Just hours before he arrived, one of our friends believed that he would be born on Palm Sunday. This sweet boy was a week and a half late and was in fact born on Palm Sunday.... In honor of being born on the day that Jesus rode a donkey into Jerusalem, our friend suggested the name "Triumph," named after the Triumphal Entry. 

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Later that night, I woke up and realized something quite amazing. In the Bible, the part that speaks of Jesus riding on a donkey into Jerusalem is Matthew 21. Triumph was born at 2:21pm and was 21" tall. 

The next morning, we all started thinking even more. Jesus followed The Star of Bethlehem into Jerusalem and Triumph had a star on his head. We were all amazed with how everything was lining up.

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Later that day, we discovered that Triumph had become very lethargic very quickly. We started calling our beloved vets and they were unable to do 24hr neonatal care. Then we called several other vets and decided to drive to Tennessee Equine Hospital. We were given the suggestion, by two of our vets, to give him syrup to get sugar in him. When we arrived to TEH, they said that doing so probably saved his life. 

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It turned out that, even though he had been nursing, he was unable to absorb colostrum. He became septic. They started him on antibiotics and fluids... then gave him Plasma. We were there till 12:30 am.

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The next morning, we drove out to see him. Sadly, after discussing many different unknown variables, we decided to put him down. His quality of life was what we considered and doing this was the best decision for him.

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Later that night, we received a call from our distant cousin. She said how she calls our donkeys "her donkeys" and that, when she found out Triumph passed away, she told her friends that "her donkey" had died. Afterwards, when she got into the bus that she drives, she had on a Christain Station.

 

The man on the radio was speaking about the Prophesy and, at the end, he said "God needs your donkey." She wondered if she heard correctly what he said... and he repeated "God needs your donkey" four more times.

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She said that she knew we were hurting but she knows that Triumph is with God.

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Right after our phone call, I received a text from our good friend. She said "I don't know if anyone pointed this out to y'all but the verse of the day is Matthew 21:21!" This is now another time that the number "21" has appeared. The day he was born and the day we said goodbye.

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I decided to share this story on Facebook and received so many amazing messages. Below is a message that I was given permission to share. We knew from the beginning that this boy was something special. It is quite an extraordinary experience to see that, even though he has passed, he is continuing to bring so many together. We love you so much Triumph. Go and be by God's side.

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Message Sent to Us:

“Hi Savannah.. I’m Susan and I just read your story about your sweet donkey! I’m in Ohio and it’s 2:03 a.m here now.. I couldn’t sleep tonight because my husband wasn’t feeling well today and that stresses me out. He is sleeping now so since I didn’t want to wake up any friends to chat in the middle of the night.. I called a prayer line. So I told her why I’m feeling stressed and after she heard my story she said she felt led to 1 Samuel 9, so when we concluded our call- I went and read it. It was amazing because it also referenced donkeys and the last name (Kish) of my friend that I had just spoken with earlier that night. Then I opened up FB and right there was your post. We are all connected through our Lord and tonight He showed me that again! God bless you for how you so eloquently shared your story. Your story has now become part of my story of how He connects all his children ”