Kimberly Klokus, Clermont, FL

Christian Healthcare Ministries published a testimony regarding our son, River, in the ministry’s December 2013 newsletter. We wanted to write again and give an update on how we’re doing and how God acted on our behalf since that time.

My wife, Kimberly, became pregnant in 2012 with our sixth child. However, we soon received a troubling diagnosis for our unborn son. River was diagnosed with a genetic disease called Trysomy 18. He was born premature on Feb. 27, 2013, but in our eyes he was perfect in every way. We held him for about an hour before he gave up his spirit and we placed him in the arms of our Savior.

Our family leaned heavily on our Lord, on our church and on Christian Healthcare Ministries and our fellow CHM members. We saved every encouraging letter we received. Words can’t express what they meant to us.

As time passed, we continued to grieve the loss of River, but we allowed God to work on our hearts day by day. We agreed to let God plan our family, but it was still hard not being fearful.

Around Thanksgiving 2013, we learned once again that Kimberly was pregnant. We prayed daily for a healthy baby, and once again, we placed a call to Christian Healthcare Ministries to let the staff know we were expecting.

Every doctor visit showed that our baby was healthy and growing. We did our best not to let fear creep in, but we were anxious nevertheless. Kim was scheduled for a C-section on July 28, 2014. After just a few hours, doctors helped deliver our seventh child—a perfectly healthy boy we named Sawyer Rain Klokus.

For the first time in months, our family exhaled. What a relief! In fact, Sawyer’s middle name, Rain, symbolizes our experience both with his brother and Sawyer’s gestation and birth. During River’s short life and in the following months, we were comforted by MercyMe’s song “Jesus Bring the Rain.” We thank God for our short time with River and for our new life with Sawyer, but mostly for drawing our family to Himself through the tough times.

Once again, CHM took the financial burden off our shoulders by sharing over $17,000 in bills for Sawyer’s birth. The ministry’s help enabled us to find our “new normal” with the addition to our family.

Sawyer is nearly nine months old now and is still healthy in every way, for which we thank God.

Sawyer hasn’t replaced River, nor have we forgotten him. Daily we find ourselves drifting back to that one hour we had with him. We imagine what he would be like now. However, we have learned to find more joy in the day-to-day moments of life. A large part of that is due to Christian Healthcare Ministries and CHM members. We are so grateful for your prayer and support.

Editor’s note: To read the original article about the Klokus family in the CHM December 2013 newsletter, visit chministries.org/newsletter. You also can see an interview with the Klokus family on CHM’s testimonial video at chministries.org/videos.