“At the beginning of the year I said, ‘God never shows me anything miraculous. Why doesn’t he bring a miracle into my life?’”
For Irina, trusting God was a relatively new thing. Although she was raised in a Christian family, the loss of her grandmother when Irina was 15 was too much for her faith. By the time she married and had her first child, Irina was virtually an atheist.
Although she had a loving husband, Victor, their family was financially secure, and she had everything else she wanted in life, Irina had no peace. A close Christian friend’s persistent prayers and loving witness, along with a year of intense research on the life of Jesus Christ and the veracity of the Bible, brought Irina into a personal relationship with Jesus about five years ago. Since then, God has rewarded her by bringing almost her entire extended family into the faith, as well.
Yet, early this year she wanted to grow her faith in God. Little did she know what she was praying for.
Medical emergency
The journey began this May, 13 weeks after she became pregnant. She was in an English class at church when, suddenly and inexplicably, the membranes of the amniotic sac broke, releasing much of the amniotic fluid that nurtures and protects babies in the womb until they are born. Without this fluid, fetuses cannot survive. With too little amniotic fluid, the developing baby faces a host of probable disabilities and deformities, and may still not survive.
After rushing to the hospital, a team of the best doctors there told her there was no hope for her child. No baby had ever survived with such little amniotic liquid at such an early point in the pregnancy, they told her.
They insisted that she abort.
“I asked, ‘Is the child alive?’ They said, “Yes, he’s still alive, but not for long.’ I said, ‘Look … I don’t agree with the abortion.’”
The doctors recognized that they could not talk Irina into the abortion, so they gave her papers to sign in which she agreed to legally accept the risks for her child. Then a doctor handed her a pill, which he said would help her to relax.
Monica Boseff, who leads the Blessings church with her husband, Pastor Cristi Boseff, was visiting Irina at the time. When Monica, who has training as a nurse, learned the pill was called Cytotec, she said, “Do not take this pill because it’s going to induce the labor and provoke uterine rupture and severe hemorrhage.”
"I have a mission"
Realizing that the hospital doctors were not going to help her carry the child to term, Irina went with Boseff to a different hospital where a young doctor – only 33 years old – agreed to take her case.
Irina spent the next five months in the hospital, ministered to by members of her church.
“It was a very difficult time during this period in hospital, but I experienced a very beautiful thing, which is the unity of the church,” she said. “I had read a lot about the unity of church in theology … but for the first time in my life I really felt the support of them. I discovered the church in Bulgaria, Albania, Canada and the U.S.– hundreds of people were praying for me and my son….Most of them I never met, and probably I will never meet them. I really felt the power of prayer.”
While Irina stayed in a hospital room with several other women, she began talking to them about the strength she receives from her relationship with Jesus Christ. The women were so attentive that several hours passed, and the interruption of lunch surprised them. They asked her to talk with them again about God.
One of the women, who was being treated for cancer, asked Irina if she could attend church with her after Irina was discharged. Irina urged her not to wait that long.
That Saturday the woman called Monica to ask if she could visit the church the next day. She began attending regularly, and in October she joined six other people at the altar to give her life to Christ.
“[Irina] called me and said, ‘Now I know why I am in the hospital and it’s not for the baby. It’s because I have a mission,” Monica said.
Delivery
On August 10, at only 26 weeks and 4 days, Irina went into labor. Her doctor had arranged for her to deliver at a hospital known for its advanced technology and highly trained medical staff. The hospital had prepared carefully for her special case.
The labor was moving so swiftly that her doctor didn’t have time to send her in an ambulance, so he put her in his own car. On the way, he called the hospital to let them know Irina was coming to give birth. He was shocked when they told him not to bring her, since the premature babies ward was still under repairs and renovation.
Frantically the doctor changed routes to a different hospital, where she safely gave birth to a boy.
The new doctor realized the baby had been living in the womb with very little amniotic fluid. She suddenly became angry with Irina.
“There is no chance for him to survive even 24 hours,” Irina said the woman told her. “You have to forget about this child.” She ticked off a long list of health problems the child would suffer if Irina allowed the newborn to live. She pointed to the boy’s left leg and said that there were no ligaments from his heel to his knee; he would never be able to bend his leg.
“I said, ‘Don’t you believe in miracles?’ She got crazy when she heard about God. The child survived, and after a month this doctor was forced to admit at the end that our baby was the subject of a series of miracles.”
The Albeis named him David Christian, after Israel’s king, in hope that God will say about their son what He said in Scripture about King David: “I have found David son of Jesse, a man after my own heart…” (Acts 13:22)
Defying the odds
The doctor had predicted David would have Down syndrome, and tests initially showed a problem with one of his lungs. Later tests showed he did not have Down syndrome and, although he was in incubation for 5 weeks and unable to breathe on his own, his lungs have been improving.
Then Irina saw David moving his left leg. Thinking she was not seeing properly, she tickled the limb. He jerked it back. Since then, his leg has moved normally, she said.
A few days after Irina delivered her baby, she was shocked to learn the original hospital that rejected her experienced a tragedy: The intensive therapy room for premature babies exploded; 6 out of the 10 babies there died. If she and David had been there, he might have died as well.
“My child was supposed to be there,” she said, her voice expressing disbelief. “So this is another miracle, because God just closed the door there for us.”
In defiance of the doctors’ disbelief, little David continues to grow and become healthier all the time.
“When I talk to people now, I’m not just talking theology from books I read, I’m talking about experience.”
It seems Irina has received her miracle. More than one, actually.
Talk about it
- Have you ever prayed, like Irina, for God to strengthen your faith? If so, how did He answer?
- God often works miracles through doctors and medicine. What are some other ways He chooses to heal?Irina described sensing the love and support of her church family during her crisis, including strangers in other countries. What does this say about the role of the Body of Christ?
- While in the hospital, Irina took the opportunity to share her faith with the women in her room. One of them later accepted Christ.
Published in Where Worlds Meet and Engage Magazine
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