SLWC Baby Born On Vacation in
Connections
Pastor David Drury hand the opportunity recently to sit down with Eric Lans to
interview him on the experience his wife, Tonia and one-year old child Ella
have had with their son Zachary’s premature birth in Arizona while on vacation
this spring. Listen in on this amazing
true-life story in our church community:
David – “Give
us a bit of background on you, Tonia and our church up until this spring?”
Eric – “We’ve been married 5 years and
came to SLWC 3 years ago when we moved to town.
We came from a church of about a hundred people, and in a church of 100
you get to know everyone and the need for small groups is less b/c the whole
church is like a small group. In a large
church like ours you need your small group or you can end up feeling lost.”
David – Describe
for us what happened in your family in
the past few months?
Eric – We were in
David – So
how is Zachary doing as of our interview today?
Eric – “He was born 1 lbs-10 ounces and
lost three ounces after the birth.
That’s an extremely low birth weight.
Immediately we got as many people as possible praying and literally
thousands have been praying in many churches.
He has had a few surgeries and has been doing well and finally has
gained weight. He is getting nearer to 3
lbs and gaining weight is the key for him to be healthy long term. Tonia has been living in Arizona this whole
time caring for him in the Neonatal ICU—but I fly out there as much as I can to
see them and to bring Ella [our other child] with me.”
David – When
are Zachary and Tonia coming home?
Eric – “No idea as of now, they are hoping
to see him come home in July. He would
be Medi-vac’d to DeVos
Children’s in GR. His original due date was July 19. It is largely impossible for him to be released
before that due date. We are optimistic
that he will be released by August.”
[Since the time of this interview we have praised God to find out that
Zachary could be air lifted to Grand Rapids sooner than expected.]
David – What
have been some of the ways the community life of the church has supported you
here and there in these tough times?
Eric – “Prayer is the big one. It has been a powerful experience to see what
happens when people rally around something in prayer. People prayed for his circulation problems,
his lung difficulties, his small intestine surgery, an e-coli infection, the
apnea attacks, and a battle with pneumonia.
Doctors have been amazed at how Zachary has responded. We call him the ‘miracle baby.’” But people have also been bringing meals and
having us over. We have had so many
offers that we’ve had to turn them down at first. We’ve had 10 times more offers than we could
take. At seven weeks into this, I still
haven’t had to cook a meal myself and Ella!
I still have meals in the freezer that people have dropped off. The whole body of Christ has been there for
us. [At the time of this interview…] we
haven’t had to buy one plane ticket!
Family and friends have transferred their frequent flier miles and paid
for tickets, which is awesome because just up to this point we’ve had $277,000
in medical and travel expenses.”
David – What
are you guys learning through all of this?
Eric – “First of all is to trust God,
because this is not in my control. A lot
of growth has been in learning to accept help from others. I haven’t wanted to do that in the past. It’s been humbling to let others bless us and
just accept it. We’ve learned about
evangelism because Tonia has been living with my aunt and uncle who in
©2004 David Drury
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