Choosing Faith Through Infertility and Uncertainty

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This week Aaron was able to interview Christin Rosa–and her story powerfully displays God’s faithfulness. As she shared her journey—from marriage challenges to facing a devastating prenatal diagnosis—it is a powerful reminder that our God is the Author of life and hope, even when the world says there’s none.

A Marriage Refined by Fire​

Christin and her husband, Mauricio, have been married for over seventeen years. Their love story began in Canada, where she had returned after teaching English in China. Mauricio, originally from Brazil, came to Canada for graduate school, and God led their paths to cross at a church small group in Calgary.

Like many of us, they entered marriage with excitement and high expectations, only to find that the first few years were much harder than expected. “It was like we were sandpaper,” she told me—two imperfect people learning how to love and forgive each other daily. Through infertility, cultural differences, and overcommitment to ministry, God used their struggles to shape their character and strengthen their unity.

Christin shared, “Marriage was hard, even on the honeymoon. But God used those difficult years to draw us closer to Him and to each other.”

When Faith Meets Fear​

After years of waiting, the Rosas finally welcomed their first son, Thomas. Later, when they pursued fertility treatment, God blessed them with twins—a boy and a girl. But at 19 weeks, doctors discovered their son, Nate, had a severe congenital diaphragmatic hernia. His organs were in the wrong place, his lungs underdeveloped, and he had only a 25% chance of survival.

Then came the devastating suggestion: abortion—what the doctors called “a reduction.”

Christin’s husband spoke up immediately: “We are people of life, and we’re going to fight for our son’s life.”

That moment defined their faith journey. They chose to trust God completely, praying for His will and believing that no matter the outcome, He would still be good. As Psalm 139:13 reminds us, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me together in my mother’s womb.” They knew their son’s life had value and purpose, no matter what the world said.

Miracles in the Making​

Against all odds, baby Nate survived. Every step of his hospital journey was marked by the phrase “better than expected.” From his first breath to major surgery just days after birth, God sustained him. Hundreds of people prayed, and Christin said, “We saw God’s hand at every turn.”

Today, Nate is eight years old—a living testimony of God’s power and mercy.

Christin’s story is shared in her book Saving Nate: Finding Hope After a Devastating Prenatal Diagnosis. It’s more than a story of medical miracles—it’s about faith that endures, marriage that grows through trials, and a family that learns to trust God no matter the outcome.

Her journey reminds us of Joshua 1:9: “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

Christin and Mauricio’s story is one of courage, conviction, and unwavering faith. It challenges us all to stand for truth, defend life, and trust in God’s perfect plan—even in the face of impossible odds.

READ TRANSCRIPT​

Christin Rosa (00:00)
the doctor, she took my husband and I into a little room, explained all this to us. And then she said that given the severity of the fetus’s condition, they never use the word baby, that we might want to consider having a reduction.

And so.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (00:15)
Which is slang for abortion. Yeah.

Christin Rosa (00:18)
Exactly. Yeah.

I just been given this onslaught of information and now she was suggesting a reduction and I was it took me a few seconds to realize what she was saying. But my husband, I really appreciate him. I tend to be more, I guess, a bit quieter. And I was not ready to respond in any way. had no idea what to say. But my husband just immediately he said,

Like, you know, like I know what you’re talking about abortion, but you need to know that we are people of life and going to fight for our son’s life.

Aaron Smith (00:46)
Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Marriage After God podcast. I’m your host, Aaron Smith. Before we jump into today’s incredible conversation, I wanted to ask you for two quick favors. First, if you haven’t already, hit that subscribe button or like button wherever you’re listening or watching. It helps us reach more couples who need encouragement in their marriage. And second, if this podcast has blessed you, would you leave us a review? It takes just a minute, but makes a huge difference. Also, if you’re looking for some practical ways to strengthen your marriage and to support this podcast,

Check out our marriage devotionals at shop.marriageaftergod.com. These resources have helped thousands of couples grow closer to God and each other. All right, let’s get into today’s episode. When Kristen Rosa was 19 weeks pregnant with twins, doctors delivered devastating news. Her son Nate had a massive hole in his diaphragm. His organs were in the wrong place and his lungs were severely underdeveloped. Without treatment, he’d suffocate at birth. With treatment, just a 25 % chance of survival.

The doctor’s recommendation, abortion, what they called reduction. But Kristen and her husband Mauricio are people of life and they chose to fight instead. In this powerful conversation, Kristen shares the raw reality of advocating for your child when the medical system writes them off. We talk about what it’s like when your marriage is already struggling and then you face the unimaginable. How do you trust God when doctors say there’s no hope? What does it look like to stand for truth when you’re terrified?

And how do you navigate a healthcare system that values cost over life? Kristen’s story isn’t just about a miracle baby, though Nate did survive against all odds. It’s about a marriage refined by fire, a faith tested by impossible circumstances, and a God who shows up in hospital rooms when everything feels hopeless. This is Kristen Rosa, and her book is called Saving Nate. Let’s dive in.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (02:35)
Kristen Rosa. Welcome to the Mary Jeffery God podcast. Super happy to you.

Christin Rosa (02:39)
Thank you so much for having me. Yeah, I’m just, I’m thrilled to be here. Thank you.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (02:43)
⁓ So you came through in my emails, you reached out and I looked at your story and I immediately was like, I think I want to talk to you because I love talking about kids. I have six kids of my own. I love family and it sounds like you do too. And ⁓ the story that you have that God’s been writing with your family is one I know of many that have dealt with these types of…

stories and so I’m excited to get into your story and the book that you got a chance to write about your story and your children’s story. But before we do that, why don’t we just start off with why don’t you share who you are, a little bit of your background, how long you’ve been married, your husband’s name, how many kids you have, and we’ll start with some of the personal testimony side of things.

Christin Rosa (03:24)
Mm-hmm.

Sure.

Sounds

good. Yeah, well, my name is Kristen Rosa and I’m actually from Canada. So I’m I live in Alberta, which is just north of Montana and I’ve been married to my husband Mauricio for I think 17 years now and it’s crazy how long we’ve been married and we start to lose track.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (03:53)
I know we are we’re coming up on 19 years and it’s just I can’t even believe it. We’re so close to 20. It’s crazy.

