Category Archives: Faith & Hope

Josiah David Jolicoeur

Faith & Hope, Parenting, Special needs children

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Meet Josiah David Jolicoeur.

This little guy made his way into the world Friday via c-section at 12:19 pm. He was 7 lbs 3 oz and 21 inches long.

My contractions began at 3:30 am and we made it to the hospital around 5:30 am. I was unable to have a VBAC because his heart rate dropped as labor progressed. (This same thing happened with our 2nd child, Gideon…it was like deja vu.) Turns out the cord was around Josiah’s neck as well as his abdomen. Apparently my kids have long umbilical cords.

I cried as they wheeled me down to the operating room. It may sound silly, but having another c-section was the last thing I wanted to do. I began to relive the fear that surrounded Gideon’s birth.  My husband prayed over me as they pulled Josiah from distress.

When Kevin finished praying, we heard something beautiful… Josiah’s cry. It was strong and loud. As Kevin went over to the baby table, I heard him asking a thousand questions. Does he have an abnormally large fontanel? Does he have a deep sacral dimple? Are his feet turned in? Does he look unusual to you guys?…

These are just some of the abnormalities that Josiah’s big brother Gideon had at birth. They were the oddities that led us down a dark path, searching for answers as to what was wrong with our sweet Gideon.

As far as we can tell, Josiah has none of those abnormalities!! However, it will still be several weeks for that test to be confirmed. For now, Josiah appears to be healthy, alert and strong. In fact, after they stitched me up and took me to recovery, he latched on and nursed immediately!!

And of course, the whole family is in love with him.

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Stay tuned… Josiah David Jolicoeur is sure to make our lives a bit more interesting.

Baby Josiah

Faith & Hope, Parenting, Special needs children

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Hopefully baby Josiah will be making his appearance in the coming days. I went to my doctor Monday for my 39 week check up and I was dilated to 4 cm! I’ve been slowly dilating for a couple of weeks now and I’ve been talking with Laynie about what that means. So on my way out the door to the appointment she told me- “Good luck mom, I hope your uterus is…ummm…expanded.”  I didn’t correct her. I figured she was close enough. Can you tell we use proper terminology around here?

I love our big girl. She is wise for her age. Several weeks ago, we were driving, when out of nowhere she said, “Mom, baby Josiah has a 25% chance of being like Gideon.” I breathed deeply and told her she was correct. After a few moments of silence she spoke up again and said, “But mom, that means baby Josiah has a 75% chance of being like me.” I smiled and said, “Yes baby. And which percentage is bigger?” To which she replied, “Oh no, that means baby Josiah is for sure going to get into ALL my things!” (Unlike her brother Gideon, of course.)

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We are extremely excited to welcome this new addition to our family. Clearly there are some genetic risks involved. However, since Gideon has been such a blessing to our family, we decided it was a risk we were willing to take.

So over the next week, I welcome your prayers for a few things-

  1. I’m planning on having a VBAC. My prayer is that it’s successful because I cannot fathom the recovery of a C-section while caring for baby Josiah AND Gideon.
  2. While we are willing to accept whatever the Lord provides, clearly we would like prayers that baby Josiah is healthy and free from the genetic disorder (PBD) that affects his brother Gideon.
  3. Sanity as we navigate how to do life as a family of five. I know people do it all the time, but with Gideon’s special needs, I feel like it’s going to be tough at first as we juggle feeding schedules between baby Josiah and his big brother.

Thanks for following our journey. I’ll post photos on my blog as soon as Josiah arrives. While I think we will know right away if baby Josiah is affected by PBD, the results from his blood work will take a couple of weeks to confirm. Thanks for your patience as we await that news.

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Stories from Camp

Faith & Hope

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Laynie and Owen

One of my favorite stories from camp involved our daughter and this sweet boy Owen. On our first night there, we were having blue bell after the welcome ceremony and a little boy we had never met approached our table. When he walked up he paused looking at Laynie and then turned to speak directly to Kevin. The pause was long enough to be awkward so we weren’t sure what was about to unfold.

This is how the conversation went between Owen and Kevin:

Owen: Hi, I’m Owen, what’s your name?

Kevin: It’s nice to meet you Owen. My name is Kevin.

Owen (smiling): Kevin, is this your daughter? (pointing to Laynie)

Kevin: Why yes it is Owen. Her name is Laynie.

Owen: She’s really cute! (Now he and Laynie are smiling and giggling.. Kevin not so much)

Kevin: Owen, how old are you?

Owen: I’m nine, sir!

Kevin (shaking his head): Owen, I think you’re a little too old for my daughter.

Owen, who never stopped smiling, gave Laynie his blue bell hat to which she replied with a giggle and then threw it back at him. Kevin was pretty pleased with that response. After that Owen told Laynie he’d be seeing her later and went back to his table…laughing the whole way.

Had I known this conversation was going in that direction, I would have recorded the whole thing! Kevin was completely unprepared (as were the rest of us) for this interaction and the whole thing was just priceless. Especially since Kevin always says that Laynie won’t be dating until she’s 35 years old.

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Gideon and his STMs

Another one of my favorite stories from camp is how God uniquely places specific people in our lives. There were more STMs (short term missionaries) at this camp than there were last year. And any one of them could have been assigned to my son. But by the grace of God and much prayer by the Joni and Friends staff, Gideon got assigned two STMs and they were both physical therapy students from Hardin-Simmons University. It could not have been a more perfect match!!

Caitlyn and Taylor were so good with Gideon. If there was an activity that Gideon couldn’t participate in (like making crafts) they just took him to the pool. When he needed a nap, they rocked him and they even became experts when it came to feeding him… which is NO easy task! I know those precious girls were initially nervous to care for/entertain Gideon, but they did such a great job. They even did some PT with him. 🙂 Kevin and I felt completely comfortable leaving him in their care.

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Issac

So another one of my favorite stories from camp is about Laynie and Issac. Isaac has what they call CBLC, or Cobalamin C deficiency. This means his body can’t process the vitamin B12 which feeds the nervous system. He needs B12 shots daily to survive. It’s a genetic disease and it affects all kids differently. Some are completely blind, some are very mentally challenged, some have seizures..

We met Issac and his precious family last year at camp and it turned out that we lived only a few miles from one another. Small world! Anyways, last year, Laynie was very hesitant around Issac. Sometimes he can be aggressive and there were times when I could tell Laynie was not sure what to expect. However, after knowing this family for a year, I watched the beauty of this friendship unfold while at camp. I noticed Laynie was wanting to be around Issac more and help him with different things (not that he needs her help though…he can do quite a bit himself). She loves to play his games and entertain him.

Watching these two just reaffirmed what I already know to be true. God doesn’t waste any of our circumstances. Anything that seems sad, tragic or horrible to us, God can still bring beauty from it.

I don’t know what Laynie will be when she grows up someday, but I do know this- because of her brother Gideon, and her friends like Issac, she will have an empathy for others that some adults might never achieve.

May we all learn to love like our kids… unconditionally.