The power of prayer

For most, if not all of you reading this, it probably is almost unnecessary to comment on the power of prayer. You already understand it. This has become increasingly obvious to us over the past two weeks. 

Today we received our third "prayer gram" through the mail. These prayer grams have come from Hendersonville, Tenn. Our awesome brother-in-law, Wes is from Hendersonville. His awesome mother (with an awesome name), Mary, is part of a prayer group there that has been praying for our family and have been sending us the prayer grams with short messages and scriptures.


In Chicago, Jenny's awesome sister Kate has organized a prayer group that literally has Jackson covered with prayer, 24 hours a day. My grandparents visited Sunday and told us that one of Jenny's co-workers who attends their church, asked for our family to be added to their prayer list. An old church camp friend of our's delivered food last night and said that we have been in the prayers of a scripture study group at his church in Indpendence. 


We know of seven different churches praying for our family, not to mention all the countless others praying for Jackson's health. I'm here to tell you that we are witnessing the positive results of your prayer. 


Jackson continues to amaze us and has went from acting his age, to acting a little bit older than his age. We sometimes feel bad when other NICU families ask us about how our son is doing. We get to brag on the little guy while some of them continue to battle challenges that their babies face. Please keep them in your prayers as well. 


We recently met a NICU dad who's baby girl was born at around 24 weeks. She was barely over one pound and things weren't looking good. He was very upset and concerned. Jenny and I tried to console him as much as we could in the waiting room. Helping us was, Jackson's roommate's grandma. I believe her name is Frances. She told this dad that he had to have faith. She said, "I don't know how you feel about prayer, but it really helps." She's right, it does help. He said he was trying not to get too hopeful, that he knew the possibilities, and he didn't want to fall far if things didn't go well. Unfortunately they didn't. The next evening we learned that his daughter did not make it. 


It was hard to see. It was hard to watch our son buck the odds while another baby a few feet away could not. It inspired us though. We have realized how fortunate we are to have strong faith and a support system around us that can lift our family up in prayer. So we decided we would do the same for others. 


Each day and night, as you all pray for our son and our family, we are praying for the other families and their babies. We pray that their children will fight and persevere the way Jackson has. We pray that they too will find the faith and power of prayer that has guided us through our experience. 

Matthew 21:21-22              

Philippians 4:6-7

I'm sorry Jax. Mom made me post this one.