Day Fifteen

Have you ever thought of all the bad things that could happen to you or your loved ones in life, and feel that you would be at complete peace amidst the situation knowing that God loves us all so much and is in full control no matter what? I didn’t know what my future held, but my faith was about to be tested... Prior to my life-altering news, I remember conversations I had over the years with friends and family who were fearful of the unknown and what could happen to them or their loved ones. I expressed to them how I had such peace when I reflected on what could happen to me or those that I loved whatever the circumstance might be. 

In the 12th year of marriage to my incredible husband, Ben, along with our two children, Kaitlyn (4) and Daniel (2), we received news that would change our lives forever. On August 21, 2009, a day before my 32nd birthday, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma.

I found a lump under my left arm and had it checked out.  They did an ultrasound, blood work, biopsies, PET scan, and two bone marrow biopsies and determined that it was Stage 4 after finding cancer in my bone marrow. From the time that I received the diagnosis from the Doctor, I had complete peace that passes all understanding. I felt the same amount of joy at that very moment as I had before I ever received the diagnosis. I knew that it was only because of Christ, and not that of myself.

Not once did I pray for God's healing in my journey with cancer, but for His will do be done. I wanted as many people and unsaved friends to see Christ and be able to know Him personally. I knew that God was in control whether He wanted me to live or die, and what would bring Him more glory.

He has a huge purpose for each of our lives, and we don't know his ways that He will use us.   

,

After eight rounds of chemotherapy and two years of maintenance chemo I was told that I was in 

remission. Thanks to the Lord, I am living today to share my story with others, and to give God the glory. I am so thankful for all that He has done in my life.

A year and a half before my cancer diagnosis, Ben and I had talked about having one more child, and Ben always said we would have a little girl, and we picked out the name Sophia Grace. We didn't know if we would be able to have another child because of the chemo that I had undergone, but Ben and I prayed about it and decided we would like another child if God saw fit. On August 21, 2014, exactly five years to the date that I received my cancer diagnosis, Ben and I welcomed Sophia Grace into our lives. She has been our miracle baby, and we thank the Lord for allowing us to be her parents. My oncology nurses could not believe that I was able to have a baby after the chemo that they had administered to me during those treatments. 

I know that nothing is impossible with God.   

My goal is to continue to give God the praise and glory throughout my life until the day I meet Him. 

This journey that we walked made me a stronger person, and it made my walk with the Lord closer to Him than ever before. It also has given me more opportunities to shine for him. For any of you who might be in the midst of these kinds of situations now, here are some truths from God’s word that blessed me during that time in my life.

Isaiah 43:1-3 He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel, fear not for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name, you are mine.  When you walk through the waters I will be with you, when you pass through the mighty rivers they will not sweep over you, when you walk through the fire you will not be scorched, nor will the flames burn you, for I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior. 

Jeremiah 17:7-9 But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose confidence is in Him.  He will be like a tree planted by the waters, that sends out it roots by the stream.  It does not fear when heat comes, but its leaves are always green.  It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to produce fruit.   

Supernatural Story by Amy Beachy 

Day Fourteen

Our family used to take a week +  vacation by going to a great friend in New Jersey to stay and visit with her family and go to the ocean for a few days, then drive home and repack for a grand cabin extravaganza.  It is quite a chore packing for a large family and getting all of us into the suburban around 10 pm at night, and only then starting to drive to the ocean. It can be a daunting task for a mom, but that was our routine. So- off we went in the dark of night towards the shore. However, a little over  an hour into the trip we experienced an incredible event.  In Philadelphia near the Walt Whitman Bridge, my husband observed a car driving exceptionally erratic and traveling at a high speed as it passed by us.  ( For any of you familiar with my hubby's driving patterns-you know that means  F A S T !!! )  Joe was startled and was "ooooohing" and "oh my goshing", which grabbed my groggy attention. We both proceeded to watch as this car almost smashed into another car, but narrowly missed by instead slamming into the cement median and proceeding to slide semi-sideways down the road before crashing and setting off sparks.  It was a WILD SCENE and our adrenaline was pumping.  We got to a safe stop just before the crash and pulled off the side of the road.  Instincts and training took over for us both as we called 911 and proceeded to do our jobs.  Joe checked out people medically, and I used a flashlight and directed traffic to keep from further incidents occurring as car parts were strewn all over the road.  About 60 minutes went by and professional help was on the scene, we had given our accounts, and off to the ocean we went.  Exhaustion set in and it was the middle of the night till we got settled in with our friends.

