Zion: Promised One

Through pain comes the healing. And in healing comes life and life abundant.

I wanted to share (with her permission) a letter that my wife wrote to a traveling minister by the name of David Wagner (fathersheartministries.org) several months after he gave us a prophetic word about our yet-to-be conceived son, Zion.

David,

You came to Destiny Foursquare Church in Rapid City, SD, at the end of May / beginning of June, 2009.

My husband, Shawn, and I have four daughters. You prayed over some of our girls, then got to us and prophesied that we would have sons – “Sons of Thunder.”  At the time, my heart was breaking because we had recently lost a third pregnancy to miscarriage. I didn’t know what to think, because we weren’t sure that we wanted to risk having another pregnancy end in death.

We had a memorial service to honor those three lives and decided to continue on as we had been.

I was planning on attending medical school in the fall of 2010, so as September, 2009 rolled around, Shawn and I had a serious conversation about our family. We decided that if I was not pregnant by my next period, we would put extending our family on indefinite hold. I said I would go to the doctor and start a semi-permanent birth control method.

I was playing softball and severely hurt my shoulder, so I was on pain meds and muscle relaxers. As the time for my period drew near, I stopped the medication in case I was pregnant. My period started, but I took a pregnancy test just in case, before I went back on the meds.

It came back positive. I went out to Shawn, in tears. I was crying because I was excited, but also because I was scared since I was bleeding. We decided to wait a few days to go to the doctor and to not tell anyone. I continued to bleed for those couple of days, then got a blood test and then another one. They were extremely encouraging. The bleeding stopped and the pregnancy progressed.

At about 3 months along, I began heavily bleeding. I wanted to have faith, but I had pleaded so desperately with God during the previous pregnancies and it felt like that faith hadn’t been answered. At that point, I was settling for just trusting God, even though I thought we were losing the baby.

After a couple of days, the bleedings stopped and the pregnancy continued on normally. We had an ultrasound done and everything looked perfect. We found out the sex.

I telephoned my intercessor mother-in-law and asked her if she wanted to know the sex. She replied, “I already know”. I asked her how she did. She said the prophet said you were having a boy.

At about 7 weeks, I was silently reading in a baby book, which said the baby was about the size of a blueberry. At the same time, my little 5-year-old prophetess was playing with her big sister and they were discussing baby names. She said, “I think we should name her blueberry.” My other daughter asked what to name him if it was a boy. “Huckleberry”.

Zion Finn was born on Sunday, June 20, 2010 – Father’s Day.

Blessings,
Deanna & Shawn Shoup

So, if you didn’t know, that’s where my son got his name: Zion, which means “promised one.”

In addition, I wanted to share a portion of an e-mail that I received from my precious eldest daughter, Autumn, in reference to her strong love for her little brother, Zion…

…It’s so true. Zion has brought so much joy, peace, and love into my life. I never knew I could love someone so much. Whenever I have a bad day at school, I know that it will all dissolve when I walk through the door and see his smiling face. I thank God for him everyday of my life. This world would not be the same without him.

When the family was going through the loss of the babies, I honestly thought God forgot about us. But when you guys gave us the news that mom was pregnant with Zion, I felt God hugging me and telling me He was there for me …and He was bringing  joy and happiness back into our lives once again.

When Zion took his first breath my heart skipped a beat (she was in the delivery room with us). It was truly a beautiful moment I will never forget. God was right there in the room to share the most amazing moment in my life. I want to be there every second of his life and of my baby sister’s. I never ever want to see a tear come from their eyes. I want him to be “smiley Zion”.

I love being a big sister to Cynthia, Bella, Kella and Zion. I wouldn’t be anyone else’s big sister. I love being the one they run to for laughs or even a shoulder to cry upon. I love them with every ounce of my heart – even when I get angry at them. They are a gift from God.

There’s not much I can add other than I am incredibly and amazingly blessed with a wonderful family. I can’t imagine anything better in life than the love I get to give and receive from my four girls, Zion, and my beautiful wife, Deanna.