23 Aug Thank you Lord!

Hello, I am M. Satya Swaroop Roy and my wife is Asha Roy. We were married in 2017 and we serve as a graduate family in the Agricultural University Zone, Hyderabad, Telangana. God has gifted us baby Dhanya Roy on July 1st 2019 and through her God took us through some tough situations, and showed His abundant mercy and helped us, which I would like to share with you all.

In October 2018, we were overjoyed to know we were going to be parents for the first time. While Asha had her regular checkups at a gynecologist in Hyderabad, in the end of her first trimester she was hospitalized because of high temperature for a day. As we continued our regular visits to the doctor, scan reports were all good.

During the seventh and eighth months, the reports showed that the baby’s brain had developed extra fluid and her growth was hampered. Asha was healthy, the amniotic fluid was sufficient, and they said there were 90% chances the baby would be healthy and may be 10%, not. The doctors’ team was very careful, doing scans twice a week until the delivery.

During that time, God has been reminding us of His promises in Joshua 1:9, 3:5 . Upon this promise, we were encouraged not to fear, but to look forward to the miracle He was going to do. In anticipation to always be thankful to the Lord, we decided to name her as Dhanya (Dhanyavaad), if it was a baby girl. When we went for the regular checkup on July 1st , the doctors said the baby was critical and they conducted an emergency C-section, and Dhanya was born. We were thankful to the Lord for giving the doctors timely wisdom.

But as the doctors predicted, she had extra fluids in the brain, infection in the lungs, P.O.A and V.S D holes in the heart, feeding problems, and she was underweight (1.84 kgs).She was admitted in an I.C.U. for 28 days. During these days, we saw the fulfillment of God’s promise (Joshua 3:5), His mighty hand was with us physically, financially and mentally. While we had to pay an amount of Rs. 50,000 at the hospital for the 2-3 days stay and we had no money. God in an amazing way had provided it by the end of 3rd day through one of His servants. When we had to pay the final bill, we were supposed to pay Rs 1 lakh, but we were surprised to see the account department ask us how much we can pay. We had only Rs. 40,000 and that they accepted that as final, and discharged us. As she was born with many problems, Dhanya’s blood samples were sent for chromosomal tests. Bringing her back home with weight 1.54 kgs, it was a challenge for us to take care of her. Every 15 days she used to turn blue and had problems in breathing, so we had to hospitalize her for 2-3 days. The doctors told us that there was no hope of her survival if the chromosomal test turns out positive. This had made us tremble, but we kept praying and waiting for the results for 45days.

But , finally the test had turned out positive, and we were told that she was born with Trisomy 18 and chromosomal abnormality and it is not because of the parents, but one out of 5000 babies one are born with this issue, that they will be usually aborted during 6 -12 weeks of the pregnancy, and even if they are born, they can live only for 5-10 days. We were told that even if we spent all our money, she would not live for many days. Giving her supportive care was all that could be done.

But we still continued to hope, and consulted different pediatricians. Some doctors called her a miracle baby. Alongside us many who knew about Dhanya’s health condition prayed for us, and God gave us courage and peace in this situation . We had never imagined that prayer could make weak people like us this strong!

By the Grace of God and with everyone’s prayers, Dhanya was now 5 months old. One day, on November 28th 2019, she had high temperature and breathing problem. Hospitalized again as per the routine, and after her condition stabilized she was discharged. As we were taking her back home, her lung infection relapsed and the fever returned. While she was just 2 kgs and there was pressure on her heart, she was being supported with High flow oxygen. The doctor told us of the possibility of heart failure. We couldn’t digest the news, and we continued to pray for her healing. While we were praying on the night of December 5th, 2019, a Christian doctor from the hospital called us and said “It is a wonder that Dhanya is still alive till now, may be God prolonged her days for you. But the pain she is going through is more than a woman experiences during labor. She is struggling so hard to breathe as if she is at the gym working out all day, so go and take the baby and spend these last few hours with her”. We rushed to the I.C.U. and took her into our arms and we couldn’t bear to see the pain she was going through.

Till then we had prayed for her healing, but now we
changed it – “Lord, it is enough, we can’t see her suffer anymore. Let your will be done!” 5 hours later, on December 6th at 3:55 am, she went to be with the Lord. God had allowed her to stay with us until we asked Him to take her! In these 5 months and 5 days, God has helped us each and every day to get treatment from the best doctors, paying about Rupees 10 lakhs.

Even though Dhanya is not with us anymore, and we don’t have answers to a few questions, we believe our God won’t make any mistakes. Many helped and prayed for Dhanya. With God’s Word, their personal experiences many encouraged us and my heartfelt thanks to everyone. God kept us reminding from His word not to get depressed. We’ve experienced the fruit of prayers and the Word of God. The meaning of the word “Dhanya” (Dhanyavaad) is “Thankful”. Pray that we will always, be thankful to the Lord who has been with us, guided us, loved us and strengthened us.

Roy and Asha, Agricultural University Zone, Hyderabad