In 2016, my husband and I began to desire to start a family. After many attempts at the program of trying, I wasn’t seeing results and with that comes the thought/feeling “I may never get a chance to be a mother or give me husband any children”. But of course, that was based on what I could see physically in the moment and God began to speak to us concerning a child that year. We began to receive multiple prophetic words from different men and women of God and we were assured that God had a plan for our lives and that He will fulfill His promise to us but in His appointed time. When we joined a new ministry in 2017, God was consistently reminding us of what He promised and we were closer to seeing it come to pass. The Apostle commanded my womb to open up. The following year, I began to multiple women in the church get pregnant back to back and for me it was kinda hard for me to be celebrate and be happy for them because I felt like God was testing me but then I felt like He was just bypassing me and blessing everyone else. But during that time, I had to guard my heart, stay in worship and in His word to remind myself that my time would come and that’s when I made a holy resolved between God and I that I will wait on my promise and I chose to rejoice and be happy for the other women who were pregnant before I was. One specific word I got in 2018 during our church anniversary, was that God instructed me fulfill the assignment to preach His word before He fulfilled His promise. That word at that time was conditional and I wasn’t confident of the idea of actually preach for the first time. In August of 2018 my husband and I were asked to tag team in delivering a word at one of our prophetic services and we both obeyed and went forth in preaching and it was absolutely amazing. 3 days after that assignment I went back to visit my OB for a follow up appointment and I had been visiting this OB for a few months that year to get tests in figuring out what could be going on in my body. My doctor was going to perform a procedure to see if my tubes where closed which was going to cost a lot of money to do and she was considering to put me on a pill that could help me conceive a child but God didn’t want that for me. When I got to my appointment just three days after preaching, I had to take a pregnancy test and the nurse who was doing the test gasped in amazement with tears in her eyes and said “it’s positive” and I couldn’t believe the words that I heard. God literally surprised me I had no idea that I was preaching and 6 weeks pregnant all at the same time. God did what He promised but when I obeyed His last instruction I partnered with Him and that’s when He blessed me with my hearts desire. In December of that year, we had our gender reveal with our family and friends surrounding to find out if we would be having a son or daughter. My desire was to have a girl first, and when it was time for the big reveal, I cried tears of joy as I saw the pink smoke coming out and the pink balloons coming out of the box. My heart was so overjoyed because I was literally walking into a full manifestation of the promise of God. In January of 2019, things in the pregnancy began to take a turn concerning my health. I wasn’t have to see my OB for about a whole month due to my insurance having to be changed and I had to get a brand new doctor to monitor the remainder of the pregnancy. The following month I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and I had no idea how this was going to affect me and my baby girl. After that diagnosis, my body began show signs that something else beyond the diabetes was going on. I experienced chronic headaches, extreme fatigue and more. We had a evening serving February 25,2019 and we had guest church come and my husband and I received prophetic ministry and one of the things that was shared with me was God was getting ready to teach us how to endure hardship. That night, I got up to use the bathroom and get something to drink, and I felt a demonic presence and I heard “I’m coming for you and your daughter”. I was we so fatigued in my body I couldn’t respond to what was said. The next day, I laid in bed mostly all day long and any time I got up I felt like I was about to pass out not knowing that my blood sugar levels had skyrocketed. I began to notice as well that my babygirl wasn’t moving as much like she was at first, so that’s when I called my doctor and she told me to get the ER as quickly as I could. So my husband left work and picked me up and began to pray over us as we were driving to the hospital. Once we arrived, the tests began to come back to back and my doctor had to deliver the news to my family that they were not prepared to hear. I ended up being diagnosed with Diabetic Keto Acidosis (DKA) which is considered one of the most fatal diseases and my daughter and I were extremely sick and death was literally knocking at my door. My doctor told my family that I will have to be in the ICU to be closely monitored 24 hours for the next couple of days to save my life so that my daughter’s would be saved. For about 5 days I laid up in the ICU with no food or water because my levels were dangerously elevated and they were doing everything they possible could to save my life. My parents, church leaders, my husband’s parents were all at the hospital praying around that clock for God to intervene in this situation. As the week progressed, the nurses rushed into my room and said “Mrs. Bowden, your baby’s heart rate is dropping and we need to prep you for an emergency C-section”. My heart was gripped with