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It’s hard to be brief. I have to give a little medical history leading up to the importance of why this pregnancy is ALL GOD…

Praise God! I’m alive and have not one but two beautiful daughters! You see I was born with a heart and lung condition called Tetralogy of Fallot and pulmonary atresia, and back in 1980, the doctors told my mom I wouldn’t live past five. And yet, I did.

Then, when I got to adolescent and young adult age, I was told not to get pregnant because my chances of survival would be slim to none. I had already had four open-heart surgeries and minor catheter procedures. In fact, my condition is still considered not fully repaired.

At the age of 21, I developed a fungal infection in my right lung, but the doctors were scared to perform surgery due to the amount of scar tissue I had from my previous operations. They put me on medication, but that ended up giving me heart failure. It turns out that I lived with this for six months because the doctors were misdiagnosing me. I have two pulmonary stents and a heart that is not shaped or functioning like a “normal” heart. I have also been diagnosed with having pulmonary hypertension. So the doctors’ telling me not to get pregnant was a “wise” decision for them.

I ended up having to have emergency surgery to remove the fungal ball I had in my lungs. I was coughing up large amounts of blood, so they had to remove a portion of my right lung. So, by the age of 23, I had two bad lungs and a bad heart.

Now, here’s when the story gets good…

LOL! Since I knew the doctors were leery about me getting pregnant, I was trying be as safe as possible. But, one time, after being on birth control for only six days, I became very ill and was rushed to the hospital. I was told I had a pulmonary embolism and was lucky to be alive. So, we stopped using birth control and just believed God that what was supposed to be would be.

My husband and I had become members of Victory, but then moved to McDonough, GA and weren’t able to attend Victory for nine months. However, right before moving back, a “random” customer and I began talking. I don’t remember what made her ask whether or not I had children, but I said, “No, the doctors say I shouldn’t get pregnant.” Then she asked me, “Do you believe in prophecy?” When I said, “Yeah,” she started praying for me and telling me what the doctors were going to say but to remember what the Lord says.

A month later, we moved back and closer to Victory because we knew God had called us “for such a time as this.” Now, my heart’s desire was always to have a child from my womb. I would always pray to God, asking if I could get pregnant at least “one” time from my womb, and thinking of possibly adopting if we wanted more children…but to get pregnant at least “one” time. One day I was in my room conversing with God, saying, “Well, I want to have a child before 30, and if I can’t from me, we’ll just adopt first.” A week later, I found out I was pregnant (mind you, we’d been married for a year and a half and on no “birth control”).

At my first appointment, we found out we were having twins – pregnant “one” time but with “two”! Although I’m living in Atlanta now, I’m from Chicago. So I called my cardiologist back there, and he said I needed to get to a university or major hospital that could handle my condition ASAP. I got connected with Emory. Working with my cardiologist and pulmonologist at Emory began very challenging because initially they wanted me to terminate the pregnancy for fear of me dying, but they said they would work with me if I kept the pregnancy.

Early on in my pregnancy I was advised to go on medication for the pulmonary hypertension to help take some stress off my heart and lungs during the pregnancy. This would require minor surgery to place a catheter directly into my bloodstream. After the procedure, while they were getting ready to take me to recovery, I saw a vision. It was like a stadium packed out with people praying for me. Now, right before seeing that vision, the team asked me how I was doing, and I said fine, and since my vitals looked good, they were happy. After the vision, however, I started to feel like I was fading to black. When they asked me how I was doing, I said I felt like I was going out with a different tone. Someone there – I can’t remember if it was a doctor, nurse or who – said, “No, honey, your vitals look good; everything on the monitors look good.” Immediately, in my spirit, I felt it was an attack.

I would like to call that worker (doc/nurse/person/etc.) my angel. She grabbed me by the head and whispered in my ear, “Stop worrying; God’s got you. Stop worrying; you shall live and not die.” With eyes closed the whole time, I began to cry. I felt my prayer language coming on strong, and I said, “I don’t know if ya’ll believe in tongues, but I’m about to start praying in my prayer language.” As I started praying, I was getting a little worked up there on the table ,so they said don’t stop praising Him but calm down for your babies. By now, I could feel 4 people around me – the one lady on my left, someone on my right, someone at my head and someone at my feet. They kept encouraging me to praise God, and I was thanking Him for the people praying for me, asking him to cover the doctors, nurses, etc.

After the prayer session was over and they were wheeling me to recovery, I heard the one lady say, “You got me needing to go into the bathroom now.” She said it in a way that sounded like she just had to continue praising Him.

When in recovery, a couple of the team members came out and asked me if I was okay and said that they would be praying for me. By then, my eyes were open, and I could put a face to the voices I heard (that’s how I know I wasn’t dreaming), except that one initial lady, “my angel.” Later that day, Courtney told me that Montell [our friend] had posted on his Facebook for people to start praying for me. I went back to the vision. I believed God showed me that before the attack to let me know people were praying and that Satan’s weapons will not prosper.

While pregnant, Emory Hospital created this thing called “code Kelly” so that if I ever came into the emergency room or went into preterm labor, everyone would know who I was. People there began to call me an Emory celebrity because of all they were doing for me, especially behind the scenes. Not quite the way I wanted to become famous, but hey, to God be the glory.

A huge team from Emory University and Midtown was debriefed on me, and they decided to have me deliver at Emory’s main campus…which doesn’t have labor and delivery. I was the first “planned” delivery at Emory main campus in over twenty years. WOW! GO JESUS! At a little over 25 weeks, I delivered my babies at 1 lb 3oz and 1 lb 2oz, and now, one is at almost 10lb and the other almost 9lb!

I would like to mention one key thing: when I use to pray to God about wanting to be pregnant, I would often tell Him, “Whatever it takes, Lord, whatever it takes for me and the babies to live, I’ll do it; if it’s bed rest, etc…” Huh! When I was in the midst of it, I had to be reminded often when I would begin to complain that I was on “bed rest.” Or, when fear would hit, I would often have my friend Kristin pray me through it, and the Lord would remind me of the prophetic words spoken. My body has taking a hittin’, but it was all for the glory of God.

~ Joyia K.

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: Do not be discouraged, for God is with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9

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