Ted and Priscilla Yoon are long time attenders here at Citylights. Their testimony is a particularly powerful one.
As they were becoming first time parents, the pregnancy was progressing along nicely when all of a sudden at a second ultrasound it all came tumbling down for a period. All they could do was rely on God.
At that ultrasound the doctors informed that in Priscilla that their unborn baby had a cleft lip, which was later increased to having a cleft palate even. While this is correctable, the diagnosis and the new reality they had to prepare for was still devastating.
Every parent knows that feeling of just wanting 10 little fingers and 10 little toes. The anxiety that goes into the formation of your baby is incredible and now Ted and Priscilla were having to face it with this significant and ongoing complication involving multiple surgeries.
They had to spend a lot of time literally on their knees sometimes, in prayer, trying to process what this all meant and why it was happening.
As the time of the delivery grew near, the diagnosis was only confirmed again and again. The hospital had a team of specialists work with Ted and Priscilla on final preparations on feeding and care and just what to expect.
Thankfully, God met them where they were and helped them process to a point where they realized they’d be okay, that God was still in this and that God could bring them through. They knew they’ve been blessed with resources, but those resources pale in the face of worrying about your unborn baby. It was God who brought them a sense of Peace about the whole thing, it could have only been God.
Then on delivery day they had a special team on hand ready to take their new baby for the very first treatments, immediately.
And then Millie was born. Ted had been asked to identify the gender of the baby, as they’d held off finding that out. And he looked over and said, it’s a girl. And her lip looks fine.
At first the doctors weren’t even sure what Ted meant. And then they looked for themselves and lo and behold, Millie did not have any kind of cleft lip or cleft palate.
The delivery team happily informed the specialists that their services were not needed. And no one could explain it. The diagnosis had been confirmed, the pictures repeatedly showed the defect. The lead specialist said he stands by his diagnosis and doesn’t have a good explanation for how this happened.
Medical providers witness miracles that have a hard time using that language professionally. And Ted and Priscilla needed some time to process what just happened. They’d witnessed a literal miracle and living with that is interesting.
We here at Citylights feel blessed to simply have been able to witness it from a distance and are forever blessed for having them in our church and sharing in their joys raising Millie and now a younger sister, Nora.
It’s a vital reminder that God can do whatever He wants whenever He wants. It is good living with that in mind.