fear of not knowing what was going on with my baby and all I can remember was them rushing to the OR and prepared me for the procedure. While in surgery nurses was by the room that I was in and heard my husband praying Heaven down on my behalf and our daughter and they were amazed and said they never saw anything like that. On March 1, 2019 at 1:06am Gabriella Elizabeth Bowden was born but she had suffered a seizure after birth and she had to be airlifted to LeBonheur Children’s Hospital in downtown Memphis to get treatment. I wasn’t able to hold my babygirl after birth, nor was I able to share that moment of bonding with her by doing skin to skin, I didn’t hear her cry for the first time. All of the things I waited for so long to do I didn’t have the opportunity to share that experience with my baby. As I shared earlier in this story, I was receiving many prophetic words about our child and when everything happened with our baby girl this one specific word came back to me and in June 2018 after 5am prayer the Lord gave a word to one of the prophets concerning me. And the Lord has said “this child is going to used to heal the bloodline and I will need to prepare to give this child back to Him like Hannah did”. When I received that word I thought that I would have a dedication service for my child and I would see God use her life while living. After waking up from the surgery, the nurses asked me if I wanted to see my daughter before she’s airlifted to the hospital and I said “yes”. They rolled me to where she was and I remember seeing the team from LeBonheur in blue shirts prepping to take her. All I remember seeing was the back of her head with her hospital hat. I had no idea that my babygirl had wires all on her body and a breathing tube. So after I saw my babygirl she was airlifted and monitored for 24hrs while her father was by her side every step of the way. My husband Dujuan saw the gruesome things that was happening to our child from heart compressions to making one of most difficult decisions concerning her treatment. While back at the hospital, some more family members came by to visit and check on me and the baby. I then was taken to a regular room in the hospital to finally shower for the first time and get cleaned after 5 days of not being able to do anything. While I was in the shower, I began to pray for my baby and asking God to please heal her and let everything be okay. I was hopeful that I would take her home and begin this new life of being a mommy. But unfortunately, that didn’t end the way I thought it would. After showering I was greeted by this lady along with my parents and she was there to deliver the news that no new mother would want to hear. She shared with me that everything was done that the medical team could do and she had passed on March 2nd around 9:30 that morning. In shock, in disbelief I couldn’t even say anything I just wailed and weeped in my bed while my parents and the lady cried with me. Shortly after getting this devastating news, I was discharged out of the hospital and my parents drove me downtown and during that ride, I didn’t want to believe that my child was dead. Arriving to the hospital with all my family and church leaders there, I was rolled into the room where my daughter Gabbie was laying in her pretty white dress and I screamed to the top of my lungs a cry of a mother who lost the very thing she prayed and ever wanted. This was one of things I never thought I would ever experience in my life and I was so hurt, angry and frustrated at God because I didn’t understand what did I do to deserve this. That season of grief was the hardship that the Lord was teaching my husband and I do endure that year. When all of the special holidays came around that year I couldn’t bear the heartache of the reality that I was childless and I had to live this life without my babygirl. During that season my husband and I endured so much and by the grace of God He helped and carried us through that process. Shortly after Gabbie’s passing God spoke to me again and said “you will conceive again and you will have a son that will carry out the legacy of the Bowden name” and I had a hard time believing what God said because I was fearful of repeating what happened with me and Gabbie. But as the season progressed, my husband and I had went through deliverance, and researched things that were in our bloodline/family on both sides and generational curses were broken and demons were casted out of us and we began to experience spiritual freedom and healing in our lives. We continued to love and worship God and love one another deeply. And you know that after every storm, God sends a rainbow and that is exactly what He did in January 2020 about 10 months after Gabbie’s passing. We found out that we were pregnant with our rainbow baby boy Dujuan Dennis Bowden III aka D3 and we had him August 25,2020 during the pandemic. God kept His promise to us and we were so thankful for another chance to become parents again. Everything that we had experienced was worth and God was glorified. But God had another surprise for us and we found out that we were pregnant again shortly after having D3 with not just one baby but 2!!!!!!! We gave birth to our double blessing Nathan Josiah and Ethan Raphael Bowden on July 31,2021. God has been so faithful to me and my husband and my testimony forever will be “God gave me 3 after I lost 1”. I pray that my story will bless, strengthen and encourage the many women who are desiring to have children. God bless you and may your womb open and reproduce for His glory.
Priscilla B.