EAN Special: The Wonderful Life of Wake

Apologia Studios

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We're the Taits. Wake is almost nine. We'll be nine in December, December 7th.

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We've had an interesting ride for almost the nine years with Wake. We found out that I was pregnant and were shocked just at that news because I wasn't supposed to get pregnant.

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So that news in itself was quite the shock and we kind of both laughed like, what?

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This isn't real. And we were in a time in our lives where our relationship with God was really rocky, both coming from different backgrounds.

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I was from Catholicism and Kyle in the Southern Baptist and him being in the Marine Corps, we just had a really hard time.

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And when I found out I was pregnant, we didn't assume the worst or anything like that.

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You know, we just kind of went with the flow and at the 20 week ultrasound, we were going to find out the gender and, you know, it was supposed to be an exciting time.

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And during that time, the ultrasound tech was really quiet and it was kind of unnerving in a sense.

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Like we really didn't know like what to expect. And she left the room and came back with the doctor and she informed us that his arms and legs weren't working or developing like they were supposed to.

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They weren't flicking around and kicking and all that stuff. So they referred us to maternal fetal medicine the very next day.

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And so we went and met with the doctor, had really fancy high tech ultrasounds, you know, to show us everything and everything was working the way that it was supposed to be.

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You know, organs, his brain, blood flow, all of those things look really great. It was just his arms and legs that weren't doing what they were supposed to do.

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And her first recommendation to us was, well, his quality of life is going to be awful and your quality of life is going to be awful.

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So you're two weeks away from having a legal abortion in the state of North Carolina.

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And so you should, you really need to consider that because you're walking into a path that's going to be really hard for you to live and for your child to live.

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And at that time, we were by ourselves. We had no family around us. And so it was just the two of us.

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And it was a hard, it was a hard thing to hear from someone. Is that being your first option?

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Just, you know, it's going to be a hard life. So you need to murder your child. And, you know, we both knew that that was not a path that we wanted to pursue.

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Neither one of us believed that abortion was going to solve anything. We knew that that was that was just a subject we needed to steer clear from.

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And she pushed it. And it was a very grim conversation of like, if you don't go through with this, like almost shame on you if you don't consider killing him.

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And we struggled with that, thinking, like, how could she possibly see all the other good things that are going on?

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You know, everything's developing like it's supposed to. His heartbeat is strong and all of his organs look great. And who's to say that his quality of life isn't going to be good just because his arms and legs don't work like ours do?

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And so that was that was difficult, but it really helped us work in our trust in the

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Lord, because all that we could do was pray. Yeah, like she said, our relationship was very rocky during that time.

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And I remember still to this day when the the nurse gave us the ultrasound and we're looking at the picture, this little, you know, three by three inch square frame, and we're seeing his picture right there in front of us.

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We both broke down in tears very quickly. I remember both of us kind of mumbling under our breath, we're going to give him the chance to live and praise

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God that he even had grace on us, you know, you know, with us making that decision to be able to to be able to to to give him life, to be able to actually deliver him and stuff was completely all based on the to the glory of God and his graciousness that he had displayed on Wake and us.

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But but yeah, I remember we broke down that day and stuff. And but that was just the that was like the instinct thing when it came to the doctors, when it came to the nurses.

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It was look at all the negativity, look at everything that you're going to have to do. But don't look at this child as an image bearer of God.

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And so, yeah, everything at that moment, I remember that even got us back into church because we're sitting here saying now we have to be a praying couple.

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We have to be a couple that goes to God because she has a child now. We can't do anything to fix this child on our own.

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And we had always done that in the Marine Corps, try to solve our own issues. And here's one of those issues that you can't even lay your hands on this child to help them.

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And so God completely steered us in the right direction and helped us. And and that's ultimately what got us in the fight to end abortion.

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When we first went in, it was a 50 50 percent chance that he wouldn't live. And then there was a heavy percent, 100 percent chance they had gave us a 90 to 100 percent chance that when he was born, he would not be able to breathe on his own.

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He would immediately be rushed into surgery just trying to help him to survive, whatever that looked like.

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And all praise goes to God. When he was born, they immediately took him over and checked on him quickly and then gave him to me and said, listen, he has arthrogryposis, you know, his limbs don't function like yours, but everything else checks out fine.

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And so they gave us a time frame between there to about the age of 10 is whenever he would start actually being able to feed himself and any type of being able to maneuver around the household would actually start to happen.