Christin Rosa (03:59)
I know,

yeah, it really is crazy. And actually my husband is from Brazil originally, and he came to Canada to do a master’s of architecture. And after he finished his studies, he ended up getting a job and staying here. And I had been teaching English in China for a couple of years. And when I was praying about where I should go next and what I should do.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (04:06)
Lab

Christin Rosa (04:25)
I felt the Lord leading me to the city that we live in Calgary, which is not where I’m from originally. ⁓ And so I ended up coming, found a job, and after a couple of months, I was like, God, what am I doing here? I don’t know anyone, my family’s back home, and all my friends, and they’re wondering why I’m here. And then I visited a church and ⁓ was invited to a small group. And then at that small group, that first night, I met my husband.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (04:54)
Man that’s so cool. Now, you know why I got had you move

Christin Rosa (04:55)
Yeah,

exactly, exactly. And we had just an immediate connection. I was really impressed with his English, actually, as someone who just come from China teaching English. ⁓ Yeah, I was just really impressed with and also he I could tell that he really loved the Lord. And ⁓ that was something that I was looking for in in a spouse, right? So and he same same kind of thing. He he

appreciated that I love the Lord and you know have been you know in China through a Christian organization and yeah so we just connected and so I ended up staying in Calgary where we live and ⁓ we got married two years later and ⁓ five years after getting married we had our first son Thomas he was born in 2013 and then almost four years later I had my twins ⁓

boy-girl twins, Nate and Emma. yeah, know, with the kids, I mean, it’s great. It can be really challenging and chaotic, but we’re just, you know, we’re so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with our family. We experienced a little bit of infertility before having Thomas. so, yeah, the Lord really, Thomas is our first, yeah, he’s our.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (06:18)
Thomas is your first.

And so that’s, I was going to ask, that’s why the five years, ⁓ you were trying and couldn’t for five years.

Christin Rosa (06:25)
Okay.

Well,

not 100%. My husband Mauricio, he felt we weren’t quite ready for kids when we first got married. So it was about three years until we actually started trying. But I’d been hoping to have kids for almost as soon as we got married. So for me, the wait felt very long. But the Lord in His perfect timing, He brought Thomas at, yeah, there’s a story around that, but it was just perfect timing. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (06:36)
Mm.

Mm.

Christin Rosa (06:59)
Yeah, so. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (07:00)
Yeah,

we had our first around five years into our marriage, partly from selfish reasons, partly from issues we were having with our sex life. And so it was a mix of things. But yeah, so I get that having waiting five years. But I look back now and I wish I would have had kids right away. My oldest would be 18 now. Yeah, we’d be in a whole new world.

Christin Rosa (07:12)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Okay.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (07:26)
⁓ He’s about to turn 13 though, so we’re pretty stoked about that.

Christin Rosa (07:26)
Yes, yes.

Okay, yeah, our Thomas is 12, so yeah, so won’t say age yet.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (07:34)
cool. Yeah. It’s 12.

Amazing. ⁓ So I do have a question. So you said Mauricio, your husband, didn’t feel you guys were quite ready, but you felt getting into marriage that you were ready. You wanted children right away. Can I ask, what was that dynamic like ⁓ relationally, spiritually? How are you guys navigating that? Because I know this is issue in a lot of marriages where one either doesn’t want kids or isn’t ready.

Christin Rosa (07:43)
Thank you.

Thank you.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (08:02)
⁓ The other one might be in a different place with that. How did you guys navigate that?

Christin Rosa (08:04)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah, well, you know, I think when we got married, well, before we got married, I know for myself, I thought, you know, marriage was gonna be amazing. It was gonna be, you know, we’d have this. Yeah, exactly. You know, we would walk off into the sunset and yes. But almost immediately.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (08:19)
Solve all life’s problems.

Christin Rosa (08:29)
marriage was hard for us. It was not easy, even on the honeymoon. it. And I think we were both really surprised by that. ⁓ And so the first few years of marriage were really hard, like really hard. And actually, in my book, I mentioned it just really briefly, but it was almost like we were sandpaper, you know, and so like we just rubbing. Yeah. And you can be kept getting stuck, you know, just constant. I remember

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (08:51)
I’m just rubbing.

Christin Rosa (08:57)
sitting on the couch many evenings and just having these long, hard conversations. And I just, I dreaded those conversations. But, you know, over time that, you know, the sandpaper started smoothing out of it. you know, and so I think because of the issues that we were having as a couple, ⁓ my husband just felt that, we weren’t ready to bring children into the mix.

And he was probably right. But for me, know, just being a woman and, know, just I, you know, just had that strong desire to start a family. It was difficult for me. And so, but I, you know, looking back, I was, I think I was in a lukewarm stage of my faith. And I was, I think I was being fairly selfish myself for

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (09:48)
Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (09:55)
just in all regards of life actually, you know, and so perhaps I wasn’t ready for kids either, you know, and so I’m thankful the Lord brought us through that time of infertility because that was something that, you know, caused me to go to Him, you know, in prayer and, you know, He used that to, you know, work on my life, you know, and then the things that came afterwards, the things I wrote about in my book and things after that, like the Lord

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (09:55)
.

Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (10:24)
used all of these difficult things in my life to, you know, to shape my character and, you know, and he used these things also for our marriage, you know, to, you know, draw us ⁓ as a married couple closer to each other as well as we draw, you know, have been drawing closer to the Lord. So yeah, anyway, but yeah, it was a difficult, ⁓ that was, yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (10:30)
Yeah.

Isn’t it amazing how

marriage so quickly shows us how selfish we are? We think before getting married, I actually genuinely thought I like, probably won’t ever fight with my wife because I’m a pretty easygoing person. I didn’t have like big arguments with people. was like, I’m pretty easy. And then like how selfish we were like realizing it so quickly when you have to live life with another person.

Christin Rosa (10:52)
Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yes, definitely. Yes. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (11:14)
And we get

challenged in all of our beliefs from the Bible of, know, ⁓ looking to the interests of others and not just your own interests and treating others as you like to be treated and servant heart and ⁓ man, it’s amazing how God does that. I do got a question. I know you look back now and you probably think like, maybe we weren’t ready for kids. ⁓ I always do like to challenge this idea. Not that ⁓ kids fix everything, but

Christin Rosa (11:18)
Exactly. Yeah.

Yes. Yeah. Yes. I will.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (11:42)
Just like you get you get married and like God used your marriage to refine you I believe children do the same thing Do you think that some of those rough edges some of that same people would have smoothed out quicker if you guys were forced to do it sooner with having children

Christin Rosa (11:47)
Mm-hmm.

Hmm.

That was very possible. Yes. Yeah. Right. Well, the reality is, probably would have, yeah, it very well could have helped us because what was happening at the time, for those first few years of being just the two of us, mean, nothing improved all that much, right? Until, I would say things didn’t improve until I was pregnant with my son.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (12:00)
I mean, sometimes it goes the other way,

Christin Rosa (12:26)
you know, at four years. So yeah, yeah. But at the same time, I couldn’t force my husband to be ready.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (12:30)
That’s interesting. Yeah.

Well, and you also, you

were struggling with infertility, so it’s not like you could have forced it anyway. There’s a lot of reliance on the Lord in that. And you can’t force your husband. He’s got to walk that out and surrender as well. it’s just, we have a lot of notions that we’ve been given over the years, just generationally, societally about children. When we were pregnant,

Christin Rosa (12:40)
That’s true. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

I’m hungry. I’m hungry.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (13:02)
Even before we were pregnant with our first, almost everything we ever heard and we’ve, I’ve said this a lot on my podcast, everyone that’s listening right now, sorry, but it matters. ⁓ You know, just all negative. Like, get all, you know, get your, you know, you’re alone out of the way now. You know, you’re traveling out of the way now because once you have kids, it’s all going to be over. You know, get your, you know, get your good rest now because once you have kids, it’s going to be over. And some of that is though true, this, the way it’s communicated, you know, even from believers.

