Latest / She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ / The Miracle Of Baby Selah With Elle Cardel From Daughter Of Delight

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The Miracle Of Baby Selah With Elle Cardel From Daughter Of Delight · She Speaks Life - Christian Women, Strengthen Your Faith, Bible Study, Grow Spiritually In Christ

• 0:02
  Hey friend. Welcome back to she speaks life.
• 0:04
  I am so glad you chose to listen today.
• 0:07
  But before we dive into this episode, I wanted to share with
• 0:10
  you a couple of things that you may be interested in first,
• 0:14
  there is a free online four-day conference called, Faith and
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  Action that I've been graciously been given the opportunity to
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  talk about five ways. Does that Bourree before it
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  creates chaos. You know, we don't have to live
• 0:28
  and worry and fact God tells us not to worry and tells us how
• 0:33
  not to worry. And in this conference there's
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  about twenty six speakers all sharing on various topics on how
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  to trust God and trials to biblical marriage advice and
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  much more. The link will be posted in the
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  show notes below. If you're interested or better
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  yet, have you signed up for my newsletter yet?
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  Go to Jamie Elizabeth.com and all the direct link plus you'll
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  receive a free download on. Tidy my ID which is all about
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  discovering God's characteristics and how it
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  applies to your identity and hand.
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  And also coming up is a mom conference and Naperville
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  Illinois by Abel. Mom's dot-org.
• 1:17
  A turnkey mom Ministry, designed to give you practical and
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  biblical principles and parenting all while being with
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  other moms in your season of life.
• 1:30
  I love this ministry so much and I have been graciously been
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  given this opportunity to be sharing on the sacred calling of
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  motherhood and what that looks like today and I would just love
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  to see you there. So whether you live near that
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  area or you know, somebody or you just want to get away for
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  the weekend, hit the link below in the show notes and go to
• 1:57
  Able, mom's dot-org, and Your ticket.
• 2:01
  So with all those announcements being said, I am so excited to
• 2:06
  bring you L card out, L has a huge Ministry and podcast called
• 2:11
  daughter of delight. And has a miraculous story to
• 2:15
  share about her baby sale at and how she made it through some of
• 2:20
  the most challenging medical issues.
• 2:22
  And newborn could have this story, my friends will build
• 2:27
  your faith tremendously and it will inspire encourage Courage,
• 2:30
  you even more to rely and trust in God, no matter what you see.
• 2:37
  You know, there's so much power and prayer, and we are going to
• 2:41
  hear that right now and this episode.
• 2:44
  So let's dive in and hear this conversation with my guest L
• 2:50
  Cardell. Hi l, welcome to she speaks
• 2:53
  life. I am so happy, you are here with
• 2:56
  us today. I'll thank you so much for
• 2:59
  having me. I'm so excited for our Our
• 3:00
  station. Oh gosh, I am like a static that
• 3:04
  you are here especially it means so much.
• 3:09
  When I walk through this journey I felt like with you.
• 3:14
  I think a lot of people feel like we walk through this
• 3:16
  journey with you on Instagram online, battling a health
• 3:23
  condition that your daughter had.
• 3:27
  And before we dive into that story, I I would love for you to
• 3:31
  share with us a specific scripture verse that you just
• 3:37
  love. Yeah, absolutely.
• 3:39
  It is, I mean there's a handful but I would say psalm 37:4 which
• 3:45
  tells us to Delight ourselves in the Lord and He will give us the
• 3:48
  desires of our heart when I was like a baby Christian, I read
• 3:52
  this verse the completely wrong way.
• 3:55
  I read it as okay, if I do all of these things by please the
• 3:59
  Lord then he'll give you whatever W when really the
• 4:01
  beauty of that verse is the more that we place our Delight in the
• 4:05
  heart of the Father. The more that our desires line
• 4:08
  up with his desires and therefore, our desires are his
• 4:12
  will for his life, which is exactly what plays out right,
• 4:14
  everything that he has in store for us.
• 4:16
  So it's just a constant reminder to keep my heart fixed and my
• 4:20
  eyes set on my father, and to just the light in his ways over
• 4:25
  my own. Yeah, I know that's such an
• 4:28
  important verse, you know, because we can take that out of
• 4:31
  context and speaking of delight you have a Ministry called
• 4:36
  daughter of delight and your dad cast, he hire a podcast for
• 4:41
  yourself and a blogger. And your whole mission is to
• 4:46
  equip others to know God and no scripture and you really go on
• 4:53
  there and really tackle, some theological issues and some
• 4:59
  things in the Bible that, you know, we may get confused on or,
• 5:05
  you know, maybe it's just a topic that is a common thing
• 5:09
  that, you know, we're trying to, you know, figure out in life.
• 5:13
  So I appreciate everything you're doing.
• 5:16
  It's so great and building faith and sharing wisdom, scripture,
• 5:24
  and your words are beautiful. You're beautiful writer.
• 5:28
  And so I Just want to say thank you for giving us that
• 5:33
  encouragement and that was dumb. And you know, like I said I was
• 5:40
  following your journey with your baby girl say lot and you were
• 5:47
  pretty much online on Instagram, sharing the health issues that
• 5:54
  she was battling when she was born.
