by Shirley Jones

My husband and I sat nervously in the waiting room, anticipating our names being called. I had phoned the hospital earlier, in order to get test results for what should have been a routine blood test in the fourth month of my pregnancy with our second child. Following an awkward silence, I had been requested to come in that afternoon. I phoned my husband, Roy, and asked him to come and be with me for the appointment. When we were finally called in to see the doc- tor, we were informed that the baby I was carrying had a very high probability of having Down's Syndrome. We were offered a test which would confirm this but we declined it, preferring to wait until her birth.

About three weeks later when visiting Roy's brother for a holiday at the YWAM base in Kona, Hawaii, God called us to serve with YWAM. Although this was completely unexpected at the time, we can now see looking back how He was preparing us for this call. As our thoughts returned to the recent hospital appointment which was so fresh in our minds, we both had quite different reactions. Roy felt that if God was calling us into missions, then He would not give us a disabled child who might hinder the call. My feelings, as a mother, were that God would include our new baby in whatever plan He had for our missionary lives.

When Amy was born on the last day of 1993, it was immediately obvious that she had Down's Syndrome. What wasn't apparent on that day was that she also had a serious heart defect. God had protected us from this information during the pregnancy – it had not even been detected on a very high resolution scan. At the age of 12 weeks, our daughter, Amy, had heart surgery and it was remarkably effective, thanks to the prayers of so many.

In a family where one of the children is disabled, it's easy for other siblings to get overlooked. During Amy's difficult recovery from her operation, her older sister, Catherine, stayed with her grandparents. As Catherine was only two years old at the time, she didn’t always understand what was going on. Nevertheless, Amy is very much loved by her older sister. Although Catherine has had to pay a high price for Amy's handicap and has sometimes been (understandably) embarrassed by her sister, she's always shown tremendous reserves of patience and love toward her younger sister.

During the days following Amy’s birth, God spoke to me from Isaiah 45: “Does the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you making?’ Does your work say, ‘He has no hands?’ Woe to him who says to his father, ‘What have you begotten?’ Or to his mother, ‘What have you brought to birth?’“ (Is. 45: 9b-10) Verses six and seven of Isaiah 45 reminded me that He is the Lord and there is no other. He forms light and creates darkness. He makes peace and creates calamity. He, the Lord, does all these things.

Fifteen months later, following this challenging period in all of our lives, we attended our Crossroads Discipleship Training School (CDTS) in the U.S. Prior to leaving for the CDTS, Amy had often been weak and unwell, but during the school we didn't have to go near a doctor for the entire twelve weeks of lecture phase!

Just after Amy's third birthday, we moved to Switzerland. She had periods of good health but was also sometimes quite sick, especially in the winter. When she was four, Roy was traveling in Central America and Amy came home from her special school with an infection rapidly developing in her arm, where she'd been scratched by another pupil. While I was in the emergency ward with Amy, God sent “angels” to take care of Catherine, in the form of our friends, Karen and her family, from our sending church in Britain. They were the first of many “angels” who were there when we needed help. As we look back on many similar situations, we see so clearly God’s hand in bringing peo- ple into our lives, from both near and far, in order to give us a helping hand at just the right time.

Following Amy's sixth birthday, our family went to Norway for a twelve-week YWAM Leadership Training School (LTS). Upon our return to Lausanne, Amy’s teachers were pleasantly surprised to see that Amy had made great strides in her social skills, independence, and overall development while we were in Scandinavia. Once again, Amy needed no medical treatment while we were doing the LTS, even though it was often very cold in Norway.

God created both Roy and me to be “project” people. By this, I mean that He places a proj- ect on our hearts, we create it and see it through to its conclusion, and then, after taking a brief rest, we start the next project. The lifestyle which God has called us to seems to fit well with having a daughter who is still prone to bouts of illness, particularly in the winter. Thus far, Amy’s sicknesses have usually come during our times of less activity. Even if she has needed help when we've been running a camp or a seminar, we’ve always been able to find a way to continue without having to disrupt the activity.

We’ve observed how Amy draws people toward God. Her spirit seems to be very finely tuned – she loves to worship and it's a joy to watch her praising God. She is not only perceptive, but she is also kind, loving, and compassionate. We praise Him for the privilege of being her parents and seeing Him work in all of our lives through her, as well as through the challenges which sometimes come our way due to her limitations.

Shortly after Amy’s birth, we were told that she would not survive beyond her teenage years. Whether this is true or not, her testimony will live on, as will the effect she has had on the many lives she has touched. Luke 2:19 says: “But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.” God spoke to me about observing Amy and her approach to life, so that I could learn from her. In doing so, I have realized that she has enriched each of our lives more than I could have ever imagined possible.