"Baby C's" Healing, Family Testimony:

June 16, 2012: Our lives were changed forever, for the better, times a bazillion.
Our baby boy entered our lives and we could now grasp how deep and strong a parent’s love is for their child.
Entering parenthood has been such a blessing and an emotional rollercoaster.
Above all things, it showed us what really matters in life, and gave us a deeper joy and wholeness than what we’ve ever experienced.
But it also brought on certain circumstances that would completely drain me physically and emotionally.
And then to my surprise, it brought me closer to our Creator than what I’ve ever been.

November 16, 2013: In walks the bad guy, FPIES (Food Protein Induced Entercolitis Syndrome), which would deeply rob me of the happiness
and fulfillment that every new mother deserves. C reacted to oat cereal. Two hours after consumption, he had projectile vomit for over an hour
and would go into bouts of unresponsiveness. We had no idea what was going on and what was going to happen next.

Never will we forget that moment when my husband thought he was no longer breathing. We grabbed him and ran to the car to get to the ER,
not even concerned to make sure he was buckled in his car seat before driving off. Again, no parent deserves that feeling that we witnessed that night.
Eventually C was diagnosed with FPIES. We were then told that they really don’t know a whole lot about it besides the basics.
What do you mean there’s no test to tell us if other foods will cause another reaction? It’s all trial and error? And you can’t give me any solutions or strategies?
FPIES had also robbed me of so many precious moments spent with C.

Like any mom would, I was fully committed to taking things into my own hands and spent every waking moment researching FPIES,
being an active participant in my many FPIES Facebook support groups, and figuring out what I had to and could do as a mommy to help C through this.
How dare FPIES take over my life and my thought processes, and how dare I let it.

Along with the main FPIES reaction came many other secondary symptoms. C’s spit up was hard to keep up with; he did not have a healthy gut.
I never knew what a “healthy” dirty diaper looked like. We also weren’t known for sleeping well through the night.
He also easily gagged and threw up from situations. He had many strange aversions and tendencies towards his bottle. He had an aversion to eating and accepting food.

Feedings were an absolute mess as C had many control issues. He quickly learned that anything he ate would make his tummy feel bad.
The only times he would accept food for even a bite, would be after a long gut rest. His tummy would feel better, so he would accept some bites of food, but still not much.
And even less the next day, until a couple days later when he would clamp his mouth shut as hard as he could.

Then... Sarah Martin entered the picture. She had so graciously reached out to me.
Little did she know I would clamp onto her like a parasite and she would become my FPIES, GAPS, and spiritual mentor.
Our family will forever be grateful to her. Shortly thereafter, we read her blog post about how God had healed Gabby and Gracie, two extreme FPIES cases.
Their testimonies brought me to tears, and we knew we had to reach out to this pastor.

April 7, 2013: Pastor Gregory’s arrival. He also plays a crucial role in our testimony, and we will forever be thankful to God for him.
He and his team came to pray with us at our house. We, along with many other selfless and generous people, had fasted that day and prepared our hearts for what was to come.
He brought to life the reality of what the Bible says about healing and how it is still living and present today. Jesus already paid for C’s sickness 2,000 years ago on the cross (Isaiah 54:5).
We just need to have faith and take action, and it will be ours (Matthew 15:28, Matthew 21:22, and Mark 11:24).
God comes from perfection. He did not give C this sickness. Satan did. We needed to take authority over Satan and never let him have control in our lives again (Mark 16:17-20).
It was a very moving and emotional experience, two hours of our lives that we will never forget.

I was so excited to wake up the next day and see what would happen. Pastor had told us sometimes it will be a miracle and the healing occurs immediately;
other times it would take some short period of time, a day, a week, etc. We were an example of the latter. During that waiting period, I tried to keep the faith,
and keep out doubt as much as I possibly could. There were constant thoughts flooding my brain.
I remembered Pastor referencing Mark 9:24 from the prayer session and I would continually pray “Lord I believe, help me with any unbelief I have!”

I knew and believed with all of my heart in the success stories of the other FPIES babies being healed.
They were much more intense cases, and had to deal with FPIES for so much longer than we had to. Were we worthy enough? Did God have that in our plan too?
These were personal battles I had to overcome by continually keeping in God’s Word. I had to keep my eyes on the healing that was to come, praise God for it ahead of time,
force out the devil, and not let doubt or any other negative thoughts into my mind.

April 9, 2013: C received an early 10 month birthday present, the best one ever. God showed us his healing was taking place!
The previous day C still would not let his mouth budge open one bit for applesauce or anything else we tried to offer him. But this day was different.
My husband offered him the spoon, and C opened his mouth…and took it, without trying to take control of the spoon! And another bite. And another!
It was amazing! And again the next day! For the first time ever, our son actually wanted to eat and the feedings weren’t messy anymore.
We are now enjoying the ability of offering him a variety of foods in a variety of ways, with so much more liberty than what we otherwise would have been able to
under the shadows of FPIES.

His other secondary FPIES symptoms have vanished. The previous month I tried to take away his gas drops to see if he could control his spit up on his own results were horrible.
Once C was healed, I took them away again and now… I don’t even remember the last time he spit up. His bottle aversions, GONE! He wanted to eat so much more,
and I could tell he was putting on more weight than usual. No more random throw ups, and he had “normal baby” diapers. Praise God!

I could go on and on. We know that C’s healing has been a process and have 100% faith and belief that God’s blessings are continually overflowing on C as he heals him more
and more each day. Not to say that there aren’t struggles. satan will try to come back, and as hard as he possibly can (Matthew 12:43-45). But in those times,
we put on the full amour of God (Ephesians 6:10-17), grow stronger in our faith, learn how to work through those struggles, and come out on top.
And when we overcome them, we are bigger and better than we were before and satan gets a lot more terrified.

I cannot explain to you the heavy burden that has been taken off of my shoulders through C’s healing.
I can sit back and just relish in the joys of spending time with my son, no longer having stressors, concerns, and thoughts bringing me down.

I’ve always been a Christian, but this experience has brought me to such a higher level of faith. To believe in testimonies and The Word of God is one thing.
But to witness God’s healing and realize how active and ever present He and the Bible still are…that’s another story.
I’ve learned not just to believe in the word, but to actively pursue it in my daily life. I crave it. I want to know more.

I cherish the conversation between our group of moms with babies who were healed of FPIES by God’s grace.
I look forward to see how God is going to work through us and what he has in store next.
No, God does NOT cause these bad things in our lives to happen. We are in a fallen world and have fallen prey to the devil over and over again.
But God DOES work for the greater good to those called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28). If we are willing to accept His guidance and actively pursue His word,
He will take us out of any situation, make our faith even stronger, use the strengths we have, and show us many more strengths we didn’t realize we could possess.
To God be all the Glory. Amen.