Deep Roots Capital Campaign Reflection by Nicole Lalanne
As we continue to raise the funds required to build our new church with the Deep Roots Capital Campaign, members of the campaign Prayer Team will be blogging on subjects like gratitude and giving, Christian stewardship, why St. Julian's is an important place in their lives, and why then they are participating in the campaign. We hope this reflection will inform your own choice to participate in the campaign. Our success will come from everyone joining in together. Our fourth reflection is from Nicole Lalanne. Enjoy!
"My family is giving to the Deep Roots Campaign because we want to plant deep roots for our family in a community of faith. We began attending St. Julian’s six months ago with the original intention of ensuring a strong, loving, and affirming spiritual foundation for our children, Caden and Wesley. We quickly learned that we found much more than that. We stumbled into a simultaneously welcoming and tight-knit community of people, who dote on our children and seek meaningful connections with us.
We first began our journey into parenting just over three years ago and quickly learned how little reading and research mattered when raising children. The little control I had over my life quickly dissipated as I acknowledged that this tiny human, Caden, now ran the show. This became most apparent during Caden’s admission to the Level IV NICU at Children’s Health in Dallas. Over the next few weeks, Caden’s healthcare team educated us on a series of possible (and inaccurate) misdiagnoses for his myriad of symptoms, ranging from breathing difficulties, which manifested in two bouts of pneumonia, to peculiar gastrointestinal symptoms. Through a stroke of luck and most certainly God’s Hand, we were matched with a new neonatologist, Dr. Luc Brion, in a run-of-the-mill hospital rotation. We met Dr. Brion just days before our scheduled discharge with uncertain diagnoses and a feeding tube. After a brief discussion, Dr. Brion ordered a new diagnostic test, which confirmed Caden’s rare congenital defect, a H-type tracheoesophageal fistula. Caden had a successful, corrective surgery within days. After 34 days in the NICU, we were sent home breathing and feeding tube free.
We are incredibly blessed to have a happy end to that story, and yet that storybook ending was not the headline of my personal spiritual story. The first and only time I have ever fully given over control of my life, and more importantly, our son’s life, to God was during that stint in the NICU. I begrudgingly clung to God’s sovereignty, which is one of the few certain things in my life. This set the groundwork for my deepest desire for our children–that Caden and Wesley will each know God well enough to also cling to Him when they face their most difficult challenges in life, especially when I inevitably fail them. Pastor Leslie Siebeling, also known as Aunt Leslie in my home, at the Life Church in Tennessee once shared during a Mother’s Day sermon that “Motherhood is the most grueling and gratifying thing [she has] ever done.” There is no truer statement than this for me. I am so thankful to plant my family in a community, which will walk alongside me on this gratifying and grueling journey.
Raising our children in a community that will encourage them to pursue a relationship with Christ was the catalyst for us seeking St. Julian’s. Now that we are here, we have been taken aback at how much we already feel like we belong. I have personally not felt this “just right” feeling in a church community since I served as a religious life intern as a college student at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, although I have truly loved my previous congregation. My college chaplain, John Williams, often noted, “It is better to be loving than right.” From my vantage point, John framed all his interactions, in chapel and generally on campus, with this mindset, including difficult conversations with me as a young adult. I see the St. Julian’s leadership and congregation, or family as many members lovingly call themselves, demonstrate this same conviction together and through their work in our community. I am blessed that God led us to St. Julian’s good soil and to bring my family into the larger St. Julian’s family. We pray our children lay deep roots alongside us, especially as we work toward building a permanent home, which will allow us to better serve others inside and outside of our church doors with God’s love and draw us closer to Him."
For more info on participating in the Deep Roots Capital Campaign, click here.