The next morning I realized I couldn't see my watch and rings in my gear. I searched during the course of the next few days looking thoroughly in the car and throughout all our suitcases, but NO WATCH OR RINGS!  I was bummed and very upset with myself, but tried to apply grace knowing in our frantic rush to leave home I must have taken them off right before leaving and forgotten them there.  I would find them when we drove home to switch gear before leaving for the cabin. But when we got home and I looked-NO RINGS OR WATCH BAND!!! I only searched for about 30 minutes knowing we wanted to head to the cabin, and I would find them in our bags while at the cabin, back at home after we got back from vacation, or my friend would find them at her home in New Jersey.

Alas.... Days went by, vacation came to a close, everyone checked-rechecked, and checked ALL THEIR GEAR AGAIN, and still no wedding band or rings to be found. Home from the cabin and by now about nine days had elapsed since my last sure remembrance of wearing my watch and rings. I felt embarrassed, stupid, like I totally disappointed my husband, and sad to have lost something so valuable emotionally and financially!!!! My hubby was kind, but I could tell he was so sad too.  More days went by and all along we had been praying, but no watch or rings in sight.  Finally, about a week after being home, our whole family was sitting in the living room talking and a wave of sadness and shame swept over me. I excused myself back to the bedroom to take a shower, (cry by myself without others knowing).

In the shower I asked the LORD  to please show me mercy and to give me a picture of when or where I lost my watch band with my rings attached to it. Within a few minutes I saw this mental picture of us being in Philadelphia at that crash scene. I saw myself jump out of the car and my watch and rings falling off my lap onto the side of the road.  That made sense, it could be...

Quickly I came bouncing out to the family and interjected into the lively conversation that I think GOD just showed me where my rings were. I gave a brief description, but literally it was as if NO ONE cared or believed me. Talk went right back and I dejectedly ignored my own thoughts too.   But someone who loves me VERY MUCH, someone who believes in me when I say I think I hear GOD, was listening attentively!!!

I got up the next morning for church, came into the bathroom to see my husband smiling from ear to ear and humming while he was shaving.  My mind was quite inquisitive by now because my hubby just couldn't stop smiling.  He asked me to guess where he just came from.  "Dunkin Doughnuts, NO!", and  a giggle. "Evergreen for breakfast?"  "No!" I then told him I had NO IDEA, to which he said, " Philadelphia."   "Why would you get up extra early to drive to........  You didn't?"   " I did,  and look what I found just like you said!!!!!"  Then he held up my watch band with my rings attached onto it! "I listened to Phil Keagy's greatest hits and prayed the whole time driving down believing I would find the rings!",  and indeed he did!

My faithful husband drove all the way to the exact location of the accident, which was still fairly easy to find due to the major damage and skid marks on the median, plus the accident had taken place right before entering the pre-ramps to the bridge area. We had had a few storms during the nearly two weeks since the accident, and a horrendous flooding torrential downpour just three nights earlier which had soaked the entire region including Philadelphia!  My JOE got out and looked up and down the road and sides where we had parked. No rings. He searched and searched. Finally, believing I HAD  heard GOD correctly, and believing He was supposed to drive and find them, Joe prayed more as he made his last ditch attempt to locate that watch and ring set.  He decided to walk about 50-100 yards further than where we were parked and to look down into the very last sewer drain on the highway before the ramps-literally the last one.

He peered down into this deep drainage area through the bars and spotted something glittery and reflective hanging onto the bottom of a small tree branch whose others end was caught at the top of the grate.  YES - YOU READ CORRECTLY!  Many yards from where we stopped, at literally the last drainage hole, hanging onto a tree branch, that was stuck in the sewer bars,  hanging ever so fragile, after torrential downpours and weeks elapsing  WAS MY WATCH BAND HOLDING MY RINGS!!!!!!!!!  Joe gently grabbed the branch and wiggled those rings and band into his hand!  My husband recovered my keys-ya know- the ones JESUS or some angel placed just perfectly for him to find and recover!!!! Now as Eagles fans we love the "Miracle at the Meadowlands", but from the time my husband found my rings on, we refer  to this event as the "Miracle at the Vet" (former Eagles stadium). So what's the miracle.... That we were there late to help people stay alive and keep others from an accident, seeing or hearing from GOD mentally to know where to look, hearing from GOD to expand the search area, or actually finding the watch band and rings after such bad weather and a long time? You tell me...

Story by Marilou Strangarity

Day Thirteen

It seems small. And it seems insignificant. Especially if I am comparing this miraculous answer to prayer to the other supernatural stories we have shared on this blog, so far. But that is the point of this particular story actually.

