Josiah’s Story

Site created on October 18, 2021

Josiah's story starts long before he was ever conceived. In December of 2018, God told me I would have a daughter named Joy and a son named Josiah. At first, I though that was beautiful knowing that Josiah was one of the best kings in the Bible. The next day, God revealed why He chose that name for my future son. I was in New Zealand at this time as a voluntary staff member with Youth With A Mission. During lectures, we were talking about the importance of the meaning of our names. I felt a strong promoting to look up the meaning of Josiah. When I did, I was brought to tears. Josiah means "Jehovah has healed." In this moment, I knew it was God confirming that he had healed me of the ovarian cancer from when I was 25 and that I would have children. 


I continued to hang onto the promise of my future children as I was single and doing missions, always believing Joy would come first. In April of 2019 I met James. Neither of us had feelings for each other, but we had a strong prompting from the Lord that we were to get married. Neither of us hesitated and moved forward with the plan that we felt from God, and we got married in September of 2019. Right away, our marriage had challenges and we found out how different we were, but I continued to go to God and he always confirmed that I was where he wanted me. I will admit, many times I wanted to divorce James, especially before we had any children, so that we could both go on with our lives without any other complications. I often questioned why God called us together. As time went on, things got worse, but God always called me to stay. In March of 2020, God told me it was time to trust him and to no longer prevent pregnancy - that he was planning on bringing Josiah into existence in July. As scared as I was, I trusted God and went to be with James in England. In July, I became pregnant, just as God said, and I KNEW it was Josiah. 


At 3 months pregnant, I flew back to the US and challenges between James and I only increased, until I felt release from God. From that point on, James and I remained friends as I carried Josiah along. At 20 weeks, we found out he had Hypoplastic Left heart Syndrome. It was heart breaking news, but instantly I hung onto the believe that God would heal him, just as his name stated. I believed so strongly that at one point, the head of Cardiology at Childrens called me to make sure I understand his diagnosis since they all knew me as the mom who believed their child wouldn't need surgery. But God had other plans. On April 16th, Josiah was born and his heart was not healed - I was devastated. It was a long journey working through what I believed I heard from God and what I saw in reality. 


At 4 days old, Josiah had his first open heart surgery. He did so amazing and we were able to go home before his 1 month birthday, which they had never seen before. Things were challenging at home, to say the least, but we were making it through. Despite the feeding challenges, he was a joy and so fun to watch grow each day. On September 2nd, Josiah had his second open heart surgery. This surgery was one we looked forward to because it was a much more stable fix and meant we would get to live "normal" after this. We went home and things were better for a few weeks before they got challenging again. On October 6th, we brought Josiah in because he had became dehydrated from not eating well. By October 11th, Josiah had gone into heart failure. They were able to resuscitate him by putting him on medications and putting in a a breathing tube. It was one of the scariest moments as a parent, but I am grateful he is still with us. 


We don't know where his story will go from here. The doctors are currently unsure as to what caused the heart failure and we still do not know if he will recover or not. What I do know is that his story doesn't end here. No matter what happens, he will live on. Since this has all happened, God has given me a new perspective of death. He's given me insight into just how temporary death on this earth is and it has given me such peace. I am still believing for a miracle for Josiah's life, but am becoming more at peace with the thought of Josiah joining our Heavenly Father. 


Thank you for following Josiah's story and praying for us. We are so grateful for all of you!
With Love, Lisa and Josiah

Newest Update

We Are Going HOME!

Journal entry by Lisa Rosenthal —

It's been awhile since I've updated you all. I apologize for the delay. That is always a good sign because it means I don't have as much time on my hands because I'm busy with Josiah which means he's doing better!

Since our last update, not much has happened besides a few BIG things. I mentioned in the last update we would have to see if he could come off of an IV med. Well, he flew off of it and didn't blink an eye. He has been off of it for a whole week now and looking great. Through all the changes, his echo (ultrasound of the heart) has continued to remain unchanged (still depressed functions) so the doctors have been super cautions with sending us home. Josiah just continues to show them how strong he is. He's excelling their expectations. 

At first, they assumed he would have to go home on IV meds. If not that, they assumed we would be here through Thanksgiving. They assumed he wouldn't be able to eat by mouth (so they put the G-tube in) and now Josiah is off IV meds, we are going home weeks before Thanksgiving and he is eating bigger bottles then he was before this all even happened! So he has literally blown everyone out of the water. 

This morning they did an echo of his heart again and said it looked the same but maybe a tiny bit better, so we will take it! The good news, that means we get to go home, just in time to enjoy the rest of fall and Thanskgiving. This year, we have so much to be thankful for! God is so great and he truly is living up to Josiah's name "Jehovah will support." I am confident that God will continue moving in Josiah's healing. 

Going forward, Josiah is on a lot of medications and will be monitored much closer to see if his heart recovers. In 6 months, they will do a repeat MRI to look at the heart muscle and see how much it healed vs how much scar tissue has formed. The hope is that his heart fully recovers, or enough to make it to the third surgery when he is 2-4 years old. If not, then we will just go from there and let him tell us when he needs a heart.

No matter which path, we are just going to enjoy each day like there is no tomorrow! This experience has been a hard one this last month, but it has made everything sweeter in life and giving a new perspective to my days. I will make these holidays be as if they are our last because we are never promised tomorrow. The time is now to love the people in your life. The time is now to tell those you appreciate them. The time is now to be with family. 

Thank you for all your love and prayers through this journey. God sure has been faithful and answering them. We are beyond excited to continue watching God move in Josiah's life. 

Read More of the journal titled "We Are Going HOME!"
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