Nate & Amber Kotschi: Finding joy in the difficult
When their daughter was diagnosed with Down Syndrome, the gift of her life became an opportunity to share God's goodness.
In 2018, Nate & Amber Kotschi were tremendously blessed with the birth of their daughter, Georgia. This added blessing to their lives also created a unique platform for them to share their desperate dependence on Jesus after Georgia was diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Amber expressed that until the birth of her daughter she felt as those she had control of all aspects of her life and that she makes her expectations a reality. Amber shared “God has really just kind of shaken that for me and it’s been really sweet and really beautiful. It has been really challenging at the same time for me to just realize that His plan is better and that I don’t have control and I shouldn’t have control.”
Nate Kotschi acknowledged that in all of he and Amber’s time at Northwest, he has been searching for the joy of desperately depending on Jesus to find what it truly means for him. “I think I really was able to find that within the last year. Experiencing the birth of our first child and seeing all the ways that God shows up in your life and really just provides you all the wonderful things that you didn’t even know that you needed.”
After Georgia was born, she had to spend six weeks in the NICU. During this time, Nate would read to her from his grandfather’s Bible. A nurse noticed him reading to his daughter and inquired on what he was reading. He shared, “My daughter’s great grandfather’s Bible. I get to sit here and read the Psalms to her and really just pour God over her in these first couple days of her life.” In the process of showering his baby with the Word of God, Nate created a platform to share Jesus. That nurse told another nurse and soon the Kotschi’s were able to share their faith with the nurses.
Amber adds, “In this last year, God has just shown up for us in a really life-changing way, in a really powerful way. We’ve noticed that it’s given us a lot more boldness in talking about our faith, because it’s impossible not to when we think back on what He’s done for us and how well He’s taken care of us.”
As believers, we may not think that He has a divine platform for us or that sharing our life experiences can bring people to depend on Jesus, but Nate’s revelation can be helpful to us all. “We’ve realized that being special needs parents is really our ‘Divine Platform’. We didn’t necessarily choose it, or seek it out, but it has really been placed in our lap and we can already tell that God has given us a lot of opportunities to talk about His goodness and how good He’s been to us and just how sweet His love is for Georgia as well.”