• 5:57
  And I remember I Driving from Virginia to Austin.
• 6:04
  We went on the East Coast over the summer and you shared her
• 6:08
  story on your podcast, daughter of delight.
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  And so, I just remember breaking down and just crying throughout
• 6:18
  your story and my husband's like looking over, and, of course,
• 6:22
  I've got my earbuds in, and he's just like, oh, wow, what she
• 6:27
  listening to over there, but But it was just it was so like
• 6:33
  tragic and but beautiful at the same time because of what you
• 6:39
  learned and how you grew and what God revealed to you.
• 6:44
  And that's just how our God is and I just want you to go ahead
• 6:49
  and start us off with the story of sayla.
• 6:53
  And when did you first learn that you were going to have to
• 6:58
  battle this health condition? Ian, sure.
• 7:01
  So Salem was born with a handful of single ventricle.
• 7:06
  Heart defects she has TGA which stands for transposition of the
• 7:10
  great arteries vsd which stands for ventricular septal defect.
• 7:14
  I feel like such a medical expert when I say these big
• 7:17
  words. Well, you walk through it.
• 7:19
  I sure did and PDA, which stands for patent ductus arteriosus.
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  And so in this case, it just meant that She had a single
• 7:29
  ventricle heart. She has a full sized heart but
• 7:31
  one ventricle instead of 2 and the other problem is that her
• 7:35
  oxygen rich and her oxygen, poor blood were mixing.
• 7:39
  And so so far she has had for open-heart surgeries we have
• 7:44
  almost lost her three times but the beauty and that is that you
• 7:50
  would never know looking at her. Now, I can remember sitting in
• 7:53
  the hospital just wondering if we would even make it you know,
• 7:57
  home For the first time yet alone, her first birthday and
• 8:00
  she turns 1 November 6th. So, like praise be to God.
• 8:06
  There's so much to testify to through her story.
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  I mean, the words glorious purpose, were just two words
• 8:13
  that could continue to come up and her story and in the
• 8:18
  hospital. Especially in those moments of
• 8:21
  really beautiful eye contact with her on days.
• 8:23
  Where, you know, you knew she wasn't feeling good but she
• 8:25
  would just stare you in the eyes as you would rub her.
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  And then sing her songs and pray over her.
• 8:30
  She was there, she was present in the Lord was present through
• 8:33
  her. And gosh, I'm just so thankful
• 8:36
  that she has made it as far as she has and she's doing as well
• 8:39
  as she is. But to talk or to back up to
• 8:42
  when we got the confirmation. For the first time, it's
• 8:44
  actually an interesting story because I went in for my anatomy
• 8:49
  scan with her and they told us that they couldn't get a
• 8:54
  completely clear picture of her heart.
• 8:57
  Art. But it was nothing to be worried
• 9:00
  about. They just needed to send us to a
• 9:01
  place that had better technology for that.
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  And my husband and I were leaving for our babymoon the
• 9:07
  very next day. And so I said okay if it's
• 9:12
  nothing to worry about I'm not going to worry about it.
• 9:14
  We'll just get that appointment scheduled.
• 9:16
  We'll go on our babymoon, we'll have a great time.
• 9:19
  We had an amazing time. It was a wonderful trip and then
• 9:21
  we get back and we go to this appointment and it is just Earth
• 9:26
  shattering. I mean you walk in Are you get
• 9:28
  this news? The tech wasn't allowed to tell
• 9:31
  us anything but I was watching her face and it my heart was
• 9:35
  just it just stopped over and over again.
• 9:38
  It felt like I couldn't catch my breath, I was on the verge of a
• 9:41
  panic attack because I knew something was happening.
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  And I just remember when she left the room, my husband was in
• 9:48
  there too, and we both knew that something was wrong.
• 9:50
  And I just said, like, Lord, please fill our hearts with your
• 9:53
  peace in this moment, please prepare us for the conversation
• 9:56
  that is about to take place. It's because we just knew
• 9:59
  something was coming. So, we got the bad news and I
• 10:05
  also went ahead and decided to figure out if we were having a
• 10:08
  boy or a girl and that same appointment because I could not
• 10:12
  leave that appointment, not knowing who was in my womb, and
• 10:16
  who I could be praying for by name.
• 10:19
  So, yeah. Oh, I can't imagine, I've been
• 10:23
  in that ultrasound room and the nurse Find a heartbeat when I
• 10:29
  was pregnant and then I go into the ultrasound room and then
• 10:32
  they're looking for the heartbeat so I can kind of get a
• 10:37
  glimpse of that. You know, panicky anxious.
• 10:42
  Oh my goodness, you know, thinking of the worst.
• 10:45
  And so, I mean, I can't imagine but good for you to just pray
• 10:51
  for God's peace. Right then.
• 10:52
  And there. So, they found that her heart.
• 10:56
  She we have to ventricles. She was only born with one
• 11:00
  ventricle. Is that correct?
• 11:03
  Yeah. Okay.
• 11:04
  And they, they shouldn't have tried to diagnose her at this
• 11:07
  specific appointment because they weren't cardiologist
• 11:10
  specialist, but the doctor did, and she actually gave us the
• 11:14
  wrong diagnosis. She gave us the most severe
• 11:16
  heart defect there ever is you do exist?
