William Elijah & Zechariah Russel
We feel so blessed to have Hunter and Ryann as board members for Isaiah Henry’s Legacy. They are full of encouragement, hope, wisdom and hearts for The Lord. In honor of their precious boys, Elijah and Zechariah, and their anniversary entering the gates of heaven, healed and whole, you can read part of Hunter and Ryann’s testimony below.
After getting married, Hunter and I were excited to start a family together. I just couldn’t wait to see the love of my life become a daddy. After trying for a year with two miscarriages we were completely surprised by the gift of identical twins. The scripture from Zechariah 9:12 we completely saw God doing for us after already having two losses. It says “ Come back to the place of safety all you prisoners of hope. I promise you I will repay two blessings for your trouble.” At 24 weeks, after an uncomplicated pregnancy our precious boys were diagnosed with a disease called Twin To Twin Transfusion Syndrome that we couldn’t come back from. After an early delivery at 27 weeks our twins had a hard time. At only 11 days William Elijah past away on February 21st and days later on February 24, his brother Zechariah Russell did too. That time was certainly the darkest and hardest time of our lives. With the love, support and devotion of our friends, family, and church we survived it. I remember walking out of the hospital with empty arms telling Hunter how do people go through loss in life without God. Without the hope of heaven and peace to get through knowing you will see your loved ones again you would just despair.
Something that devastating you never get over, but you get through it with God’s Grace everyday. And We also knew during that time more than ever we needed to pray and look to the Lord for comfort not turn our back in pain and anger.
During that time, we clung to Lamentations 3:23-24
“I will never forget this awful time,
as I grieve over my loss.
Yet I still dare to HOPE
when I remember this:
The faithful love of the Lord never ends!
His mercies never cease.
Great is his faithfulness;
his mercies begin afresh each morning.
I say to myself, “The Lord is my inheritance
therefore, I will hope in him!”“
Still believing one day to have our miracle in our arms just one year later and 4 days before the anniversary of losing Elijah, God gave us a beautiful precious healthy baby boy William Russell Winn “ Liam .” I called him my little light in the darkness. He brought sooo much joy to our life and families.
God blessed us again with a little baby girl, Lilly Grace 3 years after Liam was born. We were still blessed with our double blessing of our two children here with us, and 4 babies in Heaven we know we will one day be reunited with.
Listen to more of their encouragement and testimony below 👇🏻