God is the God of the B I G things AND the "little" things too!

Sean and I were at a friend's wedding. As we drove home our car started acting up. From what we recall, turn singles were causing the four ways to go on, wipers were not functioning, and beeps on the dashboard were going on. This went on for several minutes as we drove. We were angry. We looked at each other and at our car and we both knew we did not have any money to try to fix whatever problem was happening.

That's when my faith (small as a mustard seed) rose up and I looked him right in the eyes and I said, "We need to pray over the car! Our God is the God of the B I G things AND the "little" things too! And if He can heal us, He can heal our car too!"

So, he believed and we held hands and we prayed over our little red Chevy Malibu!

And immediately the beeping stopped, the blinking issue stopped, the wiper issue stopped...

And, we never once had any other issues with the car!

Our God is the God of the B I G things and the "little" things too!

What is it today that seems "little" to you that you need to go to God in faith with, believing He is a God who cares about the "little" things too?!

Day Twelve

Did you ever wonder how some of those Bible miracles could have happened right before those people’s eyes, and they had no clue what was occurring till it was done? Like, how did a little boy present five loaves of bread and two fish to JESUS and then voila’, twelve baskets of leftovers after feeding 5000 + people. Well I certainly did, and now I have my own personal clue as to one of the possibilities of how those miracles could occur without the people being aware of the supernatural component until it was all over with.

My daughter Rebekah and I went on a mission’s trip to Ecuador. One of the ways the organization (Brio magazine trips with Focus on the Family) fed the large teams was to have each person on the trip bring two jars of peanut butter and two jars of jelly along on the trip.  I know this sounds strange, but when you have to feed about 800 people in a third world country who are driving to various locations on buses doing different types of practical work, like painting or building, it stretches the money and outreach capabilities immensely. So each morning every team would grab two loaves of bread, bring one of the team member’s jars of jelly and peanut butter, and grab one piece of fresh fruit for each person on the team. We would make the sandwiches at the hotel before leaving in the morning, then we would go to our assigned outreaches bringing our sandwiches in the bread bags and the rest of our lunch, and the other equipment we needed for each day of work. Each team would pantomime a story using sound equipment and a tape of music sometime during their service work. This time of acting out the story would be followed by testimony time and sharing the gospel to the group we were trying to serve. After nearly two weeks of being together all day and night, our team became very close with our local interpreter. She asked us to consider driving to her family’s little village on the side of a volcano and sharing the gospel through the drama if we had any spare time on our final day of ministry.  They were so exceptionally poor and virtually no one had ever even heard about the LORD, nor had someone come to visit them and bring them anything.

We got extremely excited when our morning project finished super early leaving us time to honor her request. As a team, we decided to forego our lunch and share the sandwiches with whomever was available after we shared our drama. We knew it could get a little risky because if a lot of people showed up, and we only had a few sandwiches we might be better off not sharing the food; however, after getting to the village, climbing the steep sides of the volcano to get to the top near her mother’s home, and seeing the severity of the poverty surrounding us, we decided it was worth the risks to share. Every day each of the adults on the teams would divide up the different jobs so no one person would ever do the same thing repetitively. That day happened to be when I was in charge of security and distribution, meaning I knew exactly how many sandwiches we started with because it was my job to count all our supplies and keep track of their coming and going off of and onto the buses at each location of service. (It has been nearly 13 years since this story occurred and I have not found my old journal with the “facts/details”, so I might be remembering the specific numbers wrong. Please forgive me and if you want to read the story as documented years ago, let me know and I will get the magazine article written about this event for you). I counted a couple of times that day before we got to our sight and began our ministry-22 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches-22.

After years of being away from this event, I still remember vividly how psyched everyone was to be at her village and especially to share with her mother and some other close family and friends. None of them knew about JESUS, and they were living in  horrible poverty stricken situations. Her mother’s home consisted of a piece of tin with holes in it, no running water, raw sewage running down open ditches between the “homes(shacks)”, and no official door to keep it warm or from storms. The children looked so hungry and some had distended bellies. No shoes or pieces of burlap tied onto their feet. It was one of the poorest places I ever remember being in in all my travels to date. But we had prayed often for her family, and for this opportunity to share what little we had with “her people” and show them the love of JESUS the best we could. We cleaned and picked up broken glass, and fixed what things we could on such short notice.  Then we cleared a little area to do our drama, and we began our time of ministry.

