TEXARKANA MAGAZINE
Samuel James (SJ) Swenson, born ten weeks early, in the NICU.
The first recipient of a Blessing Bag, Katie Lorance.
SJ, Grant, and Tyler Swenson with a Fearfully and Wonderfully Made Sibling Bag, created to encourage siblings of NICU babies while visiting the hospital.
And we too are fearfully and wonderfully made by a Father and a Creator that has love and strength enough to see us through every obstacle and hard day. We had so many people who loved us through every minute.” Scott was playing on (and eventually assistant coaching) a local Texarkana hockey team, and Catie helped with marketing and sales for the team. Through hockey, the couple met and were married, and they just celebrated 15 years of marriage in November, and now have three boys, Grant (12), Tyler (9), and SJ (5). In 2017, Samuel James (SJ) Swenson was born ten weeks early, weighing in at two pounds, three ounces. This led to three different NICU visits over 65 days. “We had about three months of pretty scary times before he was born,” Catie shared. “There were weeks that were pretty unsteady. However, that unsteady feeling never got to be too much. It really was met with peace every time.” Surrounded by their family and church family at City Church, the family made it through that difficult time. SJ is now thriving. One act of kindness was the catalyst, encouraging the Swensons to turn their own love into service. While SJ was in the NICU in Dallas, a friend of Scott’s who had just lost his dad to brain cancer and had recently been diagnosed with a brain tumor himself, left a gas card and words of encouragement on their back porch. As she drove back to Dallas, Catie made a decision. “I called Scott and told him how overwhelmed I was with the outpouring of people who were fighting their own very hard battles but loving us through ours. I told him that day I had no idea what it would look like, but I felt God was going to use our situation to help people experiencing a NICU journey.” They tried off and on for the next couple of years to get something going, but it seemed every time, SJ would have a setback, putting their dream on hold. But one idea during that time was a backpack. They brainstormed a list of items they felt would most
help NICU families cope. They would fill the backpacks, or as they called them, Blessing Bags, with the items and pass them on. Fast forward to the Fall of 2020 when everything was closed. A family close to the Swensons posted on Facebook that she was going to need an emergency C-section because of high blood pressure, and her baby was only 28 weeks. “It was all too close to home,” Catie said, “and we knew then God’s timing had come. He opened every door to help fund the Blessing Bags and Fearfully and Wonderfully Made was off the ground.” They delivered their first Blessing Bag in January 2021. The very first Blessing Bag was given to Katie Lorance, who remains extremely grateful. “Fearfully and Wonderfully Made will always be very special to us. Our family was the first recipient of the blessing bag. It was a very pivotal and impactful moment in our NICU journey for several weeks when we met. It’s difficult to remain positive when you deliver early and you’re not experiencing a typical birth—where you get to meet your baby immediately, your baby comes home quickly, and your family gets to meet them. This ministry allowed us to feel supported during a time of uncertainty, prayed for, and there were also very thoughtful resources in the bag. We have continued to have their support two years later post NICU. We are forever grateful for a community who continues to support this ministry,” Lorance said. Blessing bags, stamped with SJ’s tiny footprints as the ministry’s logo, are designed with the purpose of supplying parents/guardians with all they will need while their baby is in the hospital. They are gender neutral, and the only variation is how many gift cards go into each bag. That is determined by the information the Swensons receive from the family as to how long the infant is expected to be in the hospital. Each bag starts with about $75.00 worth of gift cards, making each a value of about $250.00. Families with babies who are super early or seem very sick will receive more gift cards.
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COMMUNITY & CULTURE
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