Journal Entry from October 23, 2010:
Dear Father,
Today is the day before I am to be induced with Aliyah. If you would have told me six months ago that this is how I would be feeling....at such PEACE....the day before Aliyah's delivery, I would not have believed you. I feel that I have a blanket of peace wrapped completely around me today. I know that it is the prayers of so many lifting us up at this time. Father, you are SO GOOD. We say thank you for your goodness and grace to us during these past six months.
We excited to meet our daughter tomorrow. What a journey it has been! You have been beside us each step of the way showing us your heart and concern, not just for us, but also for Aliyah. Father, there is so much I do not understand about our situation but we trust You.
A verse that has been coming to my mind is 1 Corinthians 2:9-10 which says, "No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him-but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit." I feel that this is how Aliyah's life is going to be......your plans for her are greater than what we could ever imagine.
Over the past six months, we have received so many encouraging WORDS on Aliyah's behalf but we are ready to see the POWER and MANIFESTATION of the those words come to pass now! The unseen world affecting the seen world.
Father, give Rod and I a boldness to share with others about your goodness to or family. May our TESTIMONY encourage others to press in for healing from You. May all HONOR be given to you...the Author of our lives!
Journal Entry from October 12, 2010:
Dear Father,
It's hard to believe that I only have six days to go until Aliyah's due date! I definitely have a huge PEACE about the situation. I continue to ask for the helmet of salvation upon my mind and ears. That I may focus, Jesus, only on what YOU are saying to us about this situation. I pray against the spirit of fear and the spirit of unbelief in your faithfulness to us. I feel like Aliyah's delivery might happen soon!
Rod and I were blessed to hang out with Hannah and Micah a few days ago. They are a couple who has also gone through the loss of a child. As Hannah was praying about our situation, she felt that You said, "This is not a couple that you need to prepare for grief." She then saw a picture of me nursing a healthy Aliyah!
Thank you Father! We say "yes" and "amen" and are once again encouraged by the way you are moving.
Journal Entry fromOctober 10, 2010:
Dear Father,
I had two more friends contact me about having dreams about Aliyah! Anna had a dream that Aliyah was healed. She saw Rodney, Aliyah, and I were walking in a garden together with complete peace and joy.
Jill had a dream about me being in labor but experiencing such happiness surrounding the situation. Jill noted that I was so excited to get to the hospital to deliver Aliyah. Jill prayed in her dream, "Lord, help that baby come safely." She then saw a gold horizontal line with a gold splash in the middle of it. She sensed that You had just been there.
Journal Entry from October 7, 2010:
Dear Father,
I am in the middle of reading the book "The Final Quest" by Rick Joyner which looks at the journey of believers as they battle their way through the spiritual forces around them and eventually come face to face with the Lord. There are several quotes that really stuck out to me today.....They best sum up how I have been feeling about our journey with Aliyah over the past six months:
Page-79 "There is another reason why the Lord allows us to be WOUNDED. There is no COURAGE unless there is REAL DANGER. The Lord often commands persons in the Bible to 'BE STRONG and COURAGEOUS.' This is because He was going to have to fight and there would be real danger. It is in this way that the Lord PROVES those who are WORTHY OF THE PROMISES."
Page-84 "As I walked into the darkness, I heard the eagle's last words, 'After this you will not have your TRUST in anyone else, even yourself, but ONLY IN THE LORD.' I was in the most frightening darkness I had ever experienced. To take each step because a terrible battle WITH FEAR. I cried to the Lord to forgive me, and to help me. Immediately I began to see Him on the cross, soon I was not even aware of the dark, and I no longer felt cold. Then I started to see a dim light. Gradually, it became a GLORIOUS LIGHT. The glory increased with each step. Every time I had experienced great pain or darkness of soul, it had been followed by a much greater REVELATION of GLORY and PEACE."
Journal Entry from October 2, 2010:
Rod and I attended a conference at Life Center Church in Harrisburg, PA. The worship was
incredible and Bill Johnson, the head pastor at Bethel Church, shared a message with the group that evening.
Bill Johnson and his wife Beni are known for their anointing of praying for the sick and seeing them healed by the power of the Lord. I had been extremely impacted by Bill's book on healing that I had read earlier in the year and was excited to finally hear him speak in person.
After Bill shared, he began calling out words of knowledge for different people in the audience to be prayed over. One of the words he shared was, "Is there anyone here with a hole in their head?" Rod and I looked at one another in disbelief. This was exactly what Aliyah's condition was. Her skull had not properly closed and she literally had a hole at the top of her head. There was hundreds of people there that evening and no one else stood up. I STOOD IN FAITH believing that the word Bill had just shared was for Aliyah! Once again, the Lord showed up in big ways and was so extremely close to us!
A group gathered around us and prayed for Aliyah's healing. Later in the evening, we had the opportunity for Bill Johnson to pray and agree with us for Aliyah's healing. It was such an ENCOURAGING evening for us as we continued to press into the Lord!!
Journal Entry from September 29, 2010:
"Father, You continue to be SO GOOD. This past Monday night before our class started at church, an older gentleman approached me and said that he had received a word for me. He is a gentleman who prays often at Gateway House of Prayer. He shared that a few weeks ago he had seen me praying at Gateway and had felt that the Lord gave him a word for me.
He stated, "You have great concern for your baby, but your baby will be okay. The Lord loves your patience, compassion, and the love that you have for Him." I immediately started crying and asked this gentleman if he knew about Aliyah's fatal diagnosis; he said that he had no idea.
On Wednesday evening, our pastor and his wife called us up front to be prayed for at our evening service. They gave us a pink blanket with scripture verses on it and prayed for health and wholeness for Aliyah. I felt such peace during their prayer for us.
As I was walking out of the sanctuary, I had two different people stop me and say that You had given them a word to share with me. The one woman shared that she heard, "This baby is completely fine. It is healed."
Another woman shared that as the church was praying for us, she felt a release from one of her hands and had an extreme peace that everything was okay with our baby. She then shared how she had prayed for a baby recently with a cracked skull and as she was praying she felt and heard the bones coming back into alignment. The baby was completely healed!
Thank you Lord for your continued encouragement and people willing to be used by you."
It seemed like all time stood still as we waited for the ultrasound equipment to be wheeled into the room. Rod and I had ONE QUESTION in our minds that weighed heavy upon our hearts, yet neither one of us spoke out the words......."Would we see a HEALTHY baby
girl on the ultrasound screen?"
And then after six months of envisioning and waiting for this very moment to arrive, it came.....but the moment did not turn out how we had prayed for and envisioned that it would. The doctor informed us in that moment that the ultrasound pictures showed that Aliyah's condition REMAINED UNCHANGED......Aliyah still had Anencephaly. 
