More Than Medicine
More Than Medicine
DWDP - Every Family Should Have One.
Imagine the joy and challenges of raising a child with Down syndrome, a journey filled with unexpected trials and heartwarming triumphs. Our family experienced just that with Thomas Jonathan Lee Jackson, our ninth child, whose story teaches us about the profound worth of every life. From his birth on a snowy day in Spartanburg to the countless medical interventions and therapies, each step has been a testament to resilience and love. Through this journey, we uncover the invaluable lessons Thomas has imparted to our family, and the unique joy he brings to all who know him. Our daughter Rebecca’s touching words remind us that the presence of a Down syndrome child enriches life immeasurably, offering happiness and deep insights.
We transition to Thomas’s influence as a 24-year-old, where his kind spirit touched a group of third graders, sparking reflections on societal perceptions of individuals with genetic conditions. With each interaction, Thomas reveals the beauty of kindness and the preciousness of life, challenging us to embrace and learn from those with special needs. Our podcast today extends these reflections into a broader conversation on the value of life, supported by narratives from our book, "The Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life." We invite you to join us in sharing these stories, spreading our message through community engagements, and connecting with the Jackson Family Ministry to further explore the intrinsic value of every life.
https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com
https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/
Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr Robert Jackson.
Speaker 2:Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Well, you go, get your brother and your sisters and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr Papa. Gather around, grab your Bibles and let's look into the written Word, which reveals to us the living Word which is our Lord Jesus Christ. I'm continuing in a series of lessons that involve lessons in life, biblical insights that I gained from my own children In January of 2000,.
Speaker 2:The year 2000,. It was a very snowy day in Spartanburg, south Carolina. I was looking out the window of the hospital in Spartanburg watching the white stuff fall covering all of Spartanburg County. It was an exciting day in the Jackson family because I was about to deliver our ninth child. I didn't know if it was going to be a boy or a girl. We had had an ultrasound early on in the pregnancy, too early to determine the sex of the child, because, well, when it's the ninth child, you kind of like a few surprises. So there, my wife and I were in the hospital watching the snow out the window and preparing to deliver our ninth child. It was an exciting day.
Speaker 2:My wife experienced a few late decelerations indicating that there was some distress with this next little Jackson child and ultimately she did deliver. The cord was wrapped around the baby's neck twice, which explains some of the late decelerations. I had to cut the cord. The baby was delivered very limp and blue and not breathing. His Apgars were not good. I handed him off to the neonatal intensive care unit.
Speaker 2:Nurses and we had to work together to resuscitate this little baby boy, and it was immediately obvious that the little boy was a Down's baby. We handed him to his mother just long enough for her to get a look at him and then he was hustled off to the neonatal intensive care unit. I then returned to taking care of his mother and made sure that she was okay, repaired a laceration, and then I hustled off to the neonatal intensive care unit myself to take care of this ninth little baby boy. And we had five girls, we had four boys.
Speaker 2:And when in the neonatal intensive care unit, I was accompanied by a NICU doctor who evaluated my little boy and we realized that not only was he Down's but he had a heart murmur, a very harsh heart murmur. A subsequent echocardiogram revealed that he had an AV canal, which is a heart deformity common in Down's children, which meant that he did not have a center wall down the middle of his heart allowing the heart, the blood flow from the right and left side to mingle, and so he was already in heart failure even at birth. And so began a 10-week saga with Thomas Jonathan Lee Jackson, and we had five emergency hospitalizations during that 10 weeks with vomiting and diarrhea and dehydration and heart failure and DIC and electrolyte disturbances and blood transfusions.
Speaker 2:Oh my, oh my. At the end of 10 weeks Thomas ended up in the Sanger Clinic in Charlotte, north Carolina, where Dr Watt performed an emergency surgery on Thomas to repair the AV canal and a damaged valve. And immediately afterwards Thomas became a brand new child. He went from being a blue, cyanotic, non-thriving little baby boy to a pink, thriving little Downs boy. He immediately quit throwing up and began to keep down his formula and he began to gain weight and truthfully, he hasn't stopped gaining weight ever since then. He did have reflux and had to have a feeding tube for 16 months after that, but after that 16 months he continued to thrive and to grow and he was a very happy, smiling, laughing, giggling little baby boy that brought delight into the Jackson family. Now I'm telling you all of that to lead up to something that happened when he was about a year and a half in age. The feeding tube was removed. We were still going to physical therapy and occupational therapy and speech therapy, which obviously complicated our lives tremendously, but still Thomas was worth it all and if anybody were to ever suggest that his life was not worth living well, they would get a righteous fat lip from his daddy, because Thomas was such a delight to our family. He was such a joy to our family. Now. He was a lot of work. It required a lot of serving, but Thomas was such a precious child and we as a family could never, ever imagine not having Thomas Jonathan Lee as a part of our family.