• 11:19
  That we know of today is incredibly rare and so for two
• 11:24
  weeks leading up to our appointment with Of
• 11:28
  cardiologists. Now we were basically grieving
• 11:31
  because we thought she's going to get here.
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  She's gonna have to have surgery as soon as she's born and she's
• 11:36
  likely not going to make it. But then we get there when you
• 11:41
  find out, okay, this isn't what she has.
• 11:43
  It's still severe but it's not near as bad as what we were
• 11:47
  thinking. And so it was so it was kind of
• 11:49
  like this odd time of preparation because although it
• 11:53
  was still a severe diagnosis. I left that appointment with
• 11:58
  Accurate information, but also feeling like this weight had
• 12:01
  been lifted, even though it was still Yaki rocky.
• 12:04
  Roads ahead. You know what I mean, right?
• 12:06
  Yeah, it was, it was interesting.
• 12:08
  Oh wow. Okay, walk us through like being
• 12:10
  pregnant and knowing walk us through like those real feelings
• 12:15
  because I listened to your podcast story on C'est.
• 12:19
  Le and I absolutely love how real you were.
• 12:25
  And you know, this is kind of the Gist of what you said.
• 12:29
  I don't know if it was word for word, but you, you said It felt
• 12:32
  easier to give into my flesh. Check out on my phone shop or
• 12:37
  focus on other things. And I mean that is just being so
• 12:42
  real right there. I was like, yeah, like that's
• 12:46
  humility. That is easier thing to do.
• 12:49
  So, you know, just kind of walk us through that preparation,
• 12:53
  time of being pregnant with sayla and knowing that this is
• 12:57
  coming Oh yeah. Well, I've actually never shared
• 13:00
  this before, but as soon as we found out we were pregnant or I
• 13:06
  was pregnant, my husband just had this weird feeling that
• 13:10
  something was going to be wrong. Hmm.
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  And he never, he did not share that with me until here just a
• 13:16
  few months ago. Hmm, But I think that is so
• 13:19
  interesting and That that's just a side note.
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  But when as far as, like the process of like, finding this
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  out in comparison, to what it was like to be pregnant, before
• 13:32
  finding that out, you know, grief is really hard and I think
• 13:37
  that this diagnosis taught me that grief and joy can coexist.
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  Like, it was just, that was the most tangible season of my life.
• 13:47
  That demonstrated that truth to me over and over again.
• 13:50
  And I'm not saying that I grieved my daughter.
• 13:53
  I agree. Her diagnosis in the life that I
• 13:55
  long for her to have because it wasn't going to be the life and
• 13:59
  a normal life. You know, she is going to have
• 14:02
  to go to Cardiology appointments her entire life.
• 14:04
  She was not going to have none. Not all of us were going to have
• 14:09
  our you know typical family at home newborn season.
• 14:12
  We were going to be living in the hospital with her praying
• 14:15
  that she would get to see the next day.
• 14:19
  But that, that grief, you know, it was it was very like what?
• 14:24
  You shared from my podcast episode on it.
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  It's true when before she was here and after she was here,
• 14:29
  when we were in the hospital, It was so much easier to give in to
• 14:34
  the desires of My Flesh and spend money, like, buy clothes,
• 14:38
  walked down the street to get coffee.
• 14:40
  Not that, that was a bad thing. I needed to get out when I could
• 14:42
  for a breath of fresh air but just to focus on what was
• 14:46
  outside of that grief. Yeah, instead of trying to find
• 14:50
  joy in the midst of it. And so there is this odd like
• 14:53
  time of trying to find that balance of.
• 14:55
  Okay, there really is joy in the everyday, even in the midst of
• 14:58
  this grief, I just have to be willing to surrender.
• 15:01
  My desire for control and this is huge.
• 15:05
  Weighty feeling of helplessness that I that I'm carrying every
• 15:08
  single day you know, into the father's arms and asked him to
• 15:12
  open my eyes to the blessings that are at hands with each
• 15:17
  breath and with each bead of her beautiful heart.
• 15:21
  But it was, it was definitely tricky because there were days
• 15:23
  where I would forget that I was having a baby that would have,
• 15:29
  you know, have to go through open-heart surgery.
• 15:31
  There were really good days even in the midst of that.
• 15:33
  Even on the days that I was aware of it, I still experience
• 15:35
  the Lord's joy. And I think it just boiled down
• 15:37
  to the preparation of surrendering and praying and
• 15:41
  seeking and really trying to step away from that Temptation.
• 15:48
  I had to step out of what was right and step away from work.
• 15:51
  What was right in front of me? Yeah, I don't know if that makes
• 15:54
  any sense at all. I was totally does, no.
• 15:57
  That's so good because that brings me to another thing that
• 16:01
  you said, In your story of sayla on your podcast you said we
• 16:06
  don't always have to understand but it's our responsibility to
• 16:10
  trust God. And I think that's so cute
• 16:13
  because some things were not going to understand really on
• 16:16
  the side, you know. And so I love that.
