Sophie's Story

By Rhonda Meinel, Sophie's mother

This is the story of a family's trust in God as their rock through a difficult pregnancy. It was a Tenth Press article December 16, 2001.

For who is God besides the LORD? And who is the Rock except our God? It is God who arms me with strength and makes my way perfect —Psalm 18:31-32.

I tend to be negative by nature, so when my husband and I, after a routine ultrasound, were given the news that our unborn baby had a 95% chance of profound retardation or, alternately, living a “vegetative existence,” I wasn’t banking on the other five percent. A sign someone had posted in the office to which we had been ushered hung above the doctor’s head as we were given this news. It said, “God is in the details.” I read it over and over to myself while I watched the doctor’s lips move. I knew this was a big wound and while I waited for the arrival of the pain I sat there numb thinking, “I can’t believe this is really happening.”

We walked outside to our car and the cold night air stung, as did the despair of our situation as we began to realize our lives would be drastically different.

Later that evening Rick Phillips came to see us and to offer comfort. The pain had hit, and so had an overwhelming sense of panic. I wanted out. I was way too weak for this. I was starting to think that if our baby was going to suffer and things were this hopeless, perhaps it wasn’t such a bad idea to “terminate” the pregnancy and that God wouldn’t mind under such circumstances. Sometimes when you want what is wrong so much, you can make it sound right.

Rick knew it was time to crack open the spiritual smelling salts and asked, “What if you really knew you had a sovereign God and you were here for his glory?” Thanks to the privilege of ten-plus years under Dr. Boice’s teaching, I was instantly comforted by thinking about the answer to that question, and thankful to Rick for leading me back to the narrow and far less traveled path than even that of Robert Frost. So God gave us the ability to obey and trust and take that spiritual free-fall from the precipice of human logic and comfort to a landing unknown, where God would work out his divine purposes.

Over the next several weeks and months the news and prognosis continued to get worse. When we faced the facts, they offered no hope. Our hope was in God alone. Never before had I received so much comfort and confidence from reading God’s words. There was such a stark contrast between the news we were getting and the peace we had that I would occasionally wonder, “Is this real, or am I crazy?” The pain was still there, but it was amazing to see how God was keeping his promise of peace and being our refuge and our strength.

God also sustained, blessed, and comforted us in a huge way through our brothers and sisters at Tenth. We know so many of you were praying, some of whom we don’t even know. To all of you we convey our deepest gratitude.

By the time our daughter Sophie was born we were changed in ways that may not have happened otherwise. God had enabled us to walk by faith and not by sight. We have been blessed with a precious child whom I would not have missed for the world and who now stands as a mental memorial that God is our faithful Rock.