Canaan shows up on this blog a lot...
And for good reason!

He's my best friend's son.
He's one of the happiest babies I've ever seen. EVER.
His little face and chubby arms make my heart melt.
Last but not least, he has a story to tell.

With the exception of a few weeks, Canaan spent the first nine months of his life in a hospital bed. A trach has helped him breathe for almost all of his little life, and he's been brought back from the brink of death countless times. Doctors and nurses did all that they could for him, but their predictions were bleak, at best.

But then God stepped in...

The faith that my friends have maintained during this process has been truly remarkable. Leslie said it best in her blog (read more of Canaan's story at davidellisfamily.blogspot.com):

When things didn't make sense...When our baby was breathing so fast - 130 breaths a minute - panting...When he had a strange cough and was being tested for everything under the sun...When he had a blood vessel out of place and then he didn't...God was there. He made a way. When Canaan couldn't take a bottle...When we couldn't go near him without gowns, gloves, and masks on...When his heart was strangely tilted...and then not...God was there...When he was too sick to even be held or get a bath...God was there. HE was always there! He is my healer.

Thursday, Canaan will go to the hospital for several tests, and, if all goes well, he will have his trach removed -- the last hurdle left to jump. He should have been a chronic ventilator kid, but Canaan began breathing without the vent several months ago. Doctors said he would in no way be ready to leave the hospital by the spring, but on Easter Sunday, Canaan made his debut at our church. He shouldn't be alive... but he is.

If God be for us, who can be against us?