:::mandy dawson:::

Time for good news, now.  If you have read this blog for long you have seen only two references to the fact that there is a disease in my family of which I am an obligate carrier.  

If you want to read the mentions in previous posts on this blog they are here and here.  There is also a post on my old blog sojourn to transformation about the disease.  I wrote it in 2006.  It is on this page and titled Claiming an Inheritance.  Before I tell you the whole story, you will notice a huge shift in my thinking from the post in 2006 and the ones from this year.

I have known I was a carrier for the disease called spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda since shortly after graduating high school.  It is a disease in my family that is passed along an X chromosome.  Women who have the affected X chromosome only carry the disease, but men who have the X chromosome will have symptoms of the disease. Here is a description that I found online-- Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tarda (SEDT) is an X-linked recessive disorder characterized byshort stature due to defective growth of the vertebral bodies. In addition, deformities of the femoral heads result in early onset secondary osteoarthritis of the hips. The disorder affects males only with heterozygous female carriers showing no consistent abnormalities.

Basically, it is a chronic pain disease.  My dad lives with chronic back pain every day of his life and has had since he was a teenager.  The disease further mutated with my cousin who has pain as severe as my dad's or more and has already had a hip replacement.

Dan and I have talked about the disease and how it would effect our decision to have children from very early in our relationship--before we were married even.  I have always felt a weight knowing that physically, naturally and scientifically my sons would have a 50% chance of being born with the disease.  This is the case because half of my eggs have the effected X chromosome I got from my dad and the other half have the X chromosome I got from my mom.  I think I felt an extra responsibility because my generation had more information concerning the disease then my parent's generation did due to a study done by doctor's in St. Louis.

I almost always felt that we wouldn't have biological children unless there was a scientific or medical way to prevent passing on the disease.  In 2006 when Dan and I began to discuss having a family seriously, I searched to see if there was a medical intervention.  It turns out that one option was IVF with PGD, which is invitro fertilization with pre-implantation genetic diagnosis.  Fertilized embryos could be tested for the disease before being transfered.  However, this would have involved destruction of diseased embryos which is something that we could never, ever consider.  I wished there was a way to test my egg and not an embryo, but at the time there wasn't. 

So, we talked and talked and prayed and prayed about what to do.  It was during this time that the women prophesied over me saying, "I hear a baby crying over you and God can do anything."  That night, driving the hour and half home from the meeting, I felt strongly that God was telling us He wanted to heal this disease and break the generational curse and that it was His place to do so, now man's and that He would receive all the glory not man or science. When I shared this with Dan, he told me he was hearing the same and feeling the same.  From that moment, we believed with all our hearts that we would conceive a biological child and trust, believe and have faith in God to prevent the passing of this disease.  What a 180 degree turn from my original thinking.

I won't lie.  Because we had faith and believed we heard from God didn't mean there were never any doubts or fears.  We prayed and prayed, talked and talked, believed and believed. In fact, we found out Zeke was a boy in part because of the disease.  (You didn't know we knew, did you? :wink:)  At our 18 week ultrasound, the presence of Holy Spirit came over Dan.  When the tech left the room, Dan shared with me that Holy Spirit spoke to him concerning our baby and how God was in control and would be glorified in his life.  Dan said to me, "Our baby is a boy."  Later, we opened the envelope from the tech which confirmed Zeke was indeed a little boy.  Interestingly enough, we were not filled with fear, but rather excitement and peace knowing God had spoken to us way before Zeke was conceived and now again the day we found out he was a boy.  Throughout the rest of the pregnancy, God continued to speak to us and fill us with peace.  We envisioned our baby boy being disease free and actually having an anointing for healing.

Everything was set up.  We saw a geneticist at the same 18 week appointment, and she spoke with the doctor who did the study in St. Louis.  She got all the information she needed for Zeke's cord blood to be collected and sent to a lab for genetic testing.  A few days ago, she called me saying, "I have good news for you."  And, the test confirmed that Zeke does not have the disease.

This miracle is confirmed.  And for further information, just to put things into perspective.  From my dad's mom on, there has never been a boy born to a carrier who does not have the disease.  For a disease that has 50/50 odds, it has turned out to be 100%, and Zeke is the first to whom it was not passed.

Of course, my dad was ecstatic and said, "He can go ahead and be six foot tall, now."  My dad would have been that tall if the disc between his vertebrae had not deteriorated and left him being significantly shorter.  He also said, "He can take after Poppa Perry in other ways!"

We are all overjoyed and praising God.  I really don't use the word miracle flippantly, but not only was Zeke's conception miraculous, so was his delivery and now the fact that he is disease free.  No wonder there have been such battle's over this little guy.  His life will bring glory to God for all his days--of that, I am sure.