• 16:20
  Your focus was just to trust God and I love that you did bring us
• 16:28
  in to this journey through your Social media because we got to
• 16:33
  see you just relying and trusting in God because it
• 16:39
  wasn't a bunch of good news afterwards.
• 16:42
  It was, there was a lot of ups and downs.
• 16:45
  So, before we jump into that, I would love for you to share
• 16:49
  like, okay, you're going into labor.
• 16:51
  You had a 48-hour labor. Is that correct?
• 16:55
  Yes, yes, okay. Share with us with that.
• 17:00
  Okay. So I was scheduled to be induced
• 17:05
  on Thursday November 4th and I had a little, I got an issue
• 17:12
  with that because I didn't desire and induction but the the
• 17:16
  way the cardiologist explained it is upon sales arrival, you
• 17:20
  know, she's going to have an entire team of people that need
• 17:24
  to step in basically immediately.
• 17:26
  And so having me there and having the team ready to go, is
• 17:31
  The best for her. And so I just had to come to the
• 17:34
  realization that. Okay, this is out of my control
• 17:38
  and I'm going to focus on what I can control and that was how my
• 17:43
  I was going into it mentally and spiritually.
• 17:48
  We get there on Thursday and she's not born until Saturday 48
• 17:54
  hours later. The day after our wedding
• 17:56
  anniversary, which is super special.
• 17:58
  But there were a few things that were incredibly traumatic.
• 18:01
  For me and my birth and I don't know if this is the place to get
• 18:04
  into that because it's kind of a big story but whatever you feel
• 18:08
  like sharing, I will share this. So they they inserted something
• 18:12
  called a fully bulb to prepare my cervix for her and it had to
• 18:18
  sit in there for 4 hours. They came back to check on it
• 18:22
  when it was time and it had been inserted incorrectly.
• 18:27
  So they had to reinsert it. Which was awful had to wait.
• 18:32
  Another four hours. I was so sick.
• 18:35
  I was so sick. I was throwing up.
• 18:37
  I felt like I was going to pass out like I was in so much pain
• 18:41
  but thanks be to God. Say Le was just she was
• 18:44
  thriving, sheilah, Graham time even in the midst of.
• 18:48
  I'm so thankful and It was just, it was not fun.
• 18:56
  I just kept thinking about how things could work would probably
• 19:00
  be so different if I could have had like the birth of my dream.
• 19:03
  Yeah, but again, it's all about, you know, I'm sitting here in
• 19:08
  the unknown of what's going to happen in the next few minutes.
• 19:11
  And when she's going to be here and over and over again, my eyes
• 19:16
  were just open to the unknown, being this invitation to trust
• 19:21
  in the Lord. And and so I just kept clinging
• 19:24
  to that and I can remember when she started to Crown, this was
• 19:28
  also the moment we're about 20, people piled into the hospital,
• 19:31
  into the room that I was giving birth to her to her in.
• 19:36
  And the doctor asked if I wanted to feel her head because she had
• 19:41
  a head full of hair and I was just like yes, of course I felt
• 19:45
  her hair and then it gave me all that.
• 19:47
  I thought I was done with, you know, pushing and energy.
• 19:49
  I just couldn't do it anymore and that was like my And like
• 19:52
  she's coming. She's almost here.
• 19:54
  She's gonna be in my arms and she was she arrived at 5:49 am
• 19:59
  she was 7 pounds, 15 ounces, 22 inches long.
• 20:03
  She was so beautiful and I got 60 seconds of skin-to-skin with
• 20:07
  her until they had to wheel her away to the NICU.
• 20:11
  That was very hard. I had time to prepare for it
• 20:13
  because I knew it was coming, but I could hear them talking
• 20:16
  about. How long does she have with the
• 20:17
  baby? How long does she have with the
• 20:18
  baby? And I'm like, could everybody
• 20:20
  please just stop talking and give me this?
• 20:22
  One minute give me this one minute with my daughter and just
• 20:26
  I want everything else to fade away.
• 20:27
  I just want it to be me and her and that one minute went way too
• 20:32
  quickly. My husband followed them, the
• 20:35
  NICU team. So they went from the adult
• 20:37
  hospital to the Children's Hospital.
• 20:39
  There's like a secret secret passageway.
• 20:41
  That connects the two and I stayed back in the room with my
• 20:44
  mom to deliver the afterbirth and to heal.
• 20:47
  And I actually didn't get to see her again until much.
• 20:52
  Later the following day. So, okay.
• 20:55
  So, how long were you in the NICU and the NICU?
• 21:01
  And what walk us through like your relationship with the Lord
• 21:07
  at this point. Yeah.
• 21:08
  Okay. So I felt like we were just
• 21:12
  getting started and although I was in a ton of pain physically
• 21:15
  spiritually, I was like, okay, God we're in this like I'm here.
• 21:19
  Like have your way your will be done.
• 21:21
  That's It's truly where I was at at this point and so once in the
• 21:27
  NICU we were there for about five days.
• 21:30
  So what's different about sale is diagnosis and the initial
• 21:34
  diagnosis that she was given which is HIPAA plastic left.
• 21:36
  Heart syndrome. Those babies tip need something
• 21:40
  called the Norwood which is essentially surgery as soon as
• 21:42
  they're born sale I did not need this surgery she was able to be
• 21:47
  hooked up to something called Prost ins and this is something
• 21:51
  that Keep a specific blood vessel, open that needed to stay
• 21:55
  open until her first, official surgery.
