How a greeting from a complete stranger turned into a miracle

I thought the lady was crazy. Here we were, on a family trip to the Bahamas, sitting lazily by the pool, soaking up the sun while family and friends back home in Pennsylvania dealt with temperatures in the 40s.

Tara, my wife, and I were sitting poolside with our two young boys, Zeke and Brett, dangling our feet in the water and taking stock of all of the people at the resort.

Our first few days on Paradise Island followed a routine as we saw the same group of people at the pool. Tara, who looks much more approachable than I do, befriended two women in their 20s from the Midwest. Between dips in the pool to harass the kids, I eavesdropped as they talked about family, college and, eventually, religion.

With the commonality of Christianity, the bond grew deeper. Our family said hi to the women as we passed in the hall of our hotel or on the way to the pool.

And we were poolside again on our new friends’ final day of vacation. Their bags were by their sides as one of the women scanned the pool. She locked eyes with Tara, showed a sign of relief on her face and hurried over.

“This is going to sound really weird,” she said, obviously nervous. “And I’m not the kind of person who does this kind of thing or says this kind of thing. But God has put it on my heart to tell you that something wonderful is going to happen to your family.”

Tara, looking puzzled, thanked her before they said their goodbyes. Eavesdropping again on the conversation, I was cynical at first. It smacked of an annoying mass email chain letter, a tract handed out at the airport or something straight from a late-night evangelist.

“What do you think it means?” Tara said.

“I’m not sure,” I said. “We’re not rich but happy, and we have supportive families. I think the only thing it could be about is having another child. What do you think?”

“The only miracle I would want is another child,’ she said.

The roadblocks: As for most parents, the births of our children were among the happiest moments of our lives. And as for most parents, those births were not without a dose of adversity. Our oldest son, Zeke, now 11, was born while Tara and I were 19 and 20, respectively. We wouldn’t have traded anything for our blessing, but it wasn’t without its share of financial hardship as I worked full-time and went to college full-time while Tara stayed at home to raise our son.

Four years later, as we got a little more established financially, we became pregnant with our second son, Brett, after two miscarriages. Early in the pregnancy with Brett, a routine ultrasound discovered a defect in his spine. That started a journey that ended up in Philadelphia at the University of the Hospital of Pennsylvania as Tara underwent fetal surgery in 2003 as doctors from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia repaired Brett’s back in utero to prevent any further damage from his spina bifida.

Tara was on strict bed rest in Philadelphia until she delivered Brett three months later as I played the role of Mr. Mom back at home in Pennsburg, nearly an hour away. Brett, one of just 50 children in the world at the time to undergo the surgery, progressed better than we could have imagined as he crawled, walked and was able to keep pace with the rest of his peers.

Blessed with two young boys, we decided to try again. But this time around, things weren’t as easy. A visit to the doctor revealed Tara’s hormone levels were extremely low. The doctor prescribed a regimen of hormones and told us it would be nearly impossible for Tara to get pregnant again.

We were devastated. We had a gut feeling our family wasn’t complete and explored adoption. Friends from church had adopted from China, and we started to pursue that route. A month into the laborious process, we were set back again, as China’s adoption program requires both parents be 30 or older. And since we were both in our mid-20s and not interested in adopting from anywhere else, we were again back at square one.
The good news: Despite the medical evidence against us, Tara got the feeling, that only women apparently can get, that she was pregnant. We didn’t get our hopes up at first, but a pregnancy test (actually two of them) confirmed that we were going to be parents again—and it all happened just a month after our vacation to the Bahamas. Our experience from the miscarriages taught us not to get too excited. We kept the news to ourselves for the first few months, then spread the word.

Because of Brett’s spina bifida, Tara’s pregnancy was considered high risk. The high-risk part translated into a lot more worry, prayers and ultrasounds but all looked well leading up to the big day. And on Sept. 18, 2007, Tice James Hallman was born at Grand View Hospital in Sellersville.

Our third son’s birth, in our minds, was nothing short of a miracle. Despite the odds of getting pregnant with low hormone levels, and without the use of fertility drugs or experimental treatments, God somehow found a way to make it happen.

Months after Tice’s birth, amid trying to adjust to a home of three boys four years apart, we dwelt on what we felt was the premonition of our son’s birth from a complete stranger.

After the trip, we never spoke to or saw the woman who stepped out of her comfort zone to say what God laid on her heart. How many times have we, as Christians, heard, felt or been nudged to action and have not gone through with it? At the moment, we always say we’ll do it next time or think about it some more and then decide. Not wanting to look, sound or feel awkward we close our collective ears and hearts rather than listen and be led by the Spirit.

The Bible, though, gives Christians the confidence to live life to its fullest. Acts 5:29 reminds us, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.” From the Old Testament in Isaiah 43:1-3a: “But now, thus says the Lord, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior.” Or Proverbs 28:1: “The wicked flee when no one pursues, but the righteous are as bold as a lion.”

It is with this spirit that we should live our lives—as bold as lions. The woman in the Bahamas could have taken the easy way out, said nothing, thought about her message from above on the plane ride home and then wondered a few years later what great things happened to that couple at the pool and their children. And we easily could have brushed her off, not taken the message to heart and not attributed our miracle to the true source.

But she shared the message, spreading God’s word and goodness in the process. To be on the receiving end of this is a great thing. My hope now is that I will be bold enough to repay the favor.