AMAZING STORY
Duck Dynasty's Family Miracle
By Sarah Kelly
The 700 Club
CBN.com -Duck Dynasty’s Jase and Missy Robertson are familiar faces to millions. He’s the sarcastic son of Phil and Kay Robertson, and helps run the famous family business. Jase and Missy married straight out of high school, and the early years were filled with joy. First they welcomed their son, Reed, into the family, and later, Cole. A few years later they decided to have another baby. And that’s when the challenges started.
Missy explains the first difficulty they faced. “It took us almost a year to get pregnant. Then about 8-9 weeks along, I found out this baby was growing inside my tube and had not traveled all the way down. And there’s no way for this baby to live. They would have to go in and take it out.”
She soon healed and three months later, was pregnant again. But due to an oversight, there were serious complications. “I did not receive RhoGAM after my miscarriage. And I am a negative (blood type). Any woman with negative blood has to have a RhoGAM shot to equalize their blood for future pregnancies.”
Doctors told Jase and Missy that there was only a one percent chance their baby would live. Missy knew, “my body was going to push this baby out. I was told, ‘the goal is to get this baby to 26 weeks before we have to take this baby from your body.’ And that was not something I wanted to hear after having a miscarriage.”
Jase says they put their family in God’s hands. “We just weren’t praying for everything to be ok. I was like, ‘look, no matter what happens, we’re going to trust You.’ It’s kind of a scary place to be.”
Then - some good news. The further we got along in the pregnancy; we realized this baby is acting normally. And the specialist said, ‘there is no other explanation than to know that this baby must have negative blood.’”
The couple thanked God for their miracle and with excitement, prepared for the birth of their daughter, Mia. Missy says, “At 31 weeks we went in for the fun 4-D ultrasound to see the baby’s face and noticed that something was a little off about her facial features.”
The ‘fun’ ultrasound soon turned somber. Doctor’s analyzed the video and gave the Robertsons bad news. Missy continues, “’For one thing we noticed from looking that it’s a cleft lip and possibly a cleft palate but there’s no way to know that until the baby’s born.’”
Jase and Missy were shocked. They knew nothing of the condition and were unsure of Mia’s future. Jase remembers, “The day she was born - I mean, it really was just kind of chilling. When I saw her, in my mind I thought, ‘okay, this is severe.’ Then all of a sudden she was kind of struggling to breathe, and just panic ensued.”
Doctor’s made Jase leave the room. As he walked out, he again called on God in prayer. “’Please let her live. We’ve gone through all this.’ I was thinking, ‘Give her to us and we will do our best.’”
Mia was a fighter, and after doctors discovered fluid on her lungs, she left the NICU (neo-natal intensive care unit) within the week. Thrilled to have her home, Jase and Missy realized the struggle was far from over. Without a palate, Mia could not feed properly.
Jase tells about being home with the new baby. “The first two weeks I don’t think we slept over an hour at a time. Because she was always choking.”
When she was 17 days old, they took Mia to a specialist in Dallas. Missy shares, “They created what we call like a fake palate. It’s like the roof of their mouth until they’re old enough and can handle that palatal surgery.”
The procedure shook Jase. “However, that sounds great, that was the worst day of my life. I was real emotional when she was born, and now we haven’t had any rest. We walk in there and this doctor shoves this plaster in her mouth; way too much and way too forceful. And I’m like… she’s not breathing. And then it didn’t come out right, so then he’s like, ‘we got to do this again.’”
Missy remembers the scene. “That’s when my big rock left the room.”
Jase had to leave. “I was this close to hitting that guy right between the eyes. And so I went to the parking lot and I mean, I bawled like a baby. I was like, ‘this is going to be difficult; just to have to watch this.’”
To this day, that difficulty has not stopped. Jase says, “This is a process that exists as long as she grows.”
Missy describes some of the issues they’ve faced. “It’s not like we’ve always had everything together. We’re like, you know, the perfect family who knew this was coming and could deal with all the ups and downs without flaws, that’s not true at all. I mean, we struggled with this. And there’s at least 9-12 months a different process starts. You’ve got to give me a week. Once that process, I have a week and try to deal with it, grieving. Trying to figure out, you know because it’s a change of lifestyle for her. She can’t be active and play like other children because she’s wearing devices.”
Jase interjects, “And you cry a lot.”
Missy agrees, “I do. But I also have strong women around me that I can, send a Facebook message or get on a group text and say, ‘please pray for this right now.’”
Even when her parents have struggled, Mia has rarely complained.
Missy describes Mia’s delightful disposition. “She loves life. She is not shy. She makes friends instantly. And it’s easy to look back now and say, ‘Oh now we see why God did this.’”
Jase sums it up, “God’s using us to help other kids and other families, because now we’re the wily veterans. We have this knowledge. That’s why we started our foundation. We are like, ‘We need to talk to these people and try to help them.’ She teaches us about truly it is the spiritual nature of us that is the most important. She’s so friendly and people gravitate towards her because all of the suffering she’s gone through has created this perseverance and there’s character and then there’s hope. Well, you know who doesn’t want hope?”
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