• 21:58
  And so during her time in the NICU is when she was receiving
• 22:02
  these Prost ins, we all babies have something called a PDA
• 22:06
  blood vessel and it closes up about nine hours after birth,
• 22:09
  because its main function is in utero, but for sale, oh, we
• 22:13
  needed to keep it open which is what the Protestants were doing,
• 22:16
  because it was working in her favor with her blood flow, and
• 22:20
  everything. Leading up to this initial First
• 22:23
  surgery that she was about to have.
• 22:24
  And so it's often referred to as the honeymoon period with your
• 22:29
  baby when you're when you start out in the NICU before the
• 22:32
  surgeries begin. And there's good reason for that
• 22:34
  because it's just it's so sweet. You get the snuggles.
• 22:37
  I got to it was one of the first and only times I got to
• 22:40
  breastfeed I've been exclusively pumping for her the last year
• 22:44
  but that's been so worth it. I just wish that, you know, I
• 22:46
  could have had that experience with her.
• 22:50
  We you know, got to stay in. Room with her.
• 22:52
  As long as we wanted that, you know, she was sleeping and just
• 22:55
  she was just so she was so perfect.
• 22:57
  She was so perfect. And those few days those, five
• 23:00
  days in the NICU went by way too fast and she was scheduled on
• 23:06
  November 11th to have her first surgery.
• 23:09
  She was going to have a stent placed and the surgeon that did
• 23:15
  it felt pretty confident that she could have this instead of
• 23:17
  the shunt placed. And the stent would be through a
• 23:21
  heart cath through her go. Groin.
• 23:22
  So just a very, very, very very, very tiny, little wire with a
• 23:26
  camera and whatever else attached to it.
• 23:29
  And they would go in through her growing to do what they needed
• 23:31
  to do instead of placing a man-made part called a shunt,
• 23:35
  you know? Those little things that you
• 23:36
  stick on your fingers and like if you pull away, tightens up.
• 23:39
  Yes, I don't know the exact name for it, but that's kind of what
• 23:42
  a shunt is. Okay.
• 23:45
  Yeah, and so long story short, they will her way to place to
• 23:49
  stand. It was a failed procedure and
• 23:51
  this It ended up being the longest day of my life because
• 23:54
  it turned into an emergency open.
• 23:56
  Heart surgery and sale had already been very and she'd
• 23:59
  already been unconscious for several hours and I thought that
• 24:02
  this was a I thought we got these sweet days with sayla like
• 24:06
  this is going to be goodbye. So we were just waiting and
• 24:09
  waiting and waiting a different surgeons stuffed into the game
• 24:12
  Who specialty or shunts and thanks be to God.
• 24:18
  At 10:00 p.m. that night, we got a call that sayla was doing
• 24:22
  great and she was going to be wheeled up to the pediatric
• 24:26
  cardiology. I see you and in a few hours, we
• 24:30
  could go and visit her. And the beautiful thing in that
• 24:35
  is although the first surgeon who placed the stent couldn't
• 24:39
  was unable to do it. He stayed during the emergency
• 24:44
  surgery for the shunt placement and he called me. me and he left
• 24:48
  a voicemail saying that he was praying for sale and he was so
• 24:51
  sorry that this didn't didn't hold and I just like made such
• 24:57
  An impact on me in that moment. Like as soon as we heard that
• 25:00
  she was doing well, you know, I checked my phone.
• 25:02
  I have this voice mail from dr. Jansen, I don't know if we'll
• 25:05
  ever listen, if it's but I love you, dr.
• 25:07
  Jeff doesn't know little does, he know.
• 25:12
  Yeah, so many of the people on her medical team.
• 25:15
  Most I would say they are Christian and that that's been a
• 25:18
  really cool thing to have some. Yeah, really neat conversations
• 25:21
  with nurses and doctors about God's hand in all of this.
• 25:25
  So But yeah, so she went up to the ICU and she was healing and
• 25:32
  having some good days if you've ever had a child in the ICU, or
• 25:36
  if anyone listening to this has, you know, that the ups and downs
• 25:40
  of the I see you are. Literally no joke.
• 25:42
  One minute, your baby can be doing so well, you're laughing
• 25:46
  your babies cooing, all the vitals look great.
• 25:48
  And then all of a sudden, their blood pressure is dropping their
• 25:53
  oxygen levels are crashing, and every, there's 15 or 20 people
• 25:56
  in your I'm trying to figure out what is going on.
• 25:59
  All of these heart babies are puzzles.
• 26:02
  They're their own little puzzles, and each room is a
• 26:04
  puzzle to, you know, figure out how to put together and how to
• 26:07
  help it stay together. And that's what it felt like,
• 26:10
  for me at least. I think that's a pretty good way
• 26:12
  to describe it. Yeah, because not all the pieces
• 26:15
  will fit for one baby. Every baby has is so unique and
• 26:18
  has their own needs. And goodness, our experience
• 26:22
  with Vanderbilt Children's, they just did such a great job,
• 26:24
  catering to say, Le and saving her life.