Speaker 2:So one day my wife and I were in the kitchen and my second daughter, rebecca, who was age 16 at the time, was playing with Thomas on the couch in our den and she was tickling his ribs. And I have to tell you, thomas had the most infectious laugh and when he laughed it just made everybody else laugh. It was such a contagious laugh and all of a sudden Rebecca popped her head over the back of the couch and she looked at us and she said Every family should have a Downs baby. And then she went back to tickling her brother and making him laugh. My wife and I looked at each other in amazement and we stared at each other and I knew what was in her mind and she knew what was in my mind as we pondered would we really inflict a Down's baby on every family, especially knowing what we had been through for the previous 16 months with hospitalizations and surgery and physical therapy and occupational therapy and a feeding tube. And then we paused and we both nodded simultaneously and we said out loud yes, of course. Yes, thomas was worth every bit of the struggle, every bit of the heartache, every bit of the inconvenience. He was worth it all. And, yes, we would wish a little Downs baby like Thomas on every family because of the joy that he brought into our family.
Speaker 2:And so let me ask you a question what does a baby like Thomas teach our family? And I must hasten to add that we call Thomas the professor. Why? It's because Thomas didn't come here to learn. Thomas came here to teach. God put little babies like Thomas here to teach, and that's why we call him the professor, because he didn't come here to learn. He came here as an instructor. He didn't come here to learn, he came here as an instructor, for, you see, he teaches my children how to give, expecting nothing in return.
Speaker 2:You see, there's no quid pro quo with Thomas. He requires a lot of serving. We call him the backwards boy because he's 24 years old now and he still puts his clothes on backwards. It's not unusual for him to come out of the bedroom with his shirt on and a t-shirt on top of his shirt, or to put his coat on completely backwards, or his shoes on the wrong feet. In fact, he almost always puts his shoes on the wrong feet, so we call him the backwards boy. So we have to completely undo all of his clothing and put them back on correctly before he can leave the house.
Speaker 2:You see, it takes a lot of serving. He can't shave himself, so I have to shave him, or my wife does himself, so I have to shave him, or my wife does. We have to help him with his bathing and shaving and brushing his teeth. And, truthfully, when I'm 80 years old, if Thomas is still alive, I'll still be helping him bathe and shave and get himself dressed, because he's just awkward and he can't do those things properly. And so you have to understand that serving is a premium value in the Christian life, and I have lots of adult Christian friends who've never really learned how to be a servant. But yet my children, they've already learned how to be a servant and how to give, expecting nothing in return. And who was their instructor? Well, it was Thomas, the little downs boy, who taught them how to serve and how to be like Jesus. Because, you see, jesus said that he didn't come to be served, but he came to serve and to give his life a ransom for many. And, yes, like Rebecca said, every family needs a Downs baby. In fact, I believe we should sprinkle a few Downs children in every church and I'm thankful that I go to a church that has embraced my two special needs boys. They love Thomas, they love John Richard, and they treat them respectfully, in fact.
Speaker 2:Let me just tell you a story. If you keep up with Jackson Family Ministry, you'll see this on our Facebook page from just a week ago. I teach a Sunday school class of third grade boys and girls and I was teaching just two weeks ago and all of a sudden, something happened and Thomas was drinking a Coke and eating his Cheez-Its right in the middle of Sunday school and there's about 10 or 12 third grade boys and girls in there and ordinarily, especially the boys are very unruly and they're always moving about and some of them sit in their chairs upside down and some of them sit in the windowsill and every third sentence is please be quiet, please sit down, please put your behind in a chair, not in the windowsill, and if you've ever taught adolescents, you know what that's like. Well, suddenly, somehow Thomas's Coke got spilled and it went all over the table and all over his Bible and Thomas was just paralyzed and, you know, he didn't know what to do. He didn't understand what to do and so he stood up and he huffed and he puffed and then he stomped off to another chair and he sat down, he put his face in his hands and he just started to sob.
