Challenges and Victories of 2020
By Gissell Vazquez, Assistant Ministry Director
Everyone at Mission Adelante gets the chance to write an Adelante Express blog/email once every few weeks. The themes vary, but the stories are about what God is doing in and through our programs and how that is impacting people's lives.
Because I wasn’t working for the past three months, I don’t have a story that happened at Mission, but I do have a story of God's faithfulness, miracles, and wonders. That’s what I would like to share.
This year started for our family with the wonderful surprise that I was expecting our first baby boy. In the first few months everything looked great, not too many complications. But as the time went by and I was getting closer to my due date, doctors discovered that I was developing preeclampsia so the baby would have to come early. 34 weeks in, and through a C-section on April 17, 2020, our baby Liam Gonzalez was born and immediately was taken to the NICU. There the story begins.
Liam was very little, and soon developed Apnea of prematurity. For that reason, he had to stay in intensive care for 35 days. I remember days would pass without things getting any better for him. Sometimes the spells were not bad, but there were moments when, suddenly, he would not breath until he turned blue. I remember watching the nurses and doctors coming to assist him and there I was, with nothing else to do but pray and hope for the best. My mind wandered in dark places in those moments. The desire of wanting to breath for him, and the impossibility of doing it, provoked great anxiety in me.
Restrictions in the NICU made things even harder. Because of the pandemic, only one parent was allowed. I didn’t have my husband beside me to talk to, and my first mother’s day passed without celebrations in the blue rocking chair of room 22. I literally had nothing else than a broken heart, a prayer in my mouth and a longing for better days. But above all these I remember telling myself: you can’t do anything else but pray, nothing is in your hands, you can only trust in God and He will do what seems impossible. And He did it! The second week of May, restrictions in the NICU were removed, and, finally, my husband and I could say our first prayer together over Liam. I remember that was the turning point for things to improve. For the next couple of days we were rooming with Liam and in a week we were finally discharged!
Friends, I want to encourage you, especially in this season where the pandemic and bad news seems to overwhelm us. Through prayer things do change. God doesn’t leave us alone when we suffer, and when you can’t do anything else but wait, keep trusting in God. He is and will be faithful, “He will give you the desires of your heart”. (Psalm 37:4)
Welcome, Liam! ❤️
Volunteer Orientation - September 12th + 14th
We want to invite you to volunteer with us during the fall trimester! Come join us for a socially-distanced orientation on Mission Adelante, September 12th and 14th. You can register here: MissionAdelante.org/orientation