• 26:27
  Multiple times multiple times. Mmm, wow.
• 26:31
  And did you ever just struggle like with your faith?
• 26:36
  I mean, it just kind of didn't seem like that on your
• 26:40
  Instagram. You really, I love that you
• 26:44
  asked for everyone to pray. It was just bringing the
• 26:48
  community and together to pray over you guys and sale as life
• 26:53
  and did you ever just kind of Doubt Thor.
• 26:58
  Get angry with God. Absolutely.
• 27:02
  You know, I try to use the strengths that I did have to
• 27:07
  communicating her story with so hard for me, and I'm sure it
• 27:10
  didn't come across that way, but having not having but okay,
• 27:14
  having the opportunity there it is, having the opportunity to
• 27:17
  write out everything that had transpired that day was
• 27:21
  exhausting because it was like, I was it was fresh in my mind
• 27:23
  that I was reliving it. And so, yeah, it took such a
• 27:26
  mental Well, on me. But that is really what I tried
• 27:30
  to do is focus on her focus on her needs and that space.
• 27:34
  But of course, I struggled. You know, I there were such a
• 27:42
  special such special moments shared between me and the Lord,
• 27:47
  when I would go to pump. So there's a pumping room on the
• 27:51
  same floor as the ICU. And I would, I would leave to go
• 27:55
  to this. I could pump in the hospital
• 27:56
  room. But I decided I was going to
• 27:58
  start leaving and I get into this teeny tiny room for one, I
• 28:02
  turn the lights off, I turn worship music on and I would
• 28:04
  just fall my eyes out. I would ball my son.
• 28:10
  I would ask God why this was happening, I would ask God why
• 28:14
  this was happening to us. I was tempted to tell him all of
• 28:18
  the things that I have done right in my life, for the sake
• 28:21
  of his name and that I was. So undeserving of everything
• 28:25
  that was happening to my baby girl.
• 28:28
  I just let it out. Yeah, like that was and I think
• 28:31
  that was a, that was a healthy thing to do.
• 28:33
  And I believe that God that God, welcome that and he met me there
• 28:36
  and he wiped my tears. And then, you know, in the same
• 28:40
  breath of letting it out, I was reminded about what I said
• 28:44
  earlier, you know, we're not meant to know everything.
• 28:48
  Like we will never know everything.
• 28:50
  And when those unknown show up at our doorstep, regardless of
• 28:53
  what those unknowns look like, they really are God's in my In
• 28:58
  God's way of extending this invitation that you open it and
• 29:01
  it says, will you trust me? And so that was my biggest thing
• 29:05
  was constantly being reminded that constantly being reminded
• 29:08
  my utter need for Independence on him and really just trying to
• 29:14
  view all of this through the lens of Eternity and knowing
• 29:18
  that no matter what happened to sayla on this side of Heaven.
• 29:23
  Her healed and whole heart was coming.
• 29:28
  If it was not in this life, it would be in the next.
• 29:30
  And that's where I long for all who are in Christ to be right.
• 29:35
  Like we should long for eternity.
• 29:37
  And so there was part of that. That was appealing to me,
• 29:39
  especially down the road, when all she knew was struggle, you
• 29:43
  know, there were times where I was asking, God, you know, is
• 29:46
  this is this worth it for her little body, like, kimchi, just
• 29:51
  come home. Can she just come home?
• 29:53
  Mmm. Is that and that's so hard to be
• 29:56
  in that place like of complete surrender.
• 30:00
  Like you just feel helpless, right?
• 30:03
  And you're just like, God, I know you're in control but to
• 30:08
  see your little ones suffer like that.
• 30:10
  I mean, that it's heartbreaking. Absolutely heartbreaking.
• 30:14
  I can't imagine, you know, I would come out of that another
• 30:18
  place I cried and just let it out, was in the shower.
• 30:20
  There's a bathroom with a shower in the In the hospital room and
• 30:24
  I take 10 minutes to to try. And, you know, take care of me.
• 30:28
  Even though the last thing I wanted was a shower because I
• 30:31
  was so scared, something was going to happen, I did it
• 30:33
  anyways, and I can remember one evening coming out of the shower
• 30:38
  and sayla. As soon as I opened the door,
• 30:40
  her eyes were on me, and I just felt like, in that moment, I was
• 30:44
  experiencing The Nearness of God in her life and in mine.
• 30:48
  And I don't know, there was something there that just like
• 30:51
  bridged this The, the struggle that I was having before behind
• 30:55
  between grief and joy, like that was the bridge.
• 30:57
  I knew that they could coexist in that it would be okay.
• 31:00
  And that I didn't have to check out in order to find fulfillment
• 31:05
  because really when I was checking out the Fulfillment
• 31:09
  wasn't there. It was just temporary
• 31:12
  satisfaction and not coming to terms with reality because
• 31:16
  reality was really, it was utterly difficult.
• 31:18
  It was very, very hard, but God truly was, and yeah.
• 31:22
  In the midst of it, and just fully present every step of the
• 31:25
  way, and I'm so thankful. Okay.
• 31:28
  So, share with us how sayla is today, and how you guys are.
