No Easter dinner with ham and trimmings.

No long walks along the beach, as in years past.

The Lawrensons and their newborn daughter, Gwyneth Rose, will spend this holiest of Christian days as they have spent the past three months -- at Duke Hospital. There, Tricia, as she is known, is awaiting a double-lung transplant to help her survive a few more years with cystic fibrosis. At 25, Tricia is now on a ventilator. Her respiratory passages are plugged with thickened mucus, and she can no longer breathe on her own.

Though the couple can't celebrate Easter with all the traditional trappings, the Lawrensons are living the spirit of the season. If Easter proclaims the Christian message that Jesus has been raised from the dead, then the Lawrensons live each day with the conviction that their physical death is not the end. They are willing to bet their living -- and when it comes to that, their dying -- on Jesus' promise of eternal life.

"When you're put in a situation like this, you have two choices -- do it on your own or say, 'This is what God wants, so we'll trust in him,' " said Nathan, 26, the worship leader at Nags Head Church on the Outer Banks. "We've said, 'God, we'll put our faith in you.' "

Still, the couple acknowledge the past few months have tested their faith in ways most people can only imagine.

Nathan Lawrenson was smitten the moment he spotted the pretty brunette with big brown eyes and long lashes in the audience of his father's church. He was on stage playing guitar. She was sitting in the pew area, a first-time visitor.

After the service, he bolted to the door, introduced himself and invited her to a Bible study.

Lot of love, little time

Nathan had no inkling Tricia was sick until one of their first dates, when she coughed a horrible, deep hack.

"You sound like my grandfather," Nathan said, innocently referring to granddaddy Kenny, who had emphysema.

It's cystic fibrosis, Tricia told him. By all appearances a buoyant, lively, normal-looking 19-year-old, Tricia suffered from a disease that could well claim her life before the age of 30.

To keep breathing, she underwent daily chest percussion to clear her lungs, took a strict pill regimen, inhaled aerosols, adhered to a special diet and made routine hospital trips.

As their relationship deepened, Nathan understood he had to make a choice.

"Either I go after this with all my heart, or I turn away right now. I don't want to date her for a year and then break up and waste a year of her life," he said. "She's only got so much time."

Nathan decided to commit. The two went off to college at Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va., and on June 27, 2004, they were married overlooking the ocean at Nags Head.

This would be no ordinary marriage, the couple knew. It would be lived in fast-forward mode.

So they started thinking about a family.

The long-shot pregnancy

Few patients with cystic fibrosis are able to conceive children. Men with the genetically inherited disease are almost always infertile; women have fertility difficulties due to thickened cervical mucus.

The Lawrensons decided to try anyway. Until 2006, Tricia was functioning at a fairly healthy level. At night she occasionally needed oxygen to help her sleep, but during the day she was volunteering with the youth and children's ministry at the church where her husband was on staff, and she had completed her undergraduate degree in religion by correspondence.

But about 18 months ago, her breathing became more labored and her condition began to decline. By May, doctors told the couple a pregnancy, which they felt was a risk to begin with, would now seriously endanger Tricia's life. The couple quit trying to conceive and turned their energies toward getting Tricia a double-lung transplant.

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