The Zev Project

In this episode, Zev has a chance to breathe on his own for the first time since birth. Stephanie experiences a new shift in this season in the NICU, one that requires a new posture of hope and perseverance as they celebrate the big victories in Zev's treatment and health, and as they settle in for the long haul of the next four months.

After surviving the most intense night of his life in the NICU, Zev still has some hurdles to overcome in order to thrive. He must get off the oscillator after a failed first attempt. But in the weeks that followed, new breath and hope emerged for Zev's progress as new teams arrived to assess his case.

Stephanie chronicles her arrival back to the hospital after receiving the call that Zev’s life was coming to an end. She details the experience around the posture of warfare and the wild intersection between the physical and spiritual realms. Tracy Brown returns to give her account of the miracles that took place that night, when Zev came back from the brink of death to become the boy who, against all odds, lived.

In this episode, Stephanie finally arrives at the hardest night they faced in the NICU. With Zev's numbers steadily declining, they were left with little hope that he would survive. The doctors tried everything to save his life, but according to all the numbers, Zev's life was coming to an abrupt and unexpected end. Stephanie explores the journey around balancing decisions and hope, as well as the moment of ultimate surrender to whatever outcomes came to pass. Catherine Tenedios Hayes joins to give her perspective on that night as they waited to find out if Zev would make it through.

In this episode, Stephanie rounds out what was happening both inside and outside of the NICU during Zev's first two weeks, including her relationship with Ben and the goings-on of the greater community at large, as well as how she confronted some of her own agreements that were hiding beneath the surface of the hope and the fight. Pastor Brian Carlucci joins to share his experience visiting the hospital and what he observed happen both there and in the church around Zev's early birth. This episode lays the final foundation as Stephanie and Ben prepare for the most intense night they experienced around Zev's fragile little life just 16 days after he entered the world.

In this episode, Stephanie details her first visit to see Zev in the NICU. She shares the ways in which they received information about Zev's condition from the doctors and nurses, and the uphill battles they were facing as he continued his fight for life in an incubator. Listeners hear the more specific complications that Zev suffered from in his first days and weeks of life having been born with such prematurity, and how Ben and Stephanie clung to hope and understanding in the face of incredibly dire circumstances and uncertainty.

In this episode, after making the decision to fight for Zev's chance at life, Stephanie arrives to the new hospital via emergency helicopter. Once there, she and Ben work with the doctors to determine the best course of action for the next few hours, and they make the final decisions around resuscitating Zev and what that means with every scientific and medical statistic stacked against his survival. Tracy Brown returns to give her third-person perspective of the events of that night and Zev's miraculous entrance into the world.

Tracy Brown joins Stephanie in this episode to discuss in depth the circumstances that led to the possibility of Zev's survival. They confront the deeper, sometimes darker, spiritual forces at play, both on that night and in the months leading up to Zev's birth, and how they were ultimately overcome by calling out and trusting the deeper truths set before them.

In the opening episode, Stephanie outlines the lens with which she views Zev's story. She introduces the concept that eventually becomes "Tell Me What's Good" as she navigates the idea of hope balanced against the fears of her circumstances and how that posture can change and restructure the narrative of crisis and uncertainty. She shares the beginnings of how and why she ended up in the hospital at 23 weeks along in her pregnancy and confronts the unexpected news that she would have to birth the baby in order to save her life, but without the option of his survival.