Christin Rosa (13:25)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (13:32)
is very anti-children, very anti-family. ⁓ so I – nowadays, I like to challenge just ideas of like, well, maybe we weren’t ready. And I even talk to people that – they’re like, I need to get my career in order. We want to make sure there’s enough money in the bank. And those things are good things to pursue. But I personally just don’t think that any of those things are necessary for having a good healthy family.

Christin Rosa (13:36)
definitely.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (14:01)
The more I have children, the more children I have, I have six now. And even having our first, it’s forced me to step up my game in every aspect of my life, more so than before I had children. So, not judging you at all on your decision. We had a very similar story. So, just look at those things and think, you know, I think sometimes we think we know what’s best and often we don’t. And children are a blessing and I know you know that.

Christin Rosa (14:04)
Yeah.

Right.

for sure.

Yeah, that’s true. Yeah. They are a blessing.

100%. Yeah. Sure.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (14:31)
I do have a question ⁓

about, so in the beginning, there’s always so many dynamics that make marriage hard. I wouldn’t know about having a, ⁓ how would I even say it, ⁓ intercultural. Like so he’s from Brazil, you spend time in China, you’re from Canada. Was some of that cultural differences, some of those backgrounds adding to this?

Christin Rosa (14:42)
Thank

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (15:00)
Struggle some of the difficulties in your marriage and how did some of that play out for you guys?

Christin Rosa (15:02)
Yeah,

actually yes, it made things quite difficult actually. When I met Mauricio, I actually met him in a group of Canadians. The small group was all Canadian, young adults, and then there was Mauricio. And he was just like one of the guys. So I met him in a Canadian context.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (15:21)
That’s awesome.

Christin Rosa (15:30)
But when we got married, we met a pastor who had just come from Brazil and he wanted to start a Brazilian church plant. And so my husband was very excited about being part of that and so was part of this Brazilian church plant ⁓ here in Calgary. And so I was part of that as his wife. And so I would go to church on Sunday and everything was in Portuguese.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (15:56)
Portuguese, yep.

Christin Rosa (15:56)
And I did not know the language. So I was kind of immersed and had to, you know, try to learn the language. And so obviously some people spoke English, but when they’re all together, they were all speaking Portuguese and all of our friends were Brazilian. And Brazilians are lovely people, know, very warm. ⁓ But I felt like, okay, here I am. I’m living in my country, but I’m not actually in our social group, you know, our friends. Yes. And so

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (16:23)
Very quickly changed.

Christin Rosa (16:26)
That definitely was part of what made ⁓ those beginning years really difficult. And my husband, like, you know, he loved serving in the church and he was very passionate about, you know, he’s always been very passionate about helping people and serving the Lord and he loves the Lord. But unfortunately, he, you know, part of the issue was at the beginning, he didn’t recognize maybe that that wasn’t working for me. he also had a responsibility to me as his wife.

to consider what I needed as well. And just there was a lot of over-commitments ⁓ with church. So there wasn’t really a lot, we weren’t spending a lot of time together. It was just go to work, come home, run to the church, do this, do that almost every nine of the week. And so it was, we were not in a healthy place. ⁓ And that’s one of the things that Lord has, you know, He’s been working in my husband’s ⁓ life in that regard.

to recognize, he needs to have boundaries. for me, I needed to be able to forgive him for things that happened earlier in the marriage where there was no balance. And I kind of felt like I was neglected, the marriage was neglected. And so, yeah, and for me right now, in marriage, it’s important for me, and I’ve learned this, that I can’t keep bringing up the past.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (17:36)
.

Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (17:55)
You know, like my husband, you know, he’s expressed to me like that was then, that’s not now. Like I’m changed. I recognize I made these mistakes. And so we both have had to learn, you know, how to do life as a married couple in a better way. ⁓ Cause I, and I was by no means perfect. ⁓ So, but just this over commitment and just going, going, going all the time. That certainly didn’t help things for us.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (17:56)
Mm hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

I just want to let my listeners know that Kristen requested to her husband on that episode with us and there was a little bit of miscommunication and I would have loved to have him here. that would have been – because I’m thinking of questions I want to ask him but he’s not here. So – no, but he – maybe next time we’ll have him on. So what was the – so I love this direction. We’re going to talk about your kids in a bit and that story but I think this is really good stuff.

Christin Rosa (18:32)
What?

Yeah, I’m sorry. I’m sorry. ⁓

So. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (18:53)
So you’re going, you’re in a ⁓ Brazilian church. They’re speaking Portuguese. By the way, I’ve been to Brazil. I spent two weeks on the Amazon river. I loved it. was my, out of all the travels I’ve done, Brazil was like my favorite country I’ve ever been to. Really good food, really awesome people. ⁓ And so you’re in this church. What was kind of the, did he come to this realization that he, that’s a change in you being made? And was it you? Did you guys?

Christin Rosa (19:05)
⁓ well, that’s Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (19:22)
Did you come to say, I need something different. This is difficult for these reasons. How did that conversation come about? What was the result of that? Are you still in all Brazilian church? Did you guys still figure out a way to mix that up?

Christin Rosa (19:23)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Well, when we had been married, so just a few months before we actually became pregnant with our first child, with Thomas, Maurice, he knew he he had overextended himself. He was exhausted, he was busy with his job as an architect at the church. And actually, I’m so thankful that a man, older man from our small group actually approached Mocio and spoke to him, you know, a kind

loving way but spoke the truth and love and just kind of said you know he could see that all of this busyness was taking a toll on not only Mariso but our marriage and so this man spoke with him and Mariso he heard the message and he realized that yeah something had to change and then around the same time it would have been the summer I don’t know summer of 2012 we

somehow started thinking about going to Brazil and spending a year there because we weren’t getting pregnant and we thought, well, like my husband wanted to pursue perhaps…

starting a nonprofit mission organization between Canada and So we thought we could go there, I could learn the language a little better, spend time with the family. So we had this wonderful idea for Brazil. And so, ⁓ but we also knew that it would be an opportunity for us to be able to leave our jobs in Canada, and just kind of have a break from everything, you know, and ⁓ kind of like reset. And so

Uh, yeah, we found someone to rent our house and packed everything up and we had actually moved out of our house. We were going to spend a couple of weeks with my family before moving, like going to Brazil. And it was during that time that I found out I was expecting. And we were like, yeah. Well, we were like, oh my goodness, like, what are we going to do? Like, God, what should we do? We just quit our jobs. And yeah, it wasn’t, that certainly wasn’t the plan. Of course we were.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (21:30)
Wow, God’s like noop

Christin Rosa (21:43)
very thrilled, but after praying, we we felt that Lord still wanted us to to Brazil. And so we just came back after six months instead of a year so that I could have Thomas back home. But it ended up being just a beautiful thing because we did get to have that break, that reset. then we did. And then his family got to be part of the joy of expecting our first aisle.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (22:04)
It’s awesome. So you guys spent six months in Brazil with his family. That’s really cool.

Hmm.