• 31:33
  Yes, we are doing so great for sale, has most recent surgery
• 31:39
  was back in March, and once she healed up from that, we are
• 31:45
  appointments went from, with Cardiology went from every week
• 31:48
  to every six months, which is Such wonderful news.
• 31:54
  It felt very like foreign it first.
• 31:56
  And, you know, I realize that I was very dependent on sale has
• 31:59
  cardiologist because I had that Weekly appointment to look
• 32:02
  forward to. All right.
• 32:05
  A little bit of security there Solace and security.
• 32:09
  Her cardiologist is just amazing.
• 32:10
  Shout-out to dr. Cavanaugh but um, Things you
• 32:14
  would you look at her now and you would never know what she's
• 32:17
  been through. We lost her almost three times.
• 32:20
  There's one time in particular, where she her shunt clotted and
• 32:27
  she passed out in my arms at four in the morning.
• 32:31
  And all of a sudden there were 15 people in the room and she
• 32:35
  was being hooked up to she's being given CPR and hooked up
• 32:38
  Hooked rolled out of the room with a portable oxygen tank and
• 32:41
  then taken to the ventilator, Got put on the ventilator
• 32:45
  crashed again needed CPR again then needed ECMO and there's
• 32:49
  such a testimony in that because if you don't know what ECMO is
• 32:53
  its life support and so it was doing the work of sales body
• 32:58
  needed that sale has body couldn't do on its own and it's
• 33:02
  unheard of sale was on ECMO for only 16 hours after all of this
• 33:06
  happened the next day she was off of it and you know, the Lord
• 33:11
  really just gosh. His purpose is woven in her in
• 33:15
  and through her life, the day before, all of this happened
• 33:19
  with her almost dying. For the second time, we were
• 33:23
  supposed to be discharged, we were supposed to be discharged,
• 33:26
  but her oxygen levels, were acting a little funky and they
• 33:32
  decided to keep us. And I'm so glad they did because
• 33:35
  had she clotted header, shunt clotted, here at home, she would
• 33:39
  have died. She would not have made it.
• 33:42
  And so, she was exactly where she needed to.
• 33:44
  You when she needed to be there and that is all God, that is
• 33:46
  yeah, his protection Godlike. Yes, she's such a miracle.
• 33:50
  She's such a miracle but she's doing great.
• 33:53
  She no longer has physical therapy occupational therapy or
• 33:57
  speech therapy. She was on an NG tube up until
• 34:00
  six months. Now she's eating solids like a
• 34:02
  chance. She's drinking out of a sippy
• 34:04
  cup. Like she's just she's thriving,
• 34:07
  we had an appointment with our cardiologists two weeks ago and
• 34:12
  Man, her cardiologist looked at us and said, I wish all my heart
• 34:15
  babies were doing as well as sayla is and like what a
• 34:19
  humbling thing, you know, to hear.
• 34:22
  But also like we hope and we pray for that too because she
• 34:26
  has come so far in such a short amount of time.
• 34:30
  And it's only God is only the work in the strength of God in
• 34:34
  her life. Yeah.
• 34:35
  Yeah. And and you, I mean, we
• 34:38
  following your journey like it was totally Totally God's
• 34:42
  strength working and you and we can just all see that because it
• 34:48
  was like if you were to look at the circumstances, you'd just be
• 34:53
  a crumbled mess. You know?
• 34:55
  And maybe you felt that way. But God was supernaturally,
• 35:00
  upholding you. He had his right hand on you and
• 35:06
  upholding you and sustaining you through the Heartbreak and
• 35:12
  Giving you hope and all the things that he revealed to you
• 35:17
  through. This is just an incredible
• 35:20
  story. Incredible testimony and sayla
• 35:23
  is absolutely adorable. We got to see pictures of her on
• 35:28
  your Instagram and oh my gosh like the cutest thing ever so
• 35:35
  and just such a blessing like you look at the this is your
• 35:40
  first child and And you're going, oh my gosh, this is the
• 35:46
  biggest blessing. And there's probably so much
• 35:49
  gratitude, like things that you had to walk through that.
• 35:53
  You just have a whole new perspective on having a child,
• 35:57
  right? And yes, so I just, you know,
• 36:03
  love that your whole story, of course, that it has this happy
• 36:08
  ending? We never want this horrible, you
• 36:11
  know, Oh, tragic ending, but to walk through and see God's
• 36:17
  faithfulness and his healing. It's such a testimony and
• 36:21
  encouragement for all of us and thank you for publicly sharing
• 36:26
  it because it's so easy to isolate and to clam up.
• 36:32
  And I think the best thing you did as painful and emotional, at
• 36:36
  was to relive it. Every time you wrote in your
• 36:38
  post, But it brought the hugest Community together to pray for
• 36:46
  you guys and we all know the power of you're not kidding.
• 36:50
  Yeah that's right. Fully believe God used the
• 36:54
  prayers of his people to help sustain her and I mean we were
• 36:58
  constantly overwhelmed with people reaching out and offering
• 37:02
  whatever they could to help us and you know, I mean I I would
• 37:07
  get, I remember my friends at I'm friends with a team at
• 37:12
  Christian Health Care Ministries, they put together a
• 37:14
  huge Google doc and they sent it to me and it was filled with the
• 37:17
  prayers from their team members. And I just remember, we reading
• 37:21
  it and weeping. Yeah, I know it was just so and
• 37:24
  that's I don't even know how many people were praying for us.
