Praise God for the Safe delivery of baby Taia Louise (pronounced Taya) Vickers and also for Kerri-Anne's recovery.

Monday we put out a call for prayer support. Judy and I headed for Australia to a very serious problem and we new that there was only one hope, God! Our Daughter in law with a pre existing disease, Lupus, was about to give birth at 29 weeks term, and was in Aplastic anemia at the same time.

Tuesday: 9. Am:
When Judy and I arrived things had got worse and Kerri-annes Doctors were concerned she had Pre-eclampsia (toxic Poisoning) which is dangerous to mum and child, and that she already had pre existing Lupus & aplastic anemia with her blood Platelet_s down around 38 (needs to be around 300).

12.00:
By lunch time the Doctors were talking about Kerri's Kidneys failing and her liver being in severe distress, and that they would probably need to give her a complete Hysterectomy after the birth, but they wanted to keep things going so they could pump in sufficient steroids for the babies lungs to form more, and get her platelet count up so as to stop excessive bleeding, and have the ability to clot..

6pm:
The Doctors said that Kerri's Platelet's had dropped again now down to 27 and that they couldn't operate now as she would bleed to death for certain. They said possibly her spleen was now eating her platelet_s and if they could remove that also she would have a better chance, but they could not attempt to do the surgery as she would die from blood loss. They said nothing is working and they had no hope of success!

It was a very long night and Kerri-Anne was swelling up, retaining fluid and the pre-eclampsia was dangerous now to mother and child, and both Matthew and Kerri-Anne were told by three expert doctors that she would almost certainly not survive this birth.

During the night we sent out another but more urgent prayer request and we all new that this was about to be a show down and God wanted us to be the winners. Prayers were ascending from across Australia, Indonesia, Holland, Amsterdam, the USA, Thailand, Burma, India, England and many other nations. An Indonesian intercessor sent a message from Luke 8:43 where the woman with the issue of Blood had her blood flow stopped by touching Jesus garment and one of my church leaders sent Ezekial 16:6 "And when I passed by you and saw you in difficulty in your blood, I said to you in your blood, Live! Yes, I said to you in your blood, Live!" We prayed yet again and claimed Gods promise over Kerri-Anne and the baby, and determined that Gods word was better to believe than the Doctors report.

Wednesday: 4 am:
Doctors were getting very worried as Kerri's blood pressure was climbing and there was blood in her urine, she had bleeding gums and nose. Her Platelet_s were in a dive and nothing seemed to be working.

6.30 am
Three specialist got together to plan a strategy. It summed up......"Just get the baby out and let_s take it from there!"

9:45am:
Kerri-Anne was being prepared for the surgery. The Doctor came in to have a last and very serious talk with them both, and summed it up with, "I am sorry, but I cannot give you any hope of pulling through this surgery, we have no hope!" They were obviously devastated, but they got a moment together and the next thing we knew, Matthew came out to talk with the family and declared straight out, "O.K. The Doctors have no hope, but our hope is in God! We are going in strong and we will come out stronger!"

One agonizing hour later the Doctor walked in and announced those words every husband and father wants to hear, "Congratulations, you have a beautiful baby girl and mother and daughter are doing well" Nothing else was removed and absolutely no other complications occurred, the birth went as normal as any premature C section birth, no extra blood loss, everything went right!

UPDATE: SATURDAY 7TH MAY 2005
Mother and baby are doing well, though tired. Kerry was moved from I.C.U. yesterday and her platelet levels are holding at 52 (should be around 300). The doctors are waiting to see if the platelets will go up themselves before they will try anything. Her toxicity levels have dropped to about half of what they were before the operation. She still needs prayer for a complete healing.

Taia is doing well and is very alert. The doctors have said that she is the strongest baby in the ward. Although she is breathing by herself, she still needs to remain on the machines to help develop her lungs because she is so premature. She will remain in I.C.U. for 7 weeks until her lungs are fully developed and she has reached the required weight for discharge.

From Matthew & Kerri-Anne Vickers
Hi and Soooo much thanks to EVERYBODY who has been involved in this situation in prayer and thought. I know that this situation was hopeless, and this was absolutely devastating to both myself and of course my wife Kerri. We have always grown up believing in Jesus, but personally, I had not been close with God in a number of years. This has now changed. We know that it was only the grace, forgiveness, love and healing power of Jesus that has saved these two precious lives (Kerri & Taia).

I personally found reassurance in God that I never knew possible through this last week. He has so amazingly changed our circumstances for the better, when everything was crashing around us, and all Doctors were giving us no hope. Absolute devastation in our hearts has now turned into absolute joy. We are so thankful to God and everybody who has committed themselves to prayer and thought for our family, most of whom Kerri and I have never met. It shows the family of God is alive and HUGE.

Kerri and I both want to be a part of this amazing family, and give our thanks to you all, and most of all to God who has shown us his love and (amazing) healing power. We now are insistent on giving our lives to God, as he has so willingly saved us from absolute despair. We once again are so grateful to God, and to all who have joined with us in prayer, and we just cannot thank you all enough. I hope that these pictures will give you all some joy, in knowing that we won, and gave the devil the kick he was well deserving. Thanks to all, especially God,

Matthew (& Kerri & Taia) Vickers