There will be no Easter sunrise service for Patricia and Nathan Lawrenson this year.

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.

On Sept. 3, Nathan stood up in front of the church and announced that he and Tricia were leaving the next day for Durham, where she would undergo a month of physical therapy before being placed on the transplant list at Duke.

But when he got home, Tricia met him at the door with her own news. Three home pregnancy tests confirmed it: She was pregnant.

'Willing to trust God'

The next day, on the drive to Durham, the Lawrensons braced for the dire predictions their doctors would issue about continuing the pregnancy. But they were equally determined to keep the baby. As committed evangelicals, the Lawrensons believe that life begins at conception and abortion is akin to murder. More important, they believed God wanted this pregnancy and helped bring it about.

"Our choice simply came down to whether or not we were seriously willing to trust God," Nathan wrote later on his blog. "And really, what else did we have to hang on to at that point?"

For Nathan and Tricia, trusting in God, even when it doesn't seem reasonable -- even when life itself is at stake -- is what it means to have faith.

The couple's decision to proceed with the pregnancy meant that Tricia would be taken off the transplant list just when she needed it most.

As her uterus began to grow, it pushed up on her abdomen, further impairing her breathing.

By November, Tricia needed oxygen all the time.

By December, she was moving very slowly and sleeping a lot.

The birth of Gwyneth Rose

On Jan. 8, Tricia was wheeled into surgery, where no fewer than 50 doctors assisted in the birth of Gwyneth Rose Lawrenson. The baby was born at 24 weeks gestation -- at the very edge of what doctors consider viable. Weighing little more than a pound, Gwyneth was whisked into the neonatal intensive care unit. While facing tremendous health challenges -- none of her organs are fully developed -- she is unlikely to have cystic fibrosis. The genetic disease is passed from both father and mother, and Nathan is not a carrier.

While doctors tended to the baby, Tricia was strapped to a ventilator and put into a medically induced coma to help her body get used to the machine that would be breathing for her.

Soon after emerging from the coma nine days later, Tricia was put back on the transplant list. Her pulmonary specialist, Dr. Peter Kussin, said her condition is now stable, but her chances of surviving on the ventilator are low.

"Tricia would benefit from a transplant as soon as possible," Kussin said.

But there are nearly 100,000 people awaiting an organ transplant in the United States -- more than 2,100 of them needing lungs. On average, Duke Hospital performs 65 lung transplants a year. About 50 percent survive six to seven years with their new organs, transplant pulmonologist David Zaas said.

Life-and-death wait

Tricia is among eight people awaiting lung transplants at Duke, but because she's on a ventilator, she's at the top of the list. The irony is that someone has to die for Tricia to live -- a death for a resurrection.

That has made the Lawrensons, who are covered by health insurance through the Southern Baptist Convention, zealous proponents of organ donation. It has also led them to commit their lives to making a difference for others.

"Tricia believes that her purpose in life is to give God glory by allowing Him to use her cystic fibrosis to be a blessing to others," Nathan wrote on his blog.

Nathan is also embracing that mission. Last week, he helped collect $700 at a bake sale in the halls of Duke Hospital to benefit cystic fibrosis. Now he's busy with a much bigger fundraiser, a one-mile walk on the Outer Banks this fall.

As he shuttles through the hospital dividing his time between his wife and his daughter, Nathan cherishes the simple tasks: washing Tricia's hair, the only time he can touch her without sterile gloves; cuddling up next to her as she goes to bed each night; singing lullabies to Gwyneth.

The Lawrensons are ever conscious of their blessings: Nathan hasn't gotten as much as a cold all winter long. Tricia remains stable. Gwyneth has doubled her birth weight.

The days ahead will be precarious, but the Lawrensons will greet what comes with faith and joy. They know a new world, full of hope and love, lies ahead -- no matter what.