good cry, and then amazingly, we spontaneously began thanking God. We said a prayer thanking God for this wonderful period in our lives, a period during which He gave us the gift of parenthood, and inundated us with graces and blessings. He carried us, to achieve the goal of being ideal parents; parents who led their child back to Him. God had rewarded us, with our very own intercessor.
Our little angels' thanksgiving mass and funeral was a beautiful and touching service; celebrated by Fr. Patrick Viegas, who had baptized Deron, I called Judy on her cell phone, and left it on through the service, so she could be part of it from her hospital bed.
Yes! Losing our child is very painful. Psychologically we did take a battering. Judy went through many physical hardships as well. Never once did she complain. Through it all the advice & prayer support of our parish priests, Sr. Mareena, Aneel Aranha, Charismatics, Couples for Christ, Crusaders, and their intercessory groups, our friends & relatives, carried us into a new experience of the Lord's intimate love. We are overwhelmed by the way people reached out to us, we pray the Lord continues to bless them all!
posted by Aneel Aranha ::
10 Comments:
Share away, Tina. This is a lovely story of courage and hope, and I can see both qualities shining through this couple now - along with joy. If you'd like to write to Merwyn and Judy, here's their email address: merw_cal@yahoo.com. They'll be happy to hear from you.
Aneel/Holy Spirit Interactive
It is truly a Cradle full of love. No words could possibly pen down what i would like to say. I'm simply overwhelmed by the reality of God's immeasurable love for us.
Thank you for sharing your experience like this. You and judy are priveledged to be proud parents of an angel in heaven.
Dear Brother and sister, thanks for sharing this BEAUTIFUL TESTIMONY. Its testimonies like these that strengthen our faith in God. I thank God for giving you both courage, hope and faith to go through all this together and never once questioning him WHY? May God streghten the faith of all those who read this testimony.
tania
Hey Merwyn,
Your testimony re-inforces the fact that we are beautiful special people loved and cherished by an AWESOME GOD and he is the Giver of life...
Having known you personally I think God will truly bless you and Judy for your commitment to life..
Thought I could share this poem with you
Heaven's Very Special Child
By Edna Massimilla
A meeting was held quite far from earth
It's time again for another birth
Said the angels to the Lord above
"This special child will need much love.
He may not run or laugh or play
His thoughts may seem quite far away
In many ways he won't adapt
And he'll be known as handicapped.
So let's be careful where he's sent
We want his life to be content.
Please Lord find the parents who
Will do this special job for you.
They will not realise right away
The leading role they're asked to play
But with this child sent from Above
Comes stronger faith and richer love
And soon they'll know the privilege given
In caring for their gift from Heaven
Their precious charge so meek and mild
Is Heaven's Very Special Child".
*******
We are the proud parents of one such child and our lives are all the more richer because of him
Me and my wife lost a child by miscarriage so did our friend and his wife by cord around the neck after 8 months...but God is faithful...He is the giver of life...He will bless you and all those who trust in him.
God bless you
Lyndon
Dear Brother & Sister,
Thanks so much for sharing this testimony as it brings back memories for me but not very similar as we did not lose my child but of the experience that we went through after the time of her birth which I would like to share with you and others.