While most of the team were busy acting, running the sound equipment, or getting ready to share their testimonies, I sat and protected our gear, backpacks, and the food we were going to share as soon as the drama, testimonies, and sharing time was over. So I prayed and watched. I fought back tears longing for these people to see the true love of CHRIST through our sharing and soon through our practical giving of what we had-our food. I did a tentative head count and it was close to a hundred, so I figured if each youth handed out the sandwiches by breaking them into about ¼’s, we would get close to each person having at least a bite of sandwich. Then I continued to pray and ask the LORD to help protect us and for HIM to pour out HIS presence all around us.  Boy….did we ever watch that happen. So many of the people, young and old alike, started crying as they finished watching the drama.  Then as the testimonies were being shared, her mother started yelling and crying loudly. It was obvious her mother was really touched by something, but what exactly we didn’t know at the time. Shortly it was becoming our most emotionally impactful day and so much joy as the people were hungry for our love and sharing.

I called our designated team members over to begin handing out the sandwiches. I explained briefly that they should try to break the sandwiches into about 4 pieces each before handing them out so they would spread farther.  We joined hands and said a brief prayer out loud over the food simply thanking HIM for these sandwiches and  asking the LORD to make it spread and feed the hungry people here. There was no time to be long winded nor take our eyes off all that was occurring because a bigger crowd was coming even as we prayed.  I handed out the sandwiches and sent the youth in different directions. Minutes went by-I honestly don’t recall how many, but I know it was at least five or so, when one of the boys called across the crowd to me. “Lou, what should I do with the rest of my sandwiches?” I was stunned and honestly remember thinking to myself, “How hard is it to hand out about 6 sandwiches to a crowd this hungry and this large? What is he possibly doing that he isn’t already done handing out the sandwiches?” I shouted to him telling him to just start handing them out as a whole sandwich and not to worry about breaking the sandwiches into so many small pieces, to which he responded that he had been handing out whole sandwiches for a while already, and he thinks he has more than he did to start.

NOW WHAT IS AN INTELLIGENT PERSON SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THIS INFORMATION OTHER THAN TO SUPPOSE THAT THIS YOUNG INDIVIDUAL ISN’T TOO WITH IT? I MEAN, COME ON, MORE THAN WHEN YOU STARTED?  "What do you mean, “ I asked?  He yelled the same thing, and almost immediately two other girls started yelling the same things to me from across the crowds.  Now I was startled, confused, and just beginning to realize something OTHER WORLDLY WAS OCCURRING! Within a few more seconds each of the youth were expressing the same thoughts. They wanted to know what I wanted them to do with all their sandwiches, and they all said they were handing out whole sandwiches and just couldn’t seem to get rid of them all. So many other supernatural things occurred that afternoon. So many overwhelming emotions flooded our team that day and we literally handed out sandwiches the whole way back down the mountainside.  We stripped of as much of our clothing and shoes as we could, we gave away whatever food we had in our backpacks, we pooled the little money we had in our pockets, and YES-we gave away peanut butter and jelly sandwiches until we were out of sight and heading back to our destination. I will NEVER forget counting the two bread bags when we were driving back and having more sandwiches in the bags than when we started-NEVER! I saw a miracle and yet I never saw it at the same time. How did those sandwiches arrive, where did they come from, how was this happening and we were unaware the whole time? I have witnessed this first hand and yet I don’t know how to really explain what I witnessed? All I know is that GOD can use bread and fish AND peanut butter and jelly to feed as many people as HE wishes!

Reflections on Supernatural Stories

On this sabbath (To Rest), I am taking the day to rest and reflect upon the times in my life when God has shown me His miraculous power. When does it happen? What does it look like? Why am I so prone to doubt, despite the time and time again that things outside of "the natural" have evidenced Gods greatness, love, kindness and power?

As I reflect today, I am impacted by the word E X P E C T A N T.

What does it mean to be expectant? As a mother, expectant means to be in a time of growing and a time of anxious anticipation for something amazing! As a mother, expectant means a time of stretching and some pain, but also KNOWING that through the stretching and pain there is a beauty beyond description awaiting! To be expectant means to KNOW there will be a time of delivery-deliverance!

As we wait upon God to move, to act, to grow us and change us, to stretch us... We can also be assured, He will also DELIVER us! Whether that be in a physical healing, emotional healing, financial healing, relational healing, answered prayers.

When God chooses to deliver us sometimes it is immediate and miraculous, and other times it is through long suffering and patient endurance until we finally see His hand in answered prayers. His ways are not our ways...