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Well, he started feeding himself at the age of two, and he also started scooting around the house around the age of two to three, just all on his own.

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Wake's been so blessed and we've been so blessed to be able to see how he's he's adopted the things and how

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God has used him. And so and now we tell him we tell him quite often only about he'll he'll have some bad days and we'll remind him all the children that don't have the chance to live.

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They were never given that opportunity, you know, and what abortion looks like. And it's it's it's murder.

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I mean, it's the you know, it's premeditated murder and that he has that opportunity.

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And it needs to be one that is used to glorify God and that he can do everything that we're able to do.

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It's limited. But at the same time, yeah, he's a blessing. One thing we do try to remind him of conversations that we have all the time is that this life is so fast.

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And I feel like I just had him not that long ago and he's almost nine. And so one thing that I try to encourage him on and Kyle as well is you see other kids doing all these things, getting to jump on the trampolines or, you know, run races with their parents or, you know, play on the playgrounds and things like that.

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And it looks different for him and it can bum him out. I mean, little kids want to do those things.

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They want to go explore and have fun and use their imaginations and whatnot with that. But one thing that we try to instill is him is this this life goes so fast and you have this limited time to have this condition.

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But through this condition, God is going to be glorified. And you don't know the blessing that you'll be to other people that may be struggling with, you know, something similar or something that has nothing to do with the same condition that he has.

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But you have eternity with God, the father who made you this way for whatever reason that he has a loving reason at that to run with him forever and to worship with him.

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And that's a beautiful thing. And I remember Kyle and I wrestling with the fact that we were trying to find a way, some solution to get him to be able to walk.

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And it was like we knew that with his condition, certain muscles weren't developed in his body.

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He doesn't have quadricep muscles in his legs, so he won't ever stand unless there's some muscle transplant.

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I mean, we explored all of those things. And it was finally then we were like, we went to Texas and got to see a doctor.

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They are really great doctor in this field. And he was just like, it's not going to happen. And I remember battling with that, thinking like,

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I want the best for my child. But then it was like I was trying to outsmart God in a way like I knew better, like I knew how to how to get something to work for my child when

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God's design for him wasn't what I had in mind. And just learning to trust and to accept that, like it was a hard road, but there's so much beauty in it now and I wouldn't have it any other way.

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It was through End Abortion Now and the Apologia team that actually pushed us to Scott Hoard Ministry for us to be able to join him on the streets in Nashville.

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So I started that two years ago with Scott and and we were you're getting in the routine of doing things and wake seeing us and he's hearing the conversations.

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But once we started to tell Wake that they the doctors, the nurses had the same plan for him, that some of these kids are being brought into these abortion mills and the same plan that they have for their child.

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It started to kind of spark a fire in him. And so we take him out. I would like to say quite regularly he's been out with us many times on the street and stuff.

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Even when the first times we started, it was just Brittany and I on the street. Scott wasn't there that day and we just stood as a family of three.

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And so he knows his main thing. He doesn't like to say a lot, but his heart's there when it comes to prayer.

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And it's one of those things that he is so comfortable that we're able to we're able to point to him when it comes to these moms and these dads and say, look at this blessing and look at this option that they were giving to these other parents and stuff that you guys are giving to parents.

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But it's not an option that this is an image bearer. And so he's been faithful in it. And we talk very regularly about it.

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And and that's one of the biggest things that I think that he'll admit to you that drives him to this day is we talk so often about the 60 to 70 million children that have been aborted and what the chances that they did not have, that they you know, they're not able to even drive a wheelchair, scoot on the floor, play an

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Xbox at times. And he actually gets that opportunity. And and he told me the other day that that was something that actually helped him push through school, was getting through maybe getting made fun of, but knowing that, hey, at least

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I had the chance to get made fun of. At least I had the chance to be able to overcome and endure through this because I was given life.

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So it's had a huge impact on our entire family and getting engaged in this fight. I can't imagine my life without Wake now, even with a disability.

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And yeah, your life, it looks different. And yeah, you may have more things on your on your checklist now to do each day.

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But God's been with us through the whole thing. And we've had so many prayers from people that we know, people that we don't know.

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And just just cling to his word because he gives you every answer that you could possibly need with a child with special needs.

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And murder isn't an option just because someone's different, just because their their body didn't form the way ours did typically.

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But they're still an image bearer and they still have value and they they're still loved by God.

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And so embrace it. If your child has special needs, just embrace it and know that he has a wonderful plan and he'll be there with you.