Joshua's Story

Joshua was born on May 5, 2008. My pregnancy with Joshua was with many prayers. I was put on bed rest at 32 weeks. We prayed that he would make it to 36 weeks, and, praise God, we did. After he was born and we went home from the hospital, we noticed that Joshua was not startled at all by noise. With having six other kids we thought he was used to the noise because babies can hear in the womb. At about one month of age Joshua should have been responding to our voices, but he didn’t. Also, the kids accidentally turned the television on and the sound just blasted very loud, but Joshua didn’t even move or respond to the noise. This happened more than once when he was asleep and awake.

I left Joshua with Grandma Kay one afternoon for about three hours. When I came back to pick him up, she was changing him. I started to call his name, and he never turned toward my voice at all. I told Kay my concerns so she tried clapping her hands behind him, and he never responded. We had tried that many times, and he never even blinked.

I called a friend who is a doctor, and he said that the newborn hearing screenings in the hospital are not 100% guaranteed and to take him in to my pediatrician. The next day I took Joshua to the doctor, and they checked his ears to see if there was any fluid in his ears, and they were clear.

We definitely realized at this point that he could not hear. It was devastating to know that he would not hear the sound of our voices or that he would never be able to listen to worship music. So many things ran through our minds. I just cried and prayed that no matter what, Lord, I will praise you. We didn’t know for sure what was going to happen. The doctors were going to try to see what tests could be done through audiology for his age. We would possibly have to wait until he was older.

We chose not to wait for doctors, and I took him to a prayer group meeting from our church that meets on Thursday nights. They prayed and laid hands on him. After praying for him, Gwen tested his hearing by clapping behind him, and for the first time he blinked. He responded to sound. It was an awesome miracle. God chose to heal him immediately. When we went home, he was like a whole new child. Joshua kept turning his head trying to figure out all the different sounds he could hear. It was hard to get him to fall asleep because any sound would startle him, and he would wake up. In any other case that would be exhausting and frustrating, but for me it was excitement in knowing that Joshua could hear. I praise God and Thank Him for this awesome miracle in allowing Joshua to hear. Our family has been changed forever.