A Christmas Miracle for Couple’s Newborn
DeAnna and Lee Mork were shocked. In 2019, after years of infertility, they were pregnant. “I didn’t believe it at first," DeAnna says. “It was just out of the blue.” Her husband, Lee, was surprised as well. “We were so excited because we had tried for so long and we’d prayed too much.”
It had been eight years since they had their first and only child, Abby, in 2011. Even then, it took 5 years of fertility treatments, and the couple had all but given up on getting pregnant again. DeAnna says, “We were just amazed that it happened, so we knew God had given us this child.”
All the regular checkups and ultrasounds showed the baby was normal and healthy, and revealed the couple would have a son. DeAnna couldn’t wait to meet him. Lee, however, felt something wasn’t right. “I thought, 'God, why I am I worried?' I know God says what I start I am going to finish. I shouldn’t have any worries. But then, it started me praying."
DeAnna’s pregnancy progressed without problems. But at 40 weeks, there were no signs of labor. Doctors said the baby was large, so they decided to induce. On the way to the hospital, Lee decided to share his concerns with DeAnna.
DeAnna remembers, “He said he had just been having feelings that something was going to happen to me. I just kept telling him that everything was going would be fine.”
After Deanna was induced, Lee’s concerns became a reality. After four hours of labor, she still hadn’t progressed. DeAnna will never forget the excruciating pain. “It felt like something tore and I was having unbearable pain. My blood pressure dropped. I was throwing up in the garbage. It was horrible.”
Now, both DeAnna and the baby were in trouble. DeAnna was rushed in for an emergency c-section. DeAnna remembers the agonizing wait for the surgery to begin. “I was so worried about Jack. I was in so much pain. I worried, am I going to make it through this?”
“Everything that I have been afraid of," Lee says, “it was happening right here. I knew Jack was going to be okay, but I was very worried that I was about to lose my wife."
Lee waited outside the operating room and prayed. He called on family and church friends to pray too. “I see people start running down the hall with equipment. I am crying out to God, and I screamed, 'God, please, you promised me. You told me it was going to be ok. You said what you start you will finish.'”
Finally, DeAnna was out of surgery. Her uterus had ruptured, and she had lost a lot of blood, but she was okay. The baby they’d named Jack was not. Deanna learned later about Jack’s critical condition at birth. “When he was born, his heart wasn’t beating. He was unresponsive.” So, doctors decided to transport Jack to the neonatal intensive care unit of a nearby hospital in Birmingham, Alabama.
DeAnna tearfully remembers seeing her son before they transported him. “They rolled him up in this little clear box to the side of my bed. I got to rub the back of his little hand before they took him away.”
Lee wanted to say goodbye to Jack too. “I went into the room. He’s got all the tubes and all this. I said, 'Jack' and he turned and looked at me and grabbed my finger, and I knew he was going to be okay right there.”
At Grandview Medical Center, doctors put Jack on cooling therapy to prevent further brain damage. They gave the couple little hope. Lee remembers their haunting words, “Even if he does live, there is a strong chance that he will have future troubles, he may have brain damage, cerebral palsy, and developmental problems.”
“We didn’t get to hold him for ten days," DeAnna says. "He was hooked up to so many wires. It was overwhelming, overwhelming.”
After two weeks, Baby Jack was breathing on his own, but was largely unresponsive, and wasn’t eating. DeAnna remembers what concerned her the most. “You worry about your child’s future. What kind of life they will be able to live.”
For Lee, it was an intense struggle of faith. “Everybody around me was telling me how serious it really was. It really tests your faith because you hear one thing from God, but I am seeing another thing.”
By now, there was a groundswell of prayer on social media that had gone global. Meanwhile, doctors performed a second EEG and MRI. The results were hopeful, as they showed no brain damage. Still, Jack wasn’t eating and had problems with his GI tract.
“We asked God to heal him," DeAnna says. “We just kept praying that.” Lee was painfully honest in his prayers. “I’m like, 'God, he is alive, and I know you saved him, but I want him to be whole.'”
Then, a sign of hope. After spending Thanksgiving in the NICU, Lee and DeAnna began to pray for a Christmas homecoming. Jack was improving, but doctors wanted all his medical issues resolved before he was discharged. By Christmas Eve, they’d changed their minds, and sent Jack home!
DeAnna’s eyes glisten when she says, “It was the best Christmas ever… the best Christmas gift that anybody could ever give me.” Deanna and Lee knew that it was still a waiting game. “The doctors still said that he may have a lot of developmental issues, maybe even cerebral palsy.”
Follow-up appointments with Jack’s neurologist revealed a different story. One by one, Jack met every developmental milestone. DeAnna will never forget the words of the neurologist. "He was just amazed. He was like, 'You have a miracle baby. There is no other explanation for this other than he is a miracle.'”
Three years later, DeAnna reports, “You wouldn’t know now that he was basically dead for 23 minutes. He’s so strong, healthy, and happy.” Lee adds, “None of the things happened that they thought could happen. God healed him. He’s not just well, but he is better than well.”
Jack will even tell you who healed him, “Jesus healed me!!”
DeAnna says she is eternally grateful. “If God hadn’t intervened, Jack and I might not be here. I am so thankful for prayer. I am just overwhelmed by God’s goodness.”
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