Our Christmas Card

I wanted to share our Christmas card and letter with you. We hope that each of you have a Merry Christmas, and we pray that you will know the love of the Savior this season!

2010 has been the hardest, yet greatest year in the life of the Vaughn family.

We started out with a trip to VA to see some old friends in January. During that trip, we started making plans for a mission trip later in the summer.

March was exciting in that Cade, our 7 year old son, made the most important decision a person could make. He invited Jesus to come into his heart!

The week of July 4th, our family traveled to West Virginia to take part in a mission trip with the Volpes. We did VBS for the little church there, and it was LIFE CHANGING! It was there that Cade was baptized. It was so special to have our children take part in a mission trip, and see God work throughout the week.

Cade turned 7 in June and SaraGrace turned 3 in July. SaraGrace went to Disney and had a princess makeover and dinner with Cinderella. It was priceless. We also celebrated our 8th wedding anniversary. What a difference 8 years can make!

Cade started playing tackle football in August, and Rob coached his team. Football season brought a lot of good times for our family. Cade scored his first ever touchdown during the last game. His momma was the proudest girl in the park!

We were surprised in September to find out we were expecting our third child. What a great surprise! Little did we know how much our lives were about to change. Two weeks later, our baby was classified as a threatened miscarriage, but God prevailed and spared our tiny one. At a follow up ultrasound in October, we learned that our baby had some serious problems, and that we needed to see a specialist at Shands. We had to wait the longest two weeks of our lives to find out the final diagnosis of our sweet baby.

On November 15th, we learned that our baby girl, Faith Mackenzie Vaughn, had suffered a severe case of amniotic band syndrome/limb-body-wall complex and that her case was fatal. Our doctor strongly urged us to terminate our precious girl, but our Heavenly Father urged us differently. We decided, against the wishes of the doctors, to continue to carry our child, and that God would have complete control of our daughter’s life. He gave her life, and He will take her to heaven when He is finished telling her story.

To say we were devastated would be an understatement. We left Shands in complete shock and disbelief, but God has given us the strength and the grace to get through each day. We are holding on to the fact that His plan is always perfect. We know that He has a purpose for our baby, no matter how short her life may be.

Christmas has a different meaning for us this year. That baby in the manger isn’t just a baby anymore. He is the Savior! We have a deeper understanding of God’s love than we ever have before. As parents who will face giving up a child, we can’t imagine anyone on this earth who would be worthy of the sacrifice of our daughter. However, God loved EACH of us so much that he CHOSE to send that baby in the manger, His Son, to pay the price for us so we wouldn’t have to. There is no greater love than that!

Our prayer for each of you is that you will accept the gift that Jesus has given. We want our story, our trials, our family to point each of you to Him. Don’t waste another minute wandering this earth without the Hope that comes from Christ.

Merry Christmas!