AMAZING STORIES
The Gaines Family: Sweet Baby Grace
By Debbie Harper
The 700 Club
Original Air Date: December 21, 2010
CBN.com
– Dennis and Candace Gaines say there’s something really special about Christmas this year.
"I think this Christmas we really have a new understanding of the meaning of Christmas and God’s awesome power, " Dennis Gaines tells The 700 Club, "because we’ve seen it in a very realistic way."
His wife Candace agrees. " For me it’s just celebrating life, just looking at her and reflecting back at what God has brought us through."
In 2008, we brought you the amazing story of baby Grace, whose heart stopped for three weeks during pregnancy. Doctors saw no hope.
Candace says, “My husband and I had been trying to have a child for about three or four years, and I had experienced previous miscarriages.”
Dennis adds, “This time it was a little different. We decided we were going to take God at His word. We were going to trust Him no matter what.”
"I found out I was pregnant about six weeks or so," Candance recalls, "and about my two-month mark, I started cramping and experiencing spotting, and by the end of the day it had progressively worsened.”
Doctor Daniel Terryberry says, "The ultrasound showed the fetus, but there was no cardiac activity. So I sent her over to the hospital, where they also came up with the same diagnosis of fetal demise.”
Dennis says, “It was at that point, after receiving the bad news, we had to decide if we were going to accept it or not.”
“For some reason this time around, we just weren’t willing to accept what the doctor had said," Candance says. "We really wanted this baby. So we began praying that weekend, and we were very confident that when we went back in Monday morning, we would have good news.”
But they did not hear the report they hoped for. Candace says, “Once again, there was no heart beat.”
Doctor Daniel Terryberry says, “I was convinced that this was a pregnancy that was over, but Candace and her husband felt adamant that this pregnancy was going to continue.”
"We really trusted God and we believed this could happen," Dennis says. "We went and bought baby clothes and started buying swings and that kind of thing. When we’re connected to God and we’re trusting Him, nothing is impossible. We read the Bible constantly. We meditated on Scriptures. I had 3x5 cards I carried around with Scriptures and we just saturated ourselves in our environment.”
The doctor reluctantly agreed to give them more time, but when they went for a third ultrasound. Things had gotten worse.
“Not only was there cardiac activity absent, but the baby had not grown," the doctor says. "It was all consistent with what we know to be a miscarriage.”
Candace says, “Seeing the monitor where the heart could have been beating there was nothing there. This time he actually showed us where a blood clot or sac had begun to form under the fetus.”
Doctor Terryberry says, “I said [that] this faith business is great the first two weeks. Now it’s time to get down to business. They said they weren’t sure. I even told them, I’m sure, and the doctor across the street is sure. We‘re all sure that this pregnancy is going nowhere, but you have to be sure.”
In the face of impossible odds, Dennis and Candace refused to give up.
Dennis explains, “We surrounded ourselves with Godly people who knew how to pray and had faith in God and knew the power of prayer.”
Three weeks passed, and the doctor became very concerned.
“My concerns were, and this happens, when a pregnancy fails and is not doing well, there could be infections, heavy bleeding and other complications from not going after it," the doctor says.
Time had run out and the baby had to be removed. The day the Gaines met with their doctor, Dennis had one last request. He says, "This time we were going to come in and make plans, because now, it was a question of her health. I said, 'I don’t buy that God’s not going to move. I don’t buy it. Let’s check one more time.”
Doctor Terryberry recalls, “So I walk into the room, and there was no apprehension on her face. I was the one who was apprehensive, and we do an ultrasound and there was a heartbeat. It was nothing short of a miracle.”
“There’s a heartbeat. I just for some reason I couldn’t look at the monitor, and I remember looking over at my husband. He just had his hands up praising the Lord and I was just starring at Dr. Terryberry. He was just so excited he’s like, ‘No, look at the monitor. There’s a heartbeat’. I‘ll never forget there was 141 beats per minute and all I could say was just, 'Thank You, Jesus'.”
Dennis says, “All I could do was praise Him and just thank Him for honoring His word.”
The doctor says, “Glee, pure joy, because we had just witnessed a miracle.”
On April 2, 2008, Grace Gaines was born and is a perfectly healthy baby girl. Her father says, "Everyday has been Christmas for the last seven and a half months. For me it represents God’s awesome power that He cares about our situation."
Candace agrees. “It doesn’t do any good to know the Bible if you’re not going to apply it. So for me, it was actually taking everything I had learned, everything I knew about God, and His word, and actually walking it out."
“I’m one speck in the entire existence," says Dennis. "He thought enough about our family and about honoring our faith to give her life where they said there was none. It’s knowing that God cares and seeing what He has done and He’s no respecter of persons. What He did for us, He can do for anyone."
It’s baby’s first Christmas at the Gaines home this year and little Grace is full of smiles.
Dennis says, “She’s always so giggly and happy.”
Dennis and Candace know that they are celebrating Christmas this year because God answers prayer.
“Just having her here and seeing God’s face in her, every time, every morning," Dennis says, "it’s just going to be incredible. This is going to be the best Christmas yet.”
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