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Courtney Smallbone recently opened up about the miracle of her son after he essentially died in his crib.
Smallbone, the wife of Luke Smallbone of for KING & COUNTRY, was recently sharing her son's miracle story on the Heaven Meets Earth Podcast with Abigail Robertson and Ryan Bethea.
The couple have four children. When their third child, Leo, was just eight weeks old, they thought they had lost him.
Recalling the Harrowing Moment
"I finally got all three down, which was like a miracle in and of itself, and I put them down for a nap and you know had the monitor, and went out to have a cup of coffee and to read," says Smallbone during the podcast. "And I was out there for a little while, and I was reading this book, and it's like my vision kept blurring like I couldn't focus."
Earlier that morning, Smallbone remembered thanking God for her life and all God had already done.
"And so I'm sitting there trying to read, I can't focus. And you know, the Holy Spirit in a mother is a strong thing, right? And I hear this voice say, 'Go check on Leo, and don't believe what you're going to see.'"
After the prompting, Smallbone wasted no time in checking on her newborn.
"So I ran, I ran into where he was napping and I found him. He was blue and gray, cold, sunken in chest, and blood all over his face and limp, and I just started screaming. And so I picked him up, and I ran outside, and my husband was mowing."
When Luke saw the state his wife was in and what looked like the lifeless body of their son, he ran to call 9-1-1.
Panic and Disbelief
"You're just like What is this and just looking at him, just blurry eyes like death, you're looking at death. Your biggest fear is like right in front of your face; that was my biggest, that was one of my biggest fears. And I remember looking at him, and I tried CPR and nothing, and I just started praying. I started praying in tongues."
With Luke on the phone with 9-1-1, the couple just looked down at their son, feeling helpless.
"And so my hands are off and he's lying on the ground, sunken in chest, death, blurry eyes. I literally am just on the ground with him. And I say very quietly, my hands again off, 'Only You can do this. Only You can do this.'"
Something incredible happened that shocked both parents.
"Literally in that moment, his chest expands, he starts crying. He turns pink. His eyes go from foggy to clear, and he's crying. I mean, it's like a, like a on, like on, off, on, off. That's all I can describe in that moment. And he starts breathing. I'm just screaming, and Luke's still on the phone. He's like, 'Ah, he's breathing.' And they're like, 'What?' And so I just was... It's miraculous."
When the paramedics arrived, they loaded little Leo into the back of the ambulance alongside Courtney.
"I felt so like, tunnel vision, like I'm just gonna trust God with his life. It was a surrender of even just him, right, it's this guttural parental surrender that you really know, they're not mine. I'm stewarding this life, but they're all Yours."
Once Leo was checked out, the doctors shared that Leo had a skull deformity called craniosynostosis. Eight years later, Leo is doing well and growing up alongside his two older brothers and younger sister.
"We only see in part. That was a moment in my life where I'm like, 'I'm not the same.' When you see the glory of God, I'm just like, 'Nothing's impossible.' If God wants to do it, He will do it, and I will partner with Him wherever he wants to go and whatever He wants to do. Every day is a gift with him. Every day I am so aware, I am so aware that life is a gift. Children are a gift."