Christin Rosa (22:13)
And then we actually stayed with my family for four months because our house was rented out in Calgary. So we stayed in Edmonton, where I’m from, and were there for four months. And my family got to be part of the last two months of pregnancy and the first two months of Thomas’s life after he was born. So anyway, God had a really beautiful plan. And I would say after Thomas was born, for the first couple of years, we…

like, Morisio paced himself and wasn’t overly involved. And then it kind of, I wish he was here, I feel bad. ⁓ I’m not trying to ⁓ throw him under the bus. It was just something that, anyway, it happened again. But again, the Lord was good and helped.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (22:43)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Yeah, we don’t always get

the right idea the first time around. It takes us some time sometimes as men. ⁓ I know how that goes, but I think that’s just a human thing.

Christin Rosa (23:04)
Yeah.

See ya.

Yeah, but I want to say

like he’s a wonderful husband and father and he takes his role as you know, as the head of the household and like he takes his role really seriously. Like he does everything he can to lead our kids, you know, in the ways of the Lord. And ⁓ I really appreciate him. So he’s got a lot of zeal and a lot of passion and just

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (23:23)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah, I could tell wanting to start nonprofits and deal. He’s got a lot of vision, which is really cool.

Christin Rosa (23:41)
You know. Yeah.

Yes, and

that should use Nellows full-time faster. you know, yeah. Yeah. So.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (23:49)
Oh wow, there you go.

So he’s no longer doing, is it engineering or architecture? That’s what it was.

Christin Rosa (23:54)
Archbishop, Archbishop, yeah not anymore.

He’s now moving to the ministry.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (23:59)
Okay.

That’s awesome. another question. So there was that moment that, by the way, the power of being in Christian fellowship, I was just talking to my son this morning on the way to Jiu-Jitsu, I was explaining to him how powerful it is to be around people. We were talking about the world and he’s like, you know, do some people sometimes just go into the mountains and, you know, get a cabin, they just live off the land and they don’t like, I’m like, yeah, was like, you could do that. And maybe there’s a season that that might be.

Christin Rosa (24:10)
Mm-hmm.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (24:27)
valuable for whatever reason. But as I said, we’re created to be in community. We’re created to be in fellowship and we need people. We’re not meant to be isolated for extended periods of time, maybe for a season. So when you talked about being in your small group and an older gentleman, an elder in the church, maybe not by position but by age and spiritual maturity,

Christin Rosa (24:28)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yes. Mm-hmm.

Okay. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (24:54)
comes up to your husband and speaks truth and love and that’s exactly what we’re supposed to do for each other. Maybe he would have come to that conclusion. Maybe you guys would have had a conversation and God still works that way and moves in us and convicts our hearts. But I think often it’s God uses his church to help his church. So that’s a really awesome thing that you guys were part of this small group and they knew you well enough to see.

Christin Rosa (24:57)
I’m here.

Yeah, that’s

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. ⁓

Yeah, that’s right.

Mm-hmm.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (25:23)
Hey, there’s some stuff that needs to be worked on. How, I’m assuming this gentleman speaks to your husband and he’s like, yeah, actually I see that. Probably started making some adjustments. you guys probably had some really good conversations after that of how to move forward and what, you know, what God’s doing and praying through that. How soon after that did you get pregnant?

Christin Rosa (25:25)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay.

Probably four months. We’ve been four months later. Yeah. I think God was waiting for ⁓ us to leave everything, know, leave the jobs, rent out the house so that there was no way to go back to the crazy lifestyle that we had had. So the ties were cut and then we found out. Okay, we’re pregnant.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (26:06)
Yeah.

Well, and that’s why

I was kind of trying to make that correlation of like, sometimes ⁓ that happens, like the unity between the husband and the wife and the power that’s there. Sometimes, like I don’t know why you guys struggled with infertility. can’t, I don’t want to say I know that, but there is something powerful about when you feel like there’s disconnect and what that can cause internally in your body and your heart and your mind. And then the power of that unity when you come together and you’re like, wow, we’re on the

Christin Rosa (26:24)
Good night. Good night. Good night.

Mm-hmm. That’s right.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (26:40)
Maybe this is the first time we’ve ever felt on the same page, felt close, felt intimate, and how that changes you physiologically and in your heart and spiritually and how powerful that is. I’m not trying to make false correlations, but there is clearly a correlation there between a heart change and then a biology change.

Christin Rosa (26:40)
Yep. That’s true. Yep.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, for sure. Yeah, yeah, that’s For sure.

That’s right. I agree. That’s probably that was part of it for sure. And also just got perfect timing, right? Because there, but I think everything that happened had to happen in order for. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (27:12)
Yeah.

Well, he was getting your hearts, right? Like you said, you

guys, you were realizing like I felt really selfish and you know, whether he was thinking or not was moving in his own direction and there was not much unity there and God was working in your hearts. Like he used all the art, my wife and I’s selfishness to get us to like the end of ourselves and we had to like – we had to get to the end of ourselves and there’s lots of times in our life that that’s had to happen where God has to break us down and…

Christin Rosa (27:27)
Yes.

Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah.

It means

yes.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (27:45)
He’s

like, cause he cares more about who we are and our character than it does our happiness and our comfort. So let’s talk about, go ahead. You were gonna say something.

Christin Rosa (27:48)
Yes. Exactly. And I know, yeah, go ahead. I was gonna say I hadn’t quite

learned that yet. I was still learning that. And then I think it leads up to the story about the twin pregnancy. But I was still, I thought, I’ll just say this. I thought that having a baby would, you know, that was gonna solve all the, you know, heart issues that I had, right?

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (28:01)
Hmm

Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (28:15)
that, you know, and so I had Thomas and, but of course, no, right? In the end, we need Jesus and Jesus is there. Exactly. And he’s the only one that can fill us and give us the true contentment. And of course, children are wonderful. And I’m so thankful to Thomas, but a husband and then a child and whatever else it is you think you need, right? You know, maybe you think you need this house or that job or whatever.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (28:22)
Mm-hmm. There’s only one person that heals us. Yeah.

Christin Rosa (28:43)
but that’s just not enough. It’s never going to feel that longing that we have in our heart, right? And I still had to learn that, that, you know, and the Lord has brought me through things, starting with I think the twin pregnancy and things beyond like cancer to really help me realize, okay, no, like I can’t build my life on all these good things, these other things like family and spouse and all these things. ⁓

I need Jesus and he has to be the foundation of my life. ⁓ And so I’m thankful for what he’s brought me through and our family, what he’s brought us through because I think it’s made us stronger, know, it’s developed our faith muscles and brought us nearer to him, right?

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (29:16)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Now what you’re saying exactly ⁓ identifies that scripture that Jesus says. says, unless you hate your mother, father, wife, son, daughter, and follow me, like you have no part in my kingdom. We see that word hate in a very different light than the Bible puts it. It means prefer. Like if you prefer,

Christin Rosa (29:54)
Mm-hmm.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (29:54)
And if

you’re, like you said, if you’re looking for your fulfillment and your satisfaction, your contentment in children, in your husband, in a job or a home or anything other than Christ, we’ve missed the whole point. And none of those things will satisfy. Again, they’re good things. Like it says, you know, he finds a wife finds a good thing. And he has children, like is blessed like that they’re, you know, arrows in a quiver. And so these aren’t.

