I’ll start with one of our most precious gifts, Julia Camille, who was born on January 5th! She has been an amazing blessing and continues to bless us with her soft spirit, snuggles, and sweet kisses. Part of our whirlwind year was not only trying to figure out how to go from having one child to two, but also how to get through the mountain of medical problems with Julia. Two days after Julia was born she had a cystectomy. This was for a cyst the size of an orange on her left ovary which was found during my 37 week ultrasound. Julia had an amazing surgeon who planned to remove the cyst but leave as much ovarian tissue as possible to give her the best chance of full fertility. I will never forget the feeling as the nurse wheeled our new baby from the NICU into the prep room. CJ wheeled me in and both of our hearts just sank as the severity of the situation hit us. We felt so strong until her surgeon came in and told us it was time. We asked if he would wait while we prayed over our precious girl, and as we struggled to get the words out the surgeon and the nurses sat there and prayed with us. It was in that moment that God made himself clear to us that he was in control and would take care of our precious little girl even when we couldn’t. I don’t know that I’ve ever felt more helpless than in that moment, but God’s overwhelming peace surrounded us and an hour and a half later she was back in our arms, safe and sound. Once inside they had to remove the full ovary but were able to leave her right ovary and both fallopian tubes which according to recent studies should give her 100% fertility. PRAISE GOD!!! Later on that week we found that Julia had a flap open between the two ventricles in her heart and when she got sick with bronchitis it caused blue spells (she stopped breathing for a period of time). About three medications and two specialists later the blue spells had stopped and we were on the road to recovery. In the coming months we would go on to see many more specialists for Tosis, Torticollis, Plagiocephaly, and her regular checkups. We finally are on the other side of our medical demands and all we can do is thank God for the opportunity to catch a glimpse of what families of special needs children go through. Wow, you all are amazing!! We are so thankful that God brought our sweet Julia into our lives and that we get to share her story with the world. God has taught us patience, reliance on him, and that even in some of our darkest moments he will carry us. His faithfulness and love are abounding!
God also showed his love to us in providing us a way out of the dark workplace that my husband was in. I was working full time as a vice president at my family’s company and my husband was a part time worship director at a local church. Our daughter, Ava, was two and a half at the time and Julia was just born. In the midst of the struggle of taking care of the girls and trying to get Julia to all of her appointments God made clear to us that we were to leave our church home. The hurt that stemmed from a series of events cut much deeper than we ever expected. We always thought that being in ministry would be amazing and that we would have these wonderful friends and mentors who would carry us and lift us up when we needed it. Of course that would be ideal, but in reality that was not the case. In the aftermath of this dark time in our lives we could see that it was only by God’s grace and faithfulness that we made it through. This was hands down the most difficult time in our marriage, faith, and lives. They say that hindsight is 20/20, well this was definitely the case for us. We had no idea how toxic and demeaning of a work environment my husband was in until he started his new job at Samaritan Ministries and realized that that was what a real Christian work environment looked like. His entire attitude and heart changed and I could see the “old CJ”. My heart is so full and I am so thankful that God has brought the kind and loving man that I know him to be back to us. We have been so encouraged by the people at Samaritan and lifted up, not only in prayer, but they continue to lift up our spirits. I can only compare it to standing on a ridge of a tall mountain that you’ve just walked miles and miles through a low valley to get to. We are standing on that ridge today and are so encouraged and blessed to be on the other side of that valley. Praise be to God!! It is only through Him that we are saved and can somehow make it through this rough life with so much blessing and hope of eternity.
We have since found a new church home! We have been so loved on and gotten connected to so many wonderful and wise people. God is so amazing in how he works isn’t he? He promises us that he will never leave us and that is so true! He was so faithful in helping us to see that we needed to get out of this terrible workplace, providing CJ with a means to provide for us so that we could leave, and then providing us with a church home full of people who love Jesus unconditionally and truly live to serve him! Healing has come and is continuing to pour on us through these life changes that God has orchestrated. If you had told me a year ago that all of this would take place and that we would no longer be in church ministry I would tell you that you were crazy! I truly felt that we would be in church ministry forever and that I would always be the wife of a worship pastor. God had much better plans than me! I am constantly in awe of how he knocks me down off my high horse and my desire to always have a plan for my life and want to be in control. He knows so much better than me the plans for my life. All we can do is surrender to Him. He holds our life in His hands and he will not let us fall as long as we continue to let Him lead us and follow Him wholeheartedly.
In Him,
Jess Conger