My Father was a Blue Baby.

 

          On Christmas Eve this year, my brother Grant Bennett preached a message about “Beenfor” Stories, stories where things could have been very different had it not “been for” the intervention of God.

          One of my family’s favorite “Beenfor” stories is about the birth of my father, Randy Bennett.  

          My Grandmother Ruth Bennett (who passed away last June at 91 years old,) shared this story with me several years ago.

 

          My father was supposed to die as a newborn.

 

Ruth had a condition called the RH factor. Basically, it’s when the mother has the rare RH negative blood type, and the father has a positive blood type. The RH factor builds in the mother’s blood as she has her first one or two pregnancies. By the third pregnancy, the antibodies in the mother's blood view her baby's blood as a threat, and they cross the placenta to attack the baby's blood. The Babies are usually stillborn or die shortly after birth. They are sometimes referred to as "blue babies," because of the lack of oxygen in their blood. 

The doctors told my grandmother not to have any more babies after the birth of her first two sons, Rick and Jerry. To her horror, she got pregnant 4 months after her second son’s birth. Ruth would have to carry the child for 9 months, knowing the baby would simply be stillborn or die at birth.

Grandma Ruth related to me how during her pregnancy, she sat alone (her husband Don Bennett was not a Christian yet) in a church pew in Hawthorne, California with tears streaming down her face as the choir sang a song about gratefulness. How could she possibly be grateful in this situation?

Ruth prayed and wept and prayed more. And the Lord spoke to her broken heart very clearly.

          “Ruth…you and your sons need to be in church every Sunday morning, every Sunday night, every Wednesday night- every time the doors are open. And if you ever go to a church that stops preaching my Gospel, you switch churches until you find one that does. I am in control of this situation.”

          Ruth thought, “Okay, Lord. I give my baby up to you.”

          She felt a tremendous sense of peace and for the first time since she had found out she was pregnant, she was grateful for the life growing inside of her.

          Ruth started to go into labor nearly a month before the baby was due. She and Don went to St. Francis Hospital in Lynwood, California. Ruth’s labor was the easiest labor out of all her pregnancies, so easy she “couldn’t believe it.”

          Randy Lloyd Bennett was born alive on April 18^th, 1953. He weighed 6 pounds, 7 ounces, but his skin was blotchy and yellow and his body had severe jaundice and anemia. He was dying because Ruth's antibodies were attacking his blood.

Ruth never even had a chance to hold him.

The nurses immediately took him to the ICU. Being a Catholic hospital, the nurses performed a special mass for the baby. Though we are not Catholic, Grandma Ruth expressed a deep gratefulness for this consideration they showed her baby.  

          She saw him in the ICU a few days later (a Tuesday) and was startled by his bright yellow skin, a symptom of severe jaundice typical of “blue babies.” After that, the doctors told Don not to let Ruth come and see the baby anymore. In those days, they believed that mothers would grieve less in the long run if they didn’t get too attached to babies who would certainly die.  

The Doctors were planning a new and experimental procedure- a total blood transfusion, but the chances were slim. 

          Ruth continued to pray, but she believed “it was all over” for her new baby. She brought her grief to the Lord and continued to try and give Him control over the situation. It was a very traumatic and painful week.

          On Sunday morning, she got a call from the hospital. She fully expected them to say that Randy had died, but instead the voice on the other line said, “Come and get your baby!”

The doctors told Ruth that Randy’s early delivery and the blood transfusion saved his life, but Ruth knew that was only half the truth. The rest was that God had kept her baby alive. 

Ruth obeyed the Lord and brought her sons to church every chance she could all through their growing up years. They all three accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior and were baptized into His church, and eventually, all three received a call to serve as Ministers of the Gospel.  

          When the Lord called Randy to preach and become a full-time minister, Ruth was not surprised at all. She knew God had saved him for a very special purpose. According to Grandma Ruth, her family “needed” Randy with his peacemaking personality and sense of humor and good-will. 

Of this story, Randy commented, " Mom did not tell me this story until after I had been called to preach. She did not want to pressure me into serving God with my life. I first heard the tale when I was in college. I'm sure my jaw dropped."

    Ruth had loved missions since she was a little girl, and was particularly proud that Randy was eventually called as a North American Mission Board missionary to the Kern County Southern Baptist Association, where he has served for 25 years. 

Ruth and Randy were more than just mother and son- they were also friends for life.

Once, Ruth recalled, Randy turned to her and said, “Mom- you were a wonderful mom, but in high school, you became my friend.”

          Sixty years after his birth, when Grandma Ruth told me this story, she got tears in her eyes.

“It was a very hard time,” she said, “But he’s worth every bit of it.”

Ruth in 2017, holding Great-Grandbaby Juanita Ruth 

I love this story. Partially because if it hadn’t been for God’s providence, my siblings and I, and all our children would not exist. But also because it gives me strength to know that the same God who watched over Ruth Bennett and her baby watches over me in all my pregnancies.  

What’s your “Beenfor” story?