Christin Rosa (29:57)
Okay.

Exactly. That’s right. Yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (30:22)
bad things. just when we it’s where we put where you were putting where I put my hope where we put our faith and we need to put our faith in in that in Christ alone. Otherwise, it doesn’t matter how good our life is. It’ll never be enough. It’ll never be satisfying. It’ll only lead us away from Christ when our eyes are that way. So and so you had your first son who’s now 12 turning 13. How long were you?

Christin Rosa (30:27)
Yeah. Yes.

Mm-hmm.

Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (30:53)
Still dealing with impetility after you had your first?

Christin Rosa (30:56)
Yes, we did. And actually, with our twins, we ended up doing a fertility treatment, which is basically artificial dissemination. So it was not IVF. And so the chances of getting pregnant with that, like chances of conceiving is very low. It’s only about 13 % per tri.

and the chances of multiples is about maybe 1%, 1 to 2%. But we decided to go for this. We wanted to try this first, and then if it was unsuccessful, we were going to pursue adoption. We thought we would just give it a go before anything else. But when we decided to do this, I just had this feeling like,

Because Thomas had come completely, he was just natural, you know, no, we didn’t need any fertility treatments. can see him, I thought, ⁓ boy, like, what if we end up with multiples? What if we end up with quadruplets? That was in my mind, was like, quadruplets. And like, children are wonderful and I love them, but can I, yeah, can I handle four babies? ⁓ So.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (31:55)
Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

That would be intense.

Christin Rosa (32:12)
So when we went for the first ultrasound in August, 2016, I was just about to ask the technician how many babies there were. And when she’s like, so I see two little beans in there. And so my husband had never thought we were gonna have multiples. Like I told him like my hunch and he’s like, don’t know, don’t worry, it’s gonna be fine. Anyway, but of course, after the initial shock, we were both very excited.

we’re going be having twins. And so we started preparing, you know, for bringing two more babies into the home. And ⁓ we were really looking forward to the ultrasound ⁓ in November, where we would find out the gender of the babies. So super excited. We weren’t in our minds, you know, well, that was the only thing in our minds, right? We never crossed our minds that there could be anything wrong with any of the babies, right? Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (32:58)
Yes.

Quick question,

you said you went the ⁓ artificial in summation route. Was that successful in the first try?

Christin Rosa (33:17)
No, so first try was not successful, but the second was.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (33:22)
Which is

still pretty, that’s really good odds. Cause if it’s 13 % success rate, the second try is great. That’s, that’s cool. It’s like, God answering a prayer.

Christin Rosa (33:25)
Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah,

that’s exactly. Yeah. They had recommended we try three times. So we were going to do the three and then move on. But yeah, the Lord did answer our prayer for sure. Yeah, but anyway, at this ultrasound in November, ⁓ we found out that we were having a little boy and a little girl. So we were super thrilled. ⁓ But then, ⁓

doctor told us that our little boy had something called congenital diaphragmatic hernia and he didn’t really give us a lot of information, just…

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (34:06)
That where the heart is growing outside of the chest or something like that.

Christin Rosa (34:09)
So actually

what it is, so there are some had a very large hole in his diaphragm muscle. And so that separates the lungs and the heart from the lower organs, the abdominal organs. So basically his intestines and his liver had come up into the right side of his chest and they pushed everything over. And so his ⁓ right lung was minuscule, tiny.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (34:17)
Okay.

Christin Rosa (34:38)
And then the left lung was only 27 % the size of a regular size healthy lung. basically at first without any treatment, he would just, he would suffocate. He would not be able to survive. Yeah. So we found all this information out the next week. We had to, we were referred to a clinic for high risk pregnancies. And so yes, we spoke with the doctor there. She explained to us, you know,

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (34:45)
Hmm.

This is what they told you.

Christin Rosa (35:08)
condition. She told us that, you know, if he did survive, he would have all these, you know, must have all these issues. And, and then she…

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (35:16)
Yeah.

Real quick,

how did they see this? Was it just with the ultrasound? They were able to see all of that with just the ultrasound? At how many weeks?

Christin Rosa (35:24)
Mm-hmm. Yeah.

They were. So

I was 19 weeks. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (35:33)
19 weeks.

And because they’re twins, they’re smaller than a normal 19 week baby, right?

Christin Rosa (35:39)
Actually,

so they were actually, I had two actually regular sized babies. So they were not, they were not small. were, yeah. Yeah. There are some two pregnancies where one baby might be smaller than the other, but because these were, okay. Okay, I see. Yeah. No, they were, they were both, they were both like, they were six, six and a half pounds, both of them when they were born. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (35:46)
Holy… Kristen. Supermom, okay.

Yeah, my wife is a twin and she was smaller than her brother. Yeah.

Normal size, wow. Okay.

Christin Rosa (36:09)
Yeah, yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (36:09)
Very interesting.

And so they were able to see all of that detail on just the ultrasounds. Did they use like a, was it a high resolution, like 3D or was it just regular?

Christin Rosa (36:19)
I

it was just regular. And then they did eventually send me for an MRI as well, just to get a better picture of everything. But it basically, yeah, yeah, it confirmed everything. But they basically could see from the ultrasound.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (36:25)
Okay. And the MRI confirmed? Okay.

That’s really impressive. I didn’t know they could see that that much. Cause I’ve looked at ultrasound, I can’t barely tell what they are.

Christin Rosa (36:40)
Yes. Well, and

I went to multiple ultrasounds every two weeks. I had to go for an ultrasound and I could never, I could never see, I could never see it. Yeah, I know. But it was there and yeah, they could see it. So yeah, but then the doctor, she took my husband and I into a little room, explained all this to us. And then she said that given the severity of the fetus’s condition, they never use the word baby, that we might want to consider having a reduction.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (36:48)
Yeah, they’re like, here’s the baby. Like really? Where?

Christin Rosa (37:10)
And so.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (37:11)
Which is slang for abortion. Yeah.

Christin Rosa (37:14)
Exactly. Yeah.

And so I was so I was just very overwhelmed and just my mind was all confused. You know, I just been given this onslaught of information and now she was suggesting a reduction and I was it took me a few seconds to realize what she was saying. But my husband, I really appreciate him. He I tend to be more, I guess, a bit quieter. And I was not ready to respond in any way. had no idea what to say. But my husband just immediately he said,

Like, you know, like I know what you’re talking about abortion, but you need to know that we are people of life and we’re going to fight for our son’s life. Yes, I know. Yeah. Yeah. I don’t know if I’ve been alone. I don’t know. I probably would just be like, no.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (37:50)
Mm-hmm. Good man. Like him.

I do think in many cases they would prefer you to be alone. That’s an easier conversation when the husband’s not around. ⁓ That’s probably not all doctors I’m generalizing.

Christin Rosa (38:11)
Right.

Right.

