The Swartzendruber Family
I am privileged to hear new stories every month and am always so thankful that God continues to bless couples with the precious gift of a baby. I keep a list in my journal of couples I am praying for to get pregnant. If you have a story of miraculous fertility, please send me a note at info@dianneleman.com so we can rejoice with you.
Today I am blessed to share the story of Dave and Judy Swartzendruber.
From Judy:
In August 1982, the Holy Spirit convicted my husband, David, that perhaps it wasn’t the Lord’s will that he had had that vasectomy years before. Maybe God wanted us to have more than our two boys we had, 21 and 20 years old at that time.
David repented and asked forgiveness for not having made the vasectomy a matter of prayer. Together we prayed that the Lord would have charge of the size of our family. We didn’t pray for more children; we just gave that decision to God.
I missed my early October menstrual period, and on October 30, my pregnancy test results were positive. We were so excited!
Decisions
Our boys both had their own homes. We had an empty nest. I was 41 years old and David was 44. It was exciting to tell our family and friends that we were experiencing this miracle from God. Here we were, really expecting just one month after we had prayed together. We faced a major decision about my prenatal care. Because of my age and the fact that our first son was born by C-section, I knew that I would be considered “high risk” by the medical profession. We knew that this was God’s miracle and asked ourselves, “Why would God give us this baby if it was going to cause me or the baby any problems?” We had great peace to trust Jesus for a perfect pregnancy and childbirth, and to us, that meant not going to an OB doctor. We really had a knowing that this was what God wanted us to do. Thus we began this journey with Jesus as our Doctor. We prayerfully sought guidance during the pregnancy and ordered a home birthing supply kit.
Defining Prayers
We had three defining prayers: first, I wanted to shop, so I wanted to know if we were going to have a boy or a girl. God showed us that our baby was a girl, so I filled the closet with little girl baby clothes and decorated the nursery with peach and turquoise flower prints.
Our next prayer was for her name. We knew God would want a special name for her. He told us her names should be Sarah (since we were older) and Joanna from Luke 8:3.
The third prayer was very important to us. “When, Lord, is she going to be born?” David was driving to Chicago five nights a week for UPS, and I knew he couldn’t be out there at work when the baby was coming. We prayed separately and we each had the date of June 16, 1983.
Giving Birth
We had to stay positive and in faith, and it was a wonderfully exciting time. I had a healthy pregnancy, especially considering that I was now 42.
On June 15, 1982, David finalized his vacation schedule so that he would be at home for the birth the next day. The first contraction came about 8:15 a.m. the following morning. I worked around the house, “nesting,” fixing food, cleaning, getting the baby clothes out, and setting up the home birthing kit. About 4:30 in the afternoon, I couldn’t walk through the contractions anymore, so I lay down. Sarah Joanna was born at 7:44, weighing eight pounds, eight ounces. What a wonderful experience! We played praise music during the evening. It was a peaceful, pain-free delivery. She responded right away and was a normal healthy baby as well as a healthy, happy, and peaceful girl as she grew up.
She is a blessing. This awesome experience of God’s miraculous love and power changing our lives and family circumstances forever has caused us to grow in our relationship with Jesus and to trust Him more in every situation of life, no matter how impossible.