Alyce’s Story

For Alyce, it seemed like everyone around her had children — everyone but her. It took Alyce and her husband 13 years to conceive and that is when Tony was born. But something about Tony just wasn’t right. Still, Alyce told a friend: “No God would be so cruel as to make you wait 13 years for a child, and then give you one with Down syndrome.” It’s why when the tests came back saying Tony indeed had Down syndrome, Alyce and her husband were crushed—not to mention angry at God. But it was at our Joni and Friends’ Family Retreat that their hearts began to change. And now, they couldn’t be happier to have Tony as their son. Isaiah chapter 55 says our thoughts are not God’s thoughts; and our ways aren’t His ways. We may think a disability is a punishment, but not so. Tony is a gift from heaven sent straight to Alyce (by the way, Alyce’s husband passed away, so she is raising Tony as a single, aging mother. Bless her heart!