Yeah. Yeah. But, ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (38:18)
Did they explain? So they were suggesting that. Did they explain why they thought that you should do that?

Christin Rosa (38:22)
Mm-hmm.

No, not really. They really, they just, they didn’t want to give a lot of information. They explained the condition, all the issues we might have, and then suggested that we have the reduction. And that’s really it. ⁓ In hindsight, looking back, like they didn’t talk about treatment at all as an option. And they didn’t even talk about palliation. ⁓ So giving birth to him. So palliation.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (38:49)
What’s, what’s, what’s palliation?

Christin Rosa (38:51)
Palliation

they and they this is somebody they brought up weeks later after you can say no won’t save him won’t save him You want me to treat him then they suggested palliation, which basically is just you would give birth to him, but he would not Yeah, they would not do anything to try see his life. So

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (38:57)
Yeah.

and see how it goes.

Why would they not try? Why would they not do anything?

Christin Rosa (39:10)
Well, I found out later that ⁓ the severity of his condition really, like most babies really wouldn’t survive. We were given a 25 % chance of survival for him. ⁓ But up until that time, babies with that severe CDH wouldn’t survive. But that’s the cool thing is that because we insisted on him

receiving treatment. ⁓ I’m getting ahead of myself, but he survived, but he survived. And because of that, they’ve written, you know, medical, in the medical journals, they’ve written about this treatment and things that have been done. So now babies with, you know, that severity of CDH can now be treated and can be successful. So God used it all for good. But no, they didn’t, they didn’t give us any information.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (39:44)
Sorry.

Mm.

Christin Rosa (40:08)
and uh which yeah it was in hindsight very frustrating

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (40:14)
What do

you suggest for a woman in this situation, hopefully with her husband, ⁓ do? Because that’s a disheartening situation. with an authoritative figure, a doctor, and they’re suggesting these things and not giving other options, not giving information, ⁓ which I think is not right, personally. ⁓

Christin Rosa (40:19)
Mm-hmm.

But.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes.

Thank you.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (40:40)
I’m very biased in my opinion on some of this stuff, all of this stuff you’re talking about. So what do you suggest to a woman in this situation and a husband?

Christin Rosa (40:50)
Yeah, well, I think so we need to understand that these doctors are coming, ⁓ like they’re presenting this information, this choice ⁓ from a very different worldview than we have as Christians, right? They really believe, like these doctors, they’re very blinded. They don’t see, they really believe that these babies with a congenital condition are disposable and don’t have value, right? But we know as believers that that is,

100 % false that God, you know, he’s a creator of each and every one of us. We’re all made in his image and you know, he’s weaving together each of us in our mother’s wombs, regardless of any health concern that we might have, any extra chromosomes that we might have. And so I just keep that in mind. They’re functioning on a very, very different belief system than we are. And just you have to stick to your guns. And that’s what we had to do. ⁓

They came at us, we 100 % had to advocate for him. And if I may just say this, like in Canada, our system, the healthcare system is very different. So I had no choice in terms of finding a different doctor. This was the only place that would follow my pregnancy once it was determined that it was a high risk pregnancy. But I believe, you know, in United States, you guys have the…

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (41:50)
So you had to advocate for your baby on your own.

Christin Rosa (42:18)
freedom to shop around and find a different doctor. Right. Okay, okay. Anyway.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (42:21)
For now. Yeah, this is a whole nother topic, what

you’re, part of me wants to just jump into it, but I’m not gonna, but that is one of the problems with single payer healthcare. Like what you guys have is you don’t get a choice. You’re there. And also you mentioned ⁓ when you were presented with this choice, but it’s hardly a choice when they don’t give you any other options. They just say, this is what we think you should do. And so you had to advocate for yourself without.

Christin Rosa (42:30)
Okay, okay, okay.

Yeah.

you

Exactly.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (42:51)
The options, you know, like, okay. And also that, can you say it again? Is it palliative? What was the word? Palliation, which is essentially you give birth and then they just leave it and let it.

Christin Rosa (42:51)
That’s right.

Yeah, they call it palliation, you can call it aeronatal palliation.

Yeah, so, but I will say though, these days, thankfully, there usually is a team that will help you prepare for the passing of your baby. And so they…

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (43:18)
But

they don’t have a prenatal unit there to help with issues like that. They do. Okay.

Christin Rosa (43:24)
No, they do. Yeah,

no, we have an excellent children’s hospital with an excellent NICU. And it’s just, it kind of goes back to, I’m not going to go into any detail, but the fact that it’s a public healthcare system, there’s a cost involved to save the babies. And right, anyway.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (43:29)
Okay, Nikky unit, that’s what I meant.

Yep. This is the other problem with this. Yeah. They

have to put a value, a dollar value on every single life. And that’s very difficult.

Christin Rosa (43:46)
Exactly. It is. despite all that, we insisted

that our son receive the care that he deserved. the hospital, it’s funny, there’s a huge disconnect between the doctors who were following my pregnancy and then the doctors at the hospital. The surgeons and everyone at the hospital were amazing. And they did everything in their power to save my son because he was born. But before he was born, no one would advocate for him except for us, which is very wrong.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (44:12)
Yeah.

Christin Rosa (44:15)
Yeah, very wrong. But yeah, we need to speak up for what is right and true. ⁓ so perinatal palliation, for babies that truly aren’t expected to live, it actually is a really beautiful option because, compared to abortion, you’re giving birth to your baby, you get to hold your baby. And some children, maybe they’re expected only to live a few hours or a few weeks, but you get to.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (44:33)
Right.

Christin Rosa (44:42)
your love on your baby for as long as the Lord puts breath in their lungs, right? And often after the baby passes, you can bring in a photographer and take pictures and take footprints and all that. So.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (44:46)
Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah, I’ve,

we must have something similar here, but what was concerning me is the fact that what it sounds like is for some cases, if they could, you know, give medical service to try and keep the baby alive, they won’t. Is essentially what you’re saying? Yeah. Unless you advocate as hard as you did. Wow.

Christin Rosa (45:10)
Yeah. Yes. I

know it’s terrible. Terrible. if I may, yeah, go ahead. I was going to say very quickly, there’s no abortion law in Canada. So babies can be killed up until birth here across the entire country. So it is an issue anyway. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (45:18)
Yeah. Good. No, you’re good.

Yeah.

Yeah, I’m very, very anti all of that. ⁓ So, you have your babies. ⁓ Nate is the one that had these issues ⁓ and you fought for him and then the surgeons helped and how were they able to help and was he not as bad as they said he was after he was born?

Christin Rosa (45:39)
Yes. Anyway.

Yes. ⁓

Okay.

no,

he was definitely as bad as they said he was. Yeah. From the get-go, ⁓ like right after receiving the diagnosis, like we knew, well, one, we knew that God, God is the one who’s in control, right? And he’s a big, strong, powerful God. So we knew it wasn’t our choice to make, you whether, you know, we were going to choose to end our child’s life. We put that in God.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (45:57)
He was bad, okay.

Yes.

