In the Beginning, God . . .
and It Was Good.

In the beginning, God said, "Let there be Josh." And this was good. If there has ever been a miracle child, it is Joshua Evans.

Yes, every child is a little piece of heaven, a little miracle, yet from the moment Josh was conceived throughout all the difficulties in utero and an untimely birth, he epitomized the word miracle. Every breath he took, every beat of his little heart were miracles.

I've seen him sleeping and awake, smiling and crying, wet and dry, in NICU and PICU and his mother's arms, going into surgery and coming out of surgery, and in all of those moments I never failed to come away thinking, "Josh is good."

His is a story of struggle, suffering, and endurance, but so was our Savior's. Little man, you are in good company.

So today, I rejoice and thank God for little Josh, little "mini-Mike," and for his witness to me. Because Jesus lives, so does Josh.

One day, little man. One day soon!

~ dhandy

A Special Eulogy

By Wakisha Johnson

I'm so very honored to have this opportunity to share with you about this family.
I'm richly blessed to have witnessed the miraculous works of God and to have been a part of such a beautiful process.
I've witnessed a family mend and, with the grace of God, support this loving couple.

Mike and Jennifer,

Even with my ability to construct beautiful lines of poetic prose, I have no words, no dialect fit enough to ease this kind of sadness.
Even being blessed with a tribe of 26 Phonetician characters (A-Z) and the ability to create page-turning inspiration, I still have no words.
There are no words known to woman or man that can transmit enough empathy so that you won't feel overloaded with pain.

Fret not, my dear friends, because I have a message:
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is,
the captives are set free,
the wounded are made whole.
There is rest for your soul,
for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Whether born in a manger or in the midst of "the medicine that touches the world,"
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Whether it be a host of wise men bearing gifts or educated doctors with tools for life,
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
Whether conceived through the joy of procreation or of Immaculate Conception,
where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Today, it is hard to understand and accept Joshua's mission here, but where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
The wounded are made whole.
There is rest for your soul,
for where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

The word of God tells us that in all,
we get to get an understanding!
The heaviness of this time shall pass,
and we shall see the glory of God.

Meanwhile, trust the words that I do have.
Please know that your beautiful son
has done a great work for our Father.

In agreement with the message, I say, "
God speed, Little Man.
Sweet dreams, Little Man.
You know our love will fly to you each night
on angels' wings."

Joshua's angels say,
"Now you're free to live;
forget about your diagnosis.
Now you're free to sing;
even joyful noise is music to me.
Now you're free to laugh;
you now know love, and it has made you free."

Big playgrounds to run and play in
and trees to pee behind . . .
Dogs to whisper to
and butterflies to remind us!

I love you, Mike and Jen!

Kisha

From Mike and Jen . . .

Words can never express the gratitude Mike and I have for your prayers and support over the past year. Without these loving acts, I don't know how we would have made it.

I know that all things are possible through Christ. Only He knows what someone's prayers and support mean to those who are going through a really hard time. This fellowship is full of God's loving hands, ready and willing to do whatever is needed for the Kingdom of God. You will never know how much everything that you did meant to us.

Please keep us in your prayers while we search for what God is doing in our lives. The prayers of others got us through. There were days when I would look at Josh and not know, and as I prayed, I would feel the prayers of others, crying out to God just for us. These prayers made all the difference in the world and gave me strength when I did not have any.

Mike and I are doing okay. We do have our moments or days. Many people worried about us and how this would affect our relationship. I can say without a doubt that we are closer and stronger today and that we lean on each other more than ever. Our love has grown so strong. We know that this strength is from God and from our family and friends holding us close and loving on us.

Again, thank you.

Mike and Jennifer Evans

Little Warrior

I learned a lot from you. I really did. As I would visit you, I could see you fighting for life, life not based on what you had or what you might have. It was simply the will to live for life's sake. I remember looking into your eyes on one of my visits and, for the first time, truly seeing that "divine spark" that God places in all of us. Yours was so clear and shone so brightly. It had not been tainted by the world or people.

That's the problem with adults. They live long enough to have that spark soiled and darkened by things that never should have power over it, things like mortgages, relationships gone bad, jobs, jealousy, bitterness, unforgiveness, etc. All these things rob us of the divine spark.

But in you, I saw it. It was so fresh and recently placed in you by our Father that it was almost like looking into heaven itself. I wish that we could have communicated and talked about your life. I have so much I needed to learn from you.

Others would tend to discount you because you were a baby. To me, you were the most recent person sent by the Father, so surely you had insight and knowledge of Him.

~ mbynum