• 37:27
  I know that it was thousands like the Lord really built up,
• 37:30
  an army of Prayer Warriors for us and I just am so thankful
• 37:34
  that he did like SSO comments what a Kind and Generous thing
• 37:37
  to do in the midst of such a difficult thing to Yeah, that
• 37:40
  there are people strangers it Brothers and Sisters in Christ.
• 37:44
  Family. May not know them personally but
• 37:46
  they're right there standing in the trenches with us in praying
• 37:48
  on our behalf when we couldn't find the words to say are.
• 37:51
  Yeah. Right.
• 37:52
  Yeah. What a gift really is.
• 37:54
  Okay. So it's a letdown with
• 37:56
  surgeries. She has one more God willing
• 38:00
  when she is before between the ages of two and four.
• 38:04
  So we still have a while until we have to look into that again.
• 38:09
  So we're just trying. Dying to enjoy each day as it
• 38:11
  comes and thankfully, she's been through like the most
• 38:13
  challenging and riskiest part of her life.
• 38:15
  And this next one should not be as difficult as the others have
• 38:18
  been. So that is something to look
• 38:21
  forward to. But it is going to be a
• 38:22
  different dynamic because, you know, Fela was a newborn baby
• 38:25
  when she was going through all of this.
• 38:27
  She didn't really understand. And she was already sleepy on
• 38:30
  top of, you know, being sedated. So, she slept through a lot of
• 38:33
  it, but One thing I am looking forward to now that she'll be
• 38:36
  older as her being able to communicate her needs to us but
• 38:39
  also watching her struggle in a completely different light,
• 38:42
  almost is going to be really, really hard for us to see and so
• 38:45
  I'm already trying to spiritually and mentally prepare
• 38:48
  myself for that because it's going to be hard.
• 38:51
  Yeah. And maybe praying Supernatural
• 38:53
  healing. Maybe she won't have to go out
• 38:56
  us to. Yeah absolutely.
• 38:58
  Yeah we long for the ultimate year old, right?
• 39:03
  Okay. Well I love finishing up our
• 39:06
  time together with a takeaway. What is something that you can
• 39:11
  leave with our listeners either Ponder on or take action in?
• 39:14
  Oh yeah, I love that. I just based on everything that
• 39:19
  we've talked about today. One of my biggest takeaways from
• 39:22
  sayla story, is the fact that the Lord's peace is not
• 39:27
  contingent on our circumstances. And I think that so often at
• 39:32
  least in my case, I look, Look to the, what for the piece
• 39:35
  instead of the who, you know, instead of the only one who can
• 39:39
  give us the peace, that satisfies, the peace that we
• 39:43
  truly that our souls long for. And so when we look to the
• 39:48
  father, you know, we learn that this piece is not something that
• 39:51
  he gives, and he takes away, it's like you pick an apple from
• 39:56
  a tree, you know, that's how it's pieces you choose to risk
• 39:59
  to embrace it and it's yours. It's not contingent on anything,
• 40:02
  but your willingness to lean in And pick it up.
• 40:06
  Yeah, and I think that's such a beautiful truth because, you
• 40:09
  know, his peace is why we can be content in the midst of Despair
• 40:15
  and difficult circumstances. It's why we can still rejoice
• 40:18
  and see the joy and every day because because of the Lord and
• 40:22
  because of the eternity of the eternal life that awaits those
• 40:27
  who are in Christ. And so peace is not contingent
• 40:30
  on our circumstances and my prayer for anyone who's
• 40:33
  listening is that no matter. What you're facing in this
• 40:35
  season of your life, for the seasons to come, you would fully
• 40:38
  embrace the piece that is yours in him.
• 40:41
  This has been a blessing to me and just walking through this
• 40:45
  journey with you. I'm so glad we have this
• 40:49
  opportunity for you to share your story.
• 40:51
  Now, where can people contact you?
• 40:54
  And you know, here your podcast and whatever else you got going
• 40:58
  on. So you can find daughter blood
• 41:03
  on Instagram, just one word daughter of delight, not the
• 41:08
  light delight and then I also have the daughter of delight
• 41:14
  podcast and if you want some super cute baby pictures and
• 41:18
  Nuggets of you know, theological goodness you can find me on my
• 41:22
  personal Instagram account at LEL LEL underscore Cardell.
• 41:28
  Thank you for coming on here. Thank you so much for listening
• 41:32
  today and I trust that God has encouraged you through the
• 41:36
  story. Did you know this podcast is on
• 41:39
  YouTube, hop on there and subscribe and you can see a live
• 41:43
  recording of each episode and for more information on this
• 41:47
  ministry and to access free downloads, please visit my
• 41:51
  website at Jamie Elizabeth.com that's ja yme Elisabeth.com and
• 41:58
  let's connect Beyond this podcast by Going to my Instagram
• 42:01
  handle, Jamie Elizabeth, she speaks life or Facebook until
• 42:06
  next time my friend. I hope God reveals himself
• 42:09
  through your own life story.