Leave

that up to God,

Christin Rosa (46:21)
Yeah, and

you know what, there’s an incredible piece that comes with giving him the control. And it’s shit, it’s always, it was always supposed to be his to decide, you know. And thankfully, from the very beginning, Mauricio and I, even though in that moment with that doctor, we didn’t have a chance to discuss anything together, you know, we were 100 % aligned in our belief that our son deserved to be saved. And

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (46:30)
Yeah.

Christin Rosa (46:51)
you know, as soon as we left the clinic that day, you know, we were, we spent some time in prayer in the car and we just decided like, Lord, you take this, you know, and we knew that God might choose to save our son, but we also knew that he might, he might not and that one way or the other, our son was going to be okay because either he gets to stay here with us, you know,

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (47:13)
and

Christin Rosa (47:21)
and grow up, but, he gets to go and be with the Lord and we will see him again one day. And I think just having that perspective of knowing that one way or the other, like, yeah, we would be so devastated to lose him. And that was a very real possibility, but we would still choose a hundred percent to try to save him, you know, and let God have, let God be God and

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (47:30)
Rightfully too.

Christin Rosa (47:50)
show his power and show his, you know, yeah, and to do this for his glory, you know, and that’s one of the reasons I wrote the book is I want to give God glory for who he is and what he’s done. And, you know, to let people know we can put our trust and faith in him. If his word says, do not fear for I’m with you, you do not be dismayed for I’m your God, then let’s not be afraid. Let’s trust in him to help us through these really difficult times that we go through.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (48:15)
Yep.

And so what would you tell to a wife, a family that God’s answer was not yes? Because that happens too.

Christin Rosa (48:27)
Well done.

It does. And I first of all would just say I’m so very, sorry for your loss. I mean, that could have been us. And yeah, that would have been so devastating. I would just, I would encourage them to know that God is still good. That’s his character. We don’t, can’t understand why some of these things happen.

You really can’t. mean, the Bible says that his ways are above our ways, his thoughts are above our thoughts. And that doesn’t necessarily bring a lot of comfort. But I would say cling to the Lord, even as you experience and process this loss, because, you know, the Lord is close, he’s near to the brokenhearted, right? Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (49:17)
Yeah, when Jesus

reminds us, blessed are those that mourn, for they will be comforted. There’s a blessing in the morning, not that it feels good, not that it’s a blessing to lose a child, but there is a blessing in the comfort of God ⁓ that those who mourn receive. So it’s a hard subject. ⁓ There’s so many days that we have friends that

Christin Rosa (49:22)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

No.

That’s Yeah, definitely. It’s very hard, yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (49:44)
have children that have genetic disorders and we we support some families that raise a bunch of children that have issues that they were all born with. And so we have we have friends have lost many children, you know, through miscarriages and ⁓ it’s it’s never an easy thing. And to be honest, especially when you love life and you love children and you know that their blessings, it makes that pain more real.

Christin Rosa (49:46)
Thank you.

Thank you.

Mm-hmm.

No.

Mm-hmm. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (50:14)
and, ⁓ but also that’s a, that’s how we honor life. Like a morning, morning for the loss of a child. Like we have, we’ve had many, ⁓ mothers in our church that have had miscarriages and, ⁓ we’ve always said like, Hey, like on your own time, but like, don’t pretend like it didn’t happen. Like let us mourn with you. That this is, that was a child was your child. And you know, so a lot of our.

Christin Rosa (50:20)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, that’s right. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (50:44)
Mothers, they would name them. We would mourn them. It’s a beautiful thing. Now, that’s hard. And there’s a lot of people that don’t want to do that. Like, let’s just pretend like that, you know, but that devalues the life and I’m not for that.

Christin Rosa (50:46)
Thank you.

Yes. Exactly.

Yes. Now you’re right. Yes.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (51:01)
So you fought for your baby and he got ⁓ critical care that was needed. So did they do surgery after he was born to fix the hernia and to move stuff in the right place? Was that 100 % successful? Wow.

Christin Rosa (51:05)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So yeah, for his, you know, his journey in the hospital, ⁓ every single little thing was like, each step was actually a big deal. my husband, my husband, yeah, he would like every day we’re in the hospital. He was off work for three weeks, goodness. So he could be there with me and with Nate and obviously I had little Emma, newborn Emma with me as well. And Thomas was with friends or my parents.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (51:34)
Oh yeah, just a little tiny.

Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (51:52)
But my husband would be sending messages to people, like to our family and friends and the wider community too. Just posting prayer requests. Every little thing, like the first thing was, at the moment he was born, he like, okay, let’s please pray that he can be intubated.

well and read and get the oxygen he needs, right? And that was a critical moment. then so they got them all hooked up and it took about 50 minutes for them to attach all the little, all the wires and everything after he was initially intubated. And then they brought him to the NICU, but the doctors told Mauricio, like he did better than expected. ⁓ yeah, exactly. And then, but we heard that phrase so many times throughout.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (52:34)
Yeah. Go Nate.

Christin Rosa (52:41)
his journey in the hospital, he did better than expected. So after, so he had to be transferred from the hospital I gave birth to the children’s hospital after, when he was a day old. So again, that was going to be really traumatic for him. A lot of prayer went into that. had to be stable before they can move him, but he made it. And they said he did better than expected. And then we needed him to stabilize again before he could have surgery, which happened when he was eight days old. And the surgery went better than expected, like just every step of the way.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (53:10)
Yeah.

Christin Rosa (53:11)
we had like hundreds of people were praying for him and

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (53:15)
So little

Nate was bringing the whole church together, building faith in everyone.

Christin Rosa (53:18)
Oh, definitely. Yes. Every. Yeah,

everyone was praying for him and other churches to him and churches in Brazil and and it was just yeah. So God was really he was definitely at work, you know, and in answering those prayers step by step, it wasn’t like a boom, he’s born and he’s 100 % healed. You know, it wasn’t that kind of situation, but it was this incremental, you know, step by step. God is at work. God is at work. He’s sustaining this little guy who’s so fragile.

And just we saw him transform from this very sick little baby to a baby who was quite healthy and joyful. It was a really neat thing to watch. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (54:02)
That’s so cool.

You kept saying that they kept saying like, he’s doing better than expected. ⁓ Not to speak down about the doctors, but they really didn’t expect much. So praise God that Nate got to prove them wrong over and over and over again. I think that’s such a cool story. And I’m imagining that this situation was bringing you and your husband closer together than ever before, probably, right?

Christin Rosa (54:07)
Mm-hmm.

Ha!

Exactly. Yes. Yes.

Yeah, you know, especially I would say, okay, before Nate was born, yes, I mean, we definitely were spending time together in prayer, praying for Nate. Actually, we had our main prayer request before the twins were born was that they would make it to 38 weeks because Nate needed his lungs to develop as much as possible before being born. And so, you know, we…

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (54:50)
Full term, yeah.

Christin Rosa (54:57)
Now together we petitioned the Lord ⁓ to sustain them in uterals for all those weeks. That’s right. As much as possible with my very highly spirited three-year-old at the time. ⁓ But you know another thing that really helped us I think was the fact that we were really connected with our church. We were part of a small group.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (55:06)
Lots of relaxing, like minimal stress, yeah, trying to keep everything calm in the house.

