When a Nashville couple experienced the irreplaceable loss of their newborn son, they knew they had to answer the call when a nurse informed them of an abandoned baby in the same hospital.
Katie and Josh Butler were over the moon when their darling son, Josh Dewey Butler IV, was born in May 2015, but they weren’t prepared for what life was about to throw at them.
Dewey, as he was lovingly called, had a rare genetic disorder from birth that made mundane tasks like eating and breathing difficult for him. He lived a short life of just 132 days at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital before going home to Heaven.
Remembering those days when the couple spent time on their knees literally, Josh said that their time with Dewey—before his birth, during his time with them, and after he died—was nothing less than spiritual warfare.
The couple had reached out to their loved ones for prayer so that God would impart healing to Dewey and encourage the family to stay strong and fight for his life.
Who can imagine what Katie and Josh must have gone through when they lost their baby son and hugged him one last time before taking him in his car seat for his funeral? “We were thinking, ‘We’re good, normal people! Why are we the ones with a sick baby? Why are we the ones whose baby died? Is this really happening?’” Josh said.
Meanwhile, God was working out a way for these two beautiful people, and He was with them the entire time. He knew what was good or bad for them and that they desperately needed to have another child to move toward restoration and healing.
Their lives were about to change forever when one of Dewey’s nurses informed them of a baby on the hospital’s fifth floor who had a similar illness to Dewey’s. The baby’s name was Braxtel, and to make matters worse, his family had abandoned him there.
“Right away, I knew it was an answer to a prayer,” Katie said when she heard about the abandoned baby. “This baby needed a home, needed a family.”
They met with Braxtel and knew in their hearts that he would be a part of their family. So, they became Braxtel’s foster parents and soon officially adopted him into the family.
Braxtel was being treated at the hospital for different illnesses, after which Josh and Katie brought the adorable baby boy home.
But bringing Braxtel home didn’t mean that the pain they felt after losing Dewey had been reduced. Instead, it gave them a purpose to keep loving and fighting for his life.
It would have been easy for them to feel hopeless and depressed, but Braxtel reminded them daily that their lives were not about putting themselves first, but putting others first.
They shared their story on Monday’s episode of American Ninja Warrior, in Daytona, FL, where Josh took part as one of the 14 rookies on behalf of Braxtel in the finals. They want their story to help others find peace and healing from whatever affliction is in their lives.
Josh said that God has a purpose for each one, in both the good and the bad, and that by sharing their story on ANW, they want everyone to know that their life is not in vain but has a purpose.
NOTE: This article was originally published on Oct 1, 2021
