Dabney's Story

 It hasn't been an easy journey. Our family experienced a lot of bumps along the way. Shortly after celebrating the news of their first pregnancy, Dabney was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease. With an 85% cure rate, many recommendations were made to seek treatment first and terminate the pregnancy. However, Dabney and her husband, Jason had every faith that this baby was a gift from the Lord and was in God's hands. Therefore, they chose to pursue treatment in Dabney's second trimester.

Upon this time of uncertainty, we pulled together as a family to do all we could to assist Dabney. Prayers began, some from people we didn't even personally know, but were friends of friends who had heard the news. This was the occasion that inspired Christine to create a prayer box for her sister. Dabney needed an outlet, a place to tuck her worries and express herself personally to God.

Receiving one of the chemotherapy drugs each week for the remainder of her pregnancy, Dabney and her baby survived. Although she arrived early and spent a week in the NICU, gaining strength, Madison Faith was born in May of 1999 and remains happy and healthy, bringing joy to everyone she meets. Almost immediately, Dabney began full doses of chemotherapy, followed by radiation. All seemed well and Dabney was officially in remission by January 2000. April 2000 it all began again. This time the cancer had spread. The comfort of knowing her faith remained completely in God gave Dabney the strength to endure the most difficult journey. After intense Chemotherapy, a Bone Marrow/Stem Cell Transplant and many months away from home, her husband and daughter, Dabney survived, beating the odds once again.

Dabney has been cancer-free since August of 2000. She continues to be tested and, praise the Lord, they come back clear! After being told that she was in pre-menopause from her stem cell transplant and that she would not be able to conceive again they began the adoption process in 2003. They were getting everything lined up and even had an estimated date to pick up their new daughter. Around Thanksgiving 2003 she found out she was pregnant and due around the time they would be heading to China to bring their daughter home. It was good for them to know that once again, just because the doctors tell you something, God can have a completely different plan. Because Dabney had previously had a pulmonary embolism during her stem cell transplant, her OBGYN decided to run blood work to see if she would need to be on blood thinners during her pregnancy. Come to find out, her tests showed that she had the Factor V gene mutation which causes clots and she was told to start lovenox shots daily during the course of her pregnancy. She was also told that she needed to be very careful when traveling long distances, especially when flying in airplanes as the pressure can increase the risk of clots. So with this new information they still continued on course and then sadly, early on she miscarried. As unfortunate as this was, it was truly a blessing from God as had she not been pregnant before they left for China, she would not have found out that she has Factor V and would have been at great risk while traveling 20 plus hours on a plane.   Knowing this allowed her to take the right precautions. Shortly after all of this they received a call from their adoption agency. Her Doctor's office misspelled the word Hodgkin's disease and as it was being translated in China the consulate was not sure what kind of disease this was and asked for another letter explaining it. Her Doctor wrote a second letter explaining the disease and also stated that Dabney was a very healthy individual with only a 5% chance that her cancer would every return. This information was sent back to China to be translated. A few weeks later, a second phone call was received saying yet again, their paperwork was flagged and would be denied because the Chinese consulate translated her newest letter as Dabney only had a 5% chance of survival. With this new information, her adoption agency tried their hardest to defend her by having the document translated themselves and then sent back over. Fortunately for them, the head of the agency was from China and previously a lawyer. She contacted the consulate directly and personally argued their case stating that a correct translation of her documents would be sent. After waiting a few more weeks, they received a call telling them to pack their bags, they would be leaving for China in July of 2004 to pick up their 11 month old daughter.   With all of this mix-up behind them, they looked forward to their newest addition. They had a wonderful experience taking Madison who was 5 and family of three became four and sweet little Ansley Joi came home with them just before her first birthday.

Fast forward to around Thanksgiving 2004, Dabney conceived again and had a very monitored, but healthy pregnancy. All went well until Saturday, July 9th when she suddenly came down with a fever and muscle pain throughout her body. She went to the ER and they began testing and considering treatment options. She ended up with Viral Pneumonia and Bronchitis at 34 weeks pregnant. They weren't sure what to do with her once again, unique situation, placing her on aggressive antibiotics was their initial treatment along with oxygen to keep her lungs working. She was moved into the ICU that night which left family and friends feeling completely helpless and filled with prayers and only hope that God would make everything clear. Since her body had started to go into labor Monday they decided to induce on Tuesday morning and as a result they had to intubate her to ensure she would continue to get enough oxygen. During this process and the entire week she remained intubated and sedated. Labor went pretty quickly, only two pushes and he arrived naturally while under sedation…everything happened flawlessly. Asher Kyle, their first son spent 13 days in the NICU. If Madison hadn't spent her first week in the NICU it would have probably been more difficult but with this family, that just seems to be where their babies spend their first week or in his case nearly two weeks.

Asher is doing great and all is well. Dabney spent 15 days, most of which were in ICU. Every time Christine went in she left crying, it was so hard to see her little sister who had been through so much go through something more...another too close for comfort call. But what kind of testimony would they have if everything were easy? That's pretty much the trust and faith everyone had during that time. Once again God brought everyone through the experience and the family of five is doing great...healthy and adjusting to their new life.

We have kept on Dabney to write a book and she kept saying that if God allows her to have one more baby on her own, she would write it. Well, He did and she better! We'll keep you posted on the book as it progresses. God has given
her strength beyond anything we will ever know...she is such a light. She is amazing, her strength, her faith, her courage, an inspiration…giving all credit to God. The Bible verses which helped Dabney through these experiences were 1 Peter 5:7, "Casting the whole of your care - all of your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all - on Him; for He cares for you affectionately, and cares about you watchfully." And Philippians 4:6&7, "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

Dabney's prayer box has been filled with hopes, dreams, fears, questions, praise and most importantly now, answered prayers.