Trusting God Through Illness

On August 28, 2018 I was blessed to have given birth to a beautiful little boy whom I call Jacob. Looking at his beautiful face I felt the love of God in the most tangible way. I felt God’s mercy and His power of healing. He is a miracle baby! A little baby boy who made it through the end. This is why I get to tell my story, the one God wrote for me.

January of 2018 was when I found out I was pregnant, it was the most amazing feeling. I remember watching  the two lines on the pregnancy test appear and feeling overjoyed.  At that moment I had faith everything would turn out right this time. Sometimes fear and doubt would creep up since I had experienced a loss at 7 weeks on  April of 2014, but I decided to keep my mind positive. Since I have been suffering with lupus for about 12 years it was difficult, but  I was hopeful that all would be okay.

On April 2018 I was about 4-5 months pregnant and was quickly admitted to the hospital. My kidneys were slowly losing function and were swelling. The doctors quickly began to run many tests and ultrasounds trying to figure out why my kidneys were losing function. I began to think the worst and day after day it was a spiritual battle, an emotional battle, and a physical one as well. The pain became so unbearable I would cry out to God for mercy, some days I would pray and pray and worship and some days I was down crying asking God why?

Doctors would huddle beside my bed going back and forth discussing what they thought it could be and because I was pregnant they didn’t want to perform a kidney biopsy and other tests. So, day after day it was more blood tests and watching the kidney function numbers rise which meant I was only getting worse, to a point they decided to do the one thing that was left and didn’t think would help, but was the only option. By this time I had already been in the hospital for about 3 weeks going on a month. They decided to put tubes through my urethra, into my bladder, through my ureters and then into my kidneys which allowed my kidneys to drain in hopes that the swelling would go down.

Eventually after my procedure the numbers were dropping and quickly! I was showing progress. I was so overwhelmed with gratitude towards God! He has never failed me although that month in the hospital had been so difficult. Feeling alone and abandoned at times I always knew that God is good and that he would show his faithfulness and he did! Just like he did when I was sick with a lupus flare up at age 19 and the doctors wanted to put me on chemotherapy. They claimed I may never have children. Even in 2010 when I flared up again and my kidneys began to fail. I never ended up in dialysis and I always thank God for that. He has always been there and through the times when I may have felt lonely, or in great pain, or in fear he has always been there. He has held me,  healed me, and molded me into a stronger woman.

So, when I looked into Jacobs beautiful face I felt God’s love. I saw His promise. He wrote my story and He was and will always be glorified. Just keep trusting, keep hoping.

He listens.

-Yvette Saldaña

*If you would like to hear the full testimony in a video. Click below :)*