WRITTEN: October 18th 2011

It was December of 99′  and I was standing in the walk-way of Denny’s restaurant while my Husband was paying our bill.
An elderly lady walked up to me and asked if she could touch my stomach. A complete stranger laying hands on my belly would normally freak me out, but there was an odd comfort with this woman. I can’t even explain it. As her hands connected with my 7month pregnant belly there was a warm feeling that came over my entire body. The kind of feeling you get while walking into your Grandma’s house on a Sunday afternoon and smelling her homemade chocolate chip cookies all through the house. She smiled at me and said:
“With your Son God intends to heal your husband from his past childhood where physical abuse had taken place. But with this child you will find peace, and when you have his biological Son The Father will heal your husband from the emotional abuse he suffered.”
She blessed me, and walked out the front door and just like that, gone.
My Son Charlie was 3months old when Angel and I met, he’s the only father Charlie has ever known. A lot of people (including friends) never even realized Angel wasn’t Charlies biological Son!
They are so much alike…For the first year of our marriage Angel was so nervous getting to know Charlie and actually falling into place as his Dad…However when I became pregnant for a third time it was Angel who said “I KNOW this is a girl.” She was. A beautiful precious little girl who looked EXACTLY like her Daddy 🙂
Everything was perfect. We had our two girls, and our “little man.” It was 3months after having Hanja I began to have dizzy spells and losing my breath. Going in for a routine gull bladder removal they found a problem with my heart.
As a child I was born with congenital heart disease and at 14 had a valve correction done. I was completely fine my whole life until now…The doctor’s strongly suggested getting my tubes tied because getting pregnant would potentially kill me.
I couldn’t help but remember the l’il old lady at Denny’s nearly two years before. I refused to have my tubes tied. I just KNEW God had another plan. The Doctor was so annoyed he refused to do my heart surgery to the point he called me “selfish” for wanting another child.
However, it wasn’t about wanting another child…
It was about a Prophesy.
As I went under during my gall bladder surgery I had a vision. It was Christmas time. Angel was playing with Hanja as Charlie and Serenity decorated the tree. There was a baby carriage with a blue blanket draped over it by the couch where I was sitting. I knew it was a boy and I knew it was mine and Angel’s biological son.
Being raised in a non religious home his whole life Angel’s relationship with Jesus was all new as he still was figuring out a few things, one of which was knowing when you hear God’s voice.
The cardiologist we found in Cleveland wanted to do my valve replacement as soon as possible. He said time was NOT on our side. I was one breath away from a heart attack possibly death. My heart valve was taking all the blood from my heart that was supposed to go through my body and pumping it back into my heart, leaving it enlarged and my body with NO oxygen getting to it.
They insisted on a mechanical heart valve but with that…No more children.
Again, I REFUSED.
My husband was so hurt. He kept asking over and over “Cheryl…don’t you want to grow old with me?”
I kept telling him about my vision of the baby boy and the Prophesy from the little old lady but he didn’t care. He didn’t comprehend all of the gifts of the spirit or what they meant. All he knew was to think LOGICALLY when all I could do was think SPIRITUALLY.
I was asleep one night waking up startled and literally hearing the name “Ezra.” I had NO CLUE whose voice, where it came from, why I was dreaming about it…I began reading the book of Ezra and how he was a Prophet of God to inspire a King of Persia to commission a leader from the Jewish community to carry out a mission, the rebuilding of the Temple, purifying the Jewish community, and sealing the holy city itself behind a wall. I could not get what the lady at Denny’s said. That Angel’s biological son was going to be a healing from his past emotional abuse in his childhood.
The rebuilding of my husbands trust in a Holy Father, purifying his trust as Angel’s Heavenly Father and sealing that confidence within the walls of Angel’s broken spirit. Ezra wasn’t just Prophesied about, he was a VISION given to me. I KNEW it was God whispering to me in the night…Ezra’s name.
I kept everything to myself. Instead of fighting with my husband on weather or not to get a mechanical heart valve or a cadaver valve that may or may not last, I prayed. Wept before God begging HIM to reveal HIS plan, HIS will to mine and Angel’s life. I knew the ONLY way that my husband was going to know we were to have another child was if God Himself spoke to Angel directly.
Months passed…
Then late one night, I awoke again only this time it was my husband screaming the name “EZRA!!!” Crying and shaking as if he were a leaf in the wind, he jumped out of bed pacing back and forth…
I just started crying and asked him what happened.
“Cheryl…it was incredible. I was walking through a venue. All of our family and friends were there. People from my past in each room. I was being lead by a huge angelic like being showing me my life from when I was a child to now…We entered the main auditorium and there was a HUGE banner covered by a BLUE BLANKET. I asked what it said and the angel lifted his hand as the blue blanket fell off the name EZRA appeared. Cheryl…We are having another child. A boy, and I truly believe God wants his name to be Ezra.”
We both just sat there crying our eyes out. All I kept saying was “I know, I know…God told me too, months ago!”
I began sharing everything God had been telling me through people, dreams, visions…Angel couldn’t believe it.
The following Monday we went to the cardiologist and explained we were refusing the mechanical valve.
The doctor said “Just so I understand. You are willing to risk another open heart surgery..a third in fact…because of some dream?”
We politely said “yes” but what the Doctor didn’t understand was the fact it was NOT just a dream, this was indeed…”A GOD thing.” 😉
On October 18th 2000 I had my second open heart surgery, aortic valve replacement.” A few months later I became pregnant, and exactly ONE ENTIRE YEAR TO THE VERY DAY on OCTOBER 18th 2001 our precious, beautiful vision was brought to life on a gorgeous fall morning, Our baby Ezra.
You would fall to your knee’s if I told you the story’s of healing God brought to my husbands tortured soul through his son. But those remain private until Angel is ready to share. However, when mere men explain things in a LOGICAL point of view ALWAYS remember, as a Believer, we are to look at the spiritual, putting everything and I mean EVERYTHING even your life in the hands of God the Father. He truly does have a plan and a purpose for your life. It can happen in any given situation, place, time, in an instant or over time but no matter how, why or when He is GOD and He is still on the Throne and only God knows the ENTIRE picture for your life.
So…here we are.
10 years later.
Ezra is still our blessing,
our reminder,
our mission of healing, love, purification…
And 11 years to the day from a valve replacement that was only supposed to last 5-10 years MAYBE…and I’m healthy, alive, and sassy as ever.
GOD IS FAITHFUL.
He is good ALL the time and ALL the time God IS good.

EZRA~ “Meaning to HELP or SUPPORT. Judging from the Biblical contexts, this kind of help isn’t a mere assisting but an ESSENTIAL and INDISPENSABLE support, a requisite tied DIRECTLY into SURVIVING or not.”

Selah and Selah,
CHERyL~