Christin Rosa (55:26)
that was, so we were going to church every week in a small group, I think every week or two. there was, so we, together as a couple, you know, we were being supported by our church and they were praying for us every week. We were not doing it alone. And, and both of our families, you know, are believers. And so that prayer support that, you know, really covered us was so extremely helpful.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (55:38)
Yeah, you weren’t doing it alone.

Christin Rosa (55:55)
And then we had discussions, Marissa and I, like we really wanted this pregnancy and Nate’s life to be a testimony of God’s goodness, right, and of the truth. So actually Nathaniel, his name, means gift of God. And so we really wanted to choose a name like that to let everyone know, especially the doctors.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (56:10)
Yep.

Amen.

Christin Rosa (56:22)
that you know what, he is a gift no matter what anyone would say about his value, he’s a gift. And then his middle name is Joshua. We chose that because it means basically it’s like he is my salvation. And so we chose that in the faith to say that God is very capable of saving this little guy, you know, physically.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (56:22)
Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Christin Rosa (56:48)
⁓ And if not, he’s gonna be saved spiritually and we’re gonna meet him again in heaven one day. And so ⁓ we had a big baby shower for the twins in late January, two months before they were born. And so a lot of the church came for that and Mauricio decided to share with everyone the names that we had chosen for the twins. ⁓ we were gonna keep it a secret until the-

babies were born, but anyway, he shared, but I felt it was actually really ⁓ appropriate, you know, in that moment to share like, hey, this is what his name means. We’re praying for this baby. And, you know, God has a plan and purpose for him, no matter how long his life is, right? And so we were very much, ⁓ I’m very thankful that we were, we were together through it all. we both knew that.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (57:19)
Mm-hmm.

Yep.

Christin Rosa (57:45)
that we could trust in God through this. And I believe God gave each of us individually just a piece, know, that piece that surpasses all understanding. And we really were bringing it to him ⁓ during, so after the babies were born, I mean, ⁓ things were, it was intense. It was just really intense. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (58:03)
I bet. Tevin Twins.

Extra work, extra sleepless nights.

Christin Rosa (58:08)
Yeah. And

just, and then every day trying to get to the hospital, try to spend as much time there as possible. But for me, caring for a newborn, but also wanting to be there at Nate’s bedside. You know, we had a three year old who could not be in Nate’s room because he was so fragile that any noise would really disturb him. So we had to find places for Thomas to go during the day. And, ⁓ yes, it was exhausting, but, I’m just, thankful that we could be there together.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (58:19)
Mm-hmm.

Christin Rosa (58:38)
especially at the beginning. So while I was caring for Emma, know, Marissa would be there at Nate’s bedside, praying for him, reading his Bible. I, you know, I’m thankful he had the time that he could be doing that, you know? Yeah, because I certainly, couldn’t, for me, like, I’m thankful the verse that was just always going through my mind was just Joshua 1-9.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (58:55)
Yeah, praise God for that.

Christin Rosa (59:06)
know, have enough commandment to be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified. Do not be discouraged. And the Lord your God. that was just in my mind. I didn’t have a lot time to be studying my Bible as I was caring for Emma and trying to be there for Nate. But Marisa was there and he was able to be that strong sort of strong figure, you know, to support our family and be there for Nate too. So yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (59:32)
Well, it just sounds like the prevailing message in your story is standing for truth, standing for life, ⁓ trusting God. Essentially, it’s like, well, like you said, let’s stop trying to be God. Let’s just trust Him with whatever He… But along the way, we’re going to pray for the things that we desire, that He’s healthy, that He gets help, that He gets… But trusting God and standing for what God stands for is the… sounds like it’s the message that you have in your book.

Christin Rosa (59:41)
Yeah. ⁓

Yeah. Yeah.

Yes, exactly. Yes.

exactly.

That is the

message.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:00:03)
And I don’t

think, regardless of how things turn out, I don’t think it’s ever wrong for us to stand for truth and righteousness in life. ⁓ No matter the outcome. Like that’s what we should be doing. so I love that your story displays that so well and God had a favorable outcome for you. And it sounds like Nate’s doing really well. How old is he now? Man, so cool.

Christin Rosa (1:00:11)
That’s right. That’s right.

Okay.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yes. He’s eight now. Yeah. Yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:00:33)
And his story, your story, God’s story, has made some big changes in your world and in Canada. So why don’t you share with everyone the name of your book, which tells the whole story of all this in much more detail.

Christin Rosa (1:00:35)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm.

Okay, sure. Well, the book’s called Saving Nate, ⁓ Finding Hope After a Devastating Prenatal Diagnosis. ⁓ Even when we were going through everything, I had a feeling that I would write about it one day. But obviously, things were, well, for a few years after the twins were born, things were very chaotic. And it was hard. But yeah.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:01:13)
Yeah, no writing in that time. ⁓

Christin Rosa (1:01:15)
No,

actually I did try. started when the twins were one and then I had to quickly give it up. I had to give it up. It was not the right timing. But then in December 2020, I just felt the Holy Spirit sort of whispered to me that it was time to start writing. And so was like, okay, God, I will. But I said, you’re gonna have to help me get this book published because I have no idea how to do that. But I just decided, okay, I’m gonna be obedient to the writing and I’ll trust God to work out the rest, right?

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:01:19)
Just surviving. Yeah.

Christin Rosa (1:01:46)
But one thing, so I was staying home with my kids and I knew that with the kids at home, I wouldn’t be able to get much work done. So I just asked the Lord to put it on my parents’ hearts to watch the twins for me so I could start writing. So a few months later, my parents came to me. They knew I wanted to start writing and they came to me and they said, we’d like to watch the twins for you once a week so you can work on your books. So I was like, ⁓ thank you, Jesus. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:02:07)
Wow.

That’s

so cool. Praise God for that. Kristen, I really appreciate you sharing your story and just sharing the intimate details of how God was moving in your marriage ⁓ and with your children, which I just love the story. And it’s not just a story, it’s God’s story of how he works and he does crazy big things and it’s just awesome and he does it for his own glory.

Christin Rosa (1:02:16)
Yes. Yeah.

That’s right.

Mm-hmm.

Yes,

yes.

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:02:41)
And so thank you for sharing it and thank you for giving me your time today on the marriage after got a podcast.

Christin Rosa (1:02:44)
Yeah,

thank you so much for having me. has been wonderful. Well, you can get it from Tyndale.com, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, basically ChristianBooks.com. ⁓

Marriage After God Podcast – Hosted By Aaron Smith (1:02:47)
Where can they get your book?

Awesome. Yeah, I just hope

everyone picks up a copy of our book, reads this amazing story of how God worked in Christian’s life and Nate’s life, baby Nate, who’s now eight, which is just incredible. ⁓ Yeah, thank you so much for being on the show. I really appreciate it.

Christin Rosa (1:03:06)
Yes, that’s right.

Thank you so much. Appreciate it.



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