Speaker 2:Well now, my little third graders were paralyzed, they didn't know what to do. They don't understand a 24-year-old, grown man behaving in that fashion. And they know that Thomas is different, but they don't really know what his problem is. And in fact they often look at me and they say, dr Jackson, what language does Thomas speak? And I'll look at them and seriously I'll say he speaks down Z's. And then they'll look at me like I'm from another planet because they don't understand.
Speaker 2:But they can't figure Thomas out because he laughs and giggles and tussles with them like he's a third grader and in his mind he is a third grader but physically he's an adult. But now he's sitting in a chair and crying like a baby over spilled Coke. Well, they're paralyzed and then suddenly two of them jump up and they grab paper towels and they start sopping up the coke. And another one starts wiping off his Bible. And the third one goes over there and puts his arm around Thomas's shoulder and starts consoling him and patting him on his head. And in no time flat they've cleaned up the coke, they've wiped off his Bible and another one has gotten him back in his chair and is still hugging him and patting him on his shoulder. And in just a few minutes' time they brought order back to the chaos. And Thomas is still snubbing, but he's consoled and I've quit teaching.
Speaker 2:I'm not saying anything about Abraham and God's promises to Abraham. I'm just saying anything about Abraham and God's promises to Abraham. I'm just watching in amazement as these third graders are doing what they're serving Thomas and all of a sudden I realize that the professor is teaching these children how to be a servant and how to serve, expecting nothing in in return. And you see, thomas never said thank you, he just allowed them to serve him. And I submit to you very humbly that Thomas taught them a greater lesson than any lesson that I could taught them, and I like to think that I'm a good Sunday school teacher, but that day I was trumped by a 24-year-old Downs boy who looks like a football fullback but who can't speak a word of English. He speaks Downsese and he taught those children a lesson that they might not ever forget. He's the professor. God didn't send him here to learn. God sent him here to teach. God didn't send him here to learn. God sent him here to teach. And he teaches those children how to be more like Jesus, more like the Master.
Speaker 2:Now let me ask you a question. This is a hard penetrating question. Why do folks have so much angst when the doctor looks at them and says I'm sorry, the ultrasound shows that your child is probably going to be a Down's child or some other genetic deformity. Why? I'll tell you why. This is my honest, heartfelt answer to the question. Because you see, when your children are 18 to 20 years of age, if they're normal children, they sprout wings and they fly away. They go off to college, they get a job, they go in the military and they fly away, and you and mama become empty nesters and they don't have to serve those children any longer. But when you give birth to a special needs child, you will have to serve that child for the rest of your life. And when the doctor tells you that there's something wrong with your unborn child in the womb, you suddenly realize that if you give birth to that child, you're going to serve them for the rest of your life. They're never going to sprout wings and fly away.
Speaker 2:And your and my lower nature rejects that notion. And that's why, when the doctor says there's something wrong with your unborn child, our hearts sink and we reject the gift from God. Don't we say that children are a gift from God? We do, unless the gift is broken. And if the gift is broken we reject that gift from God. Did you know that anywhere from 67 to 92 percent of Down's children who are diagnosed in the womb are killed by abortion? Oh yeah, People reject those little gifts from God. And you see, those little Thomases, those little Professor Thomases, are never allowed to teach their first lesson. They're never allowed to see their mother's smile or hear their daddy's laughter, and they're never allowed to instruct other children or their brothers or sisters, or to teach their first college-level class in how to be more like the master. That's my expert, professional opinion. My daughter asked every family should have a Downs child and I'm here to tell you that Thomas's life is precious. He's a gift from God. He's created in the image of God, as is every other special needs child, and their lives need to be protected and they need to be allowed to teach us the lessons in life that God sends them here to teach you and me.
Speaker 2:This story about Thomas is told in more detail in my book. The Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life in chapter four, and if you'd like a copy of that book, it can be obtained from Zulon Press or from Amazon, and I would encourage you to get a copy of the book and look at chapter 4 in that book, entitled Every Family Should have One, there are multiple other pro-life stories. In the Family Doctor Speaks the Truth About Life, life that I think you will find very, very interesting. So I encourage you to get a copy of this book and share it with your family and friends. You're listening to Devotions with Dr Papa. If you like what you hear, I pray that you would like it, follow it and share, download it and let your friends and neighbors know about Devotions with Dr Papa, and until next week, I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.