Our daughter Crystal was born with several congenital deformities which was found out when I was 7 mths pregnant. We did not lose hope and kept on praying till the day she was born. Something told us she was going to be a delicate and precious child to us and hence we named her Crystal. she was born on the 8th of June with Fallots Tetralogy of the Heart, an absent left kidney, hemi vertebra,crowding of her ribs and a dislocation of her left hip which left us totally in shock. To look at she looked like a perfect doll with an angelic smile always on her face. The doctors themselves could not imagine she had so many complications. She was scheduled for a hip surgery in October when she was 4 mths old to put her hip into place. on the day of the surgery the doctor took a final xray to see her condition and was surprised and told us that her hip had gone into place by itself. Praise God for the first miracle in her life. At the age of a year and a half we were told by Mafraq Hospital in Abu Dhabi that she had to be taken to Madras for an open heart surgery as it was time for it to be corrected. She had five complications of the heart. after her six hr operation which was so complicating due to the several corrections to be made, the doctors called us and told us that the right ventricle they had created was not beginning to function and they gave her just 48 hrs to live. My husband Carl and myself stood by her side in the ICU alongwith the doctors and nurses and prayed and kept the Green Scapular of Our Lady of Good Health under her pillow and Carl blessed her on her forehead with the sign of the cross.We then went to our room and stormed heaven that whole night. I kept looking at her tiny little white shoes across the room and told Jesus "Jesus You gave this baby to us, You cannot take her away from us". A lady who was a Hindu converted to Christianity saw me crying outside and asked me what happened. On hearing me she gave me the Bible and told me to say John Ch3 Verse 16 which I kept on repeating that whole night without losing hope and faith. The next morning after 72 hrs the doctor called us and told us that she was out of danger and her right ventricle had begun to function. Praise God,for the second miracle. On our return to Dubai in the month of June, I suddenly found her looking pale and on taking her to Mafraq it was found that she had developed a heart block which they thought at first was due to the drugs she was on. After 21 days of observation, they decided to implant a pacemaker as the patch that was put in her heart was overriding her electrical axis that sends messages to the brain and her heart rate was fluctuating from very low to very high which was dangerous. On the very next day of the implantation she was back to normal and walking about which the doctors themselves said she is a real fighter and a miracle child. After putting the pacemaker in her stomach she began to develop hernia due to the pressure and had to be operated for hernia in Al Wasl. After that things went well till she was in Grade 3 when she developed a fever and on taking her pulse the doctor found her heart rate very low. We rushed her to Mafraq and it was found that her pacemaker lead wire had snapped inside and we were not aware of it for a month according to the readings. Praise God for the 3rd miracle, she survived with no pacemaker for a month. They had to change the wire so decided to change the pacemaker too and implant the second one in her shoulder. Due to the thickening of her blood they struggled to connect the I V line and the blood would not come so they called me in the room. I saw her screaming in pain and called Carl and I then placed the same Green Scapular on her arm and told Mama Mary in these words Please let the blood flow and in two seconds the blood rushed out. it was the 4th miracle for her. Praise God. Since then she has kept perfectly well and is now 13 years old in Grade 8, a loving,God fearing and extremely intelligent child, Praise God. She has brought us so much closer to God and our lives have changed so much for the better and we will never lose hope or faith no matter what the trials we face are. We know our Lord is there to guide us along the way. I also would like to thank Mr.Aneel Aranha and his team of HSI members for all that they are doing to spread the word of God around. I love reading the articles on this site and share it with my family and friends. Keep up the good work.
Cheryl
Hi Cheryl and Carl,
Truly the greatest miracle in your darling Crystal's life is having you as parents. Your sharing brought tears to our eyes. We will keep you all in prayer. We love you!
thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers and God bless you both too. Crystal is doing fine by the grace of God.
Love Cheryl & Carl
Your experience Merwyn and Judy welled my eyes. However you proved to be wonderful parents in such a difficult situation. Praise the lord! Prayer and faith are the two things that keep you going isn't it?
My first child - a girl was born premature in Goa at 28 and a half weeks weighing 1.15kgs. Doctors said that if she did well for 72 hours, the all would be well. I prayed for her like i never did my whole life. I told Jesus that i wanted her. After a stay of 26 days in the hospital, we were discharged, the baby weighing 1.6kgs.She is now 6 years and in good health. Intelligent, sweet and very active.
In 2001 I gave birth to a son. A week after his birth i noticed he was turning blue and rushed him to Al wasl - dubai. The doctor there said that he was not being covered properly and that i was a careless mother. The next day, he turned blue again and this time took him again to the same hospital but another doctor attended him and did a test for oxygen level in his blood. It was found to be low. Doctor declared it an emergency and i was asked to stay back. At that i fainted and was frightened. With no family around and a little child to take care, i was blank.
The stay at the hospital that night was not only physically tiring but mentall and emotionally too. I did not know what had happened to my little boy. They then got a scan done and found that he had a "transposition of the great arteries". I was lost. I heard of hole in the heart and things like that but this went over. The doctor the explained the situation and i just could'nt believe it. A wonderful indian doctor than told me to have the operation done at Mafraq - Abu Dhabi.and was against me taking him to India. When at Mafraq, I fought with jesus for my son and pleaded to take him as a religiou instead. On the eve of the operation, i surrended to his will and found a peace i'll never forget i felt. The operation lasted a good 6 hours during which i kept my self engrossed in the bible and found the passage where the centurion asked jesus to only say a word and jesus did. Doctors came out of the OT - all smiles. My little baby boy smaller the a foot on a big bed with all tubes running over him did not bother me, as much as the hair rising miracle makes me ask my self "what did i do to deserve such goodness". Today my son is 5 years old in excellent health on no medication what so ever. and the pain of those years have all gone like those after child birth. After all this i can only pray tha t the love of Jesus be know to all.
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