Isaiah 55:8-9New Living Translation (NLT)

8 “My thoughts are nothing like your thoughts,” says the Lord.
    “And my ways are far beyond anything you could imagine.
9 For just as the heavens are higher than the earth,
    so my ways are higher than your ways
    and my thoughts higher than your thoughts. (Post from Bible Gateway)

When I say to God, "I NEED YOU!" I have found that in my desperation, more than I need answered prayers or any form of healing (physical, emotional, financial, etc...) it is in my admission of my desperate need for HIM above all that opens my life up to recieve HIM  A  N  D  all He has in store 

1 Corinthians 2:9 

but just as it is written, “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him.”

GOD always, ALWAYS has better-good-amazing-freedom-healing-hope-wholeness-love in store for us!

BE EXPECTANT sweet brothers and sisters! 

Day Eleven

Today is our third daughter, our beautiful gift of God, Sadie May's 7th birthday!

After losing our second Daughter, Joeli Grace, for unknown reasons at 5 months pregnant, Sadie's pregnancy was very scary for us. We were concerned about everything not knowing what had happened to Joeli, we had nothing to fear so to speak and everything to fear so to speak too.

After a loss some people like to keep their pregnancy quiet until they are farther along, but I wanted everyone to know as soon as possible because I wanted as many prayers for this baby's health as possible!

So at just 8 weeks, 2 months, we announced our sweet growing blessing!

Happy growing little Sadie!

I conceived Sadie almost EXACTLY the same time I had conceived Joeli the year before. Literally, 3 days apart in September. That scared me so much. I don't believe in bad omens or karma or any of that silly talk, however, this seemed too ironic. I was so upset about the dates lining up almost exactly. I remember worrying the nurse at the doctors office may give me Joeli's same due date. I even told her if it lands on June 18th please just give me another date anyway, just lie to me. But she said, "I don't even have to lie to you, the due date is June 15th." Literally three days apart. Looking back I took this as such a negative thing, but now, now I look at this similar date occurrence was Gods way of redeeming every single day that the enemy had stolen joy from and He was restoring unto us joy and peace and hope. And He was giving us good memories in place of the sad and awful ones.

We prayed and prayed, so many tear-filled prayers for the healthy delivery of this baby. And when we arrived at the half way mark, 5 months, the same time we had lost Joeli the year before, we praised God for a healthy growing baby. And we found out, it was a GIRL, a healthy growing little girl!

And then, just one day before her delivery I was in false labor all day. We prayed and prayed and many friends and family prayed over us for her healthy delivery.

During our delivery with Sadie everything was going great. We had one nurse in with us for several hours. No need for doctors of other nurses. But then all of the sudden, within a moment there were about 10-15 doctors and nurses crowding our room and alarms going off and people frantic and I just remember being exhausted and not really even knowing what was happening. There was mention of an emergency c-section and it was in those moments intense doubts and fears swelled my mind. I remember distinctly looking at the Doctor and I said, "just take me back to the OR now and get her out alive PLEASE! Don't let me lose another little girl!" And he looked at me and promised me he would not let that happen if he had anything to say about it and that if we need the c-section he will do that immediately. We prayed and prayed out loud! God help our baby! They had me get onto my hands and knees and lean different ways trying to help the baby's heart rate to rise and steady. And sure enough, after several minutes it finally leveled out and the entire "team" of medical professionals slowly left our room. However, only a little later a whole NICU team was called back in because Meconium was discovered. After the long journey, Sadie May (which means beautiful gift of God) was finally born. She was not allowed to cry or be held for the first 5-10 minutes (which seemed like an eternity) as the NICU team worked on her. But finally, she was in my arms! 

The miracle of life! 

It is undeniably a miracle when it all works out and God showed us the treasure it is through this journey! 

Here is our first family picture after Sadie was born! God protected her and gave us her as a blessing to help in the process of healing our hearts after losing Joeli Grace. Sadie was the sweetest, happiest and easiest little baby ever! She brought peace and joy back into our hearts! What a true delight she is! Today we celebrate her birthday and the supernatural story it is! 

Day Ten

Warning: graphic image contained in this blog

Today I wanted to share one of the most difficult stories with you that I've personally ever experienced, as a mother. It is something that still gives me vivid flashbacks that play like awful movies in your mind, which are difficult to shut off... But I have to shut them off because they literally make my stomach turn and tears well up in my eyes.

It was October, 2014. We had just moved, 5 months prior, into this crazy ride of a major fixer-upper. Sean, my husband, was extremely busy providing for our family working a full-time job and 2 smaller part-time jobs. I was homeschooling our two older children and nannying for two beautiful little sweethearts.

It was just about time for the children I nanny'd for to be picked up for the day and for Sean to head off to teach class. It all grows really dim after that but mostly what I remember is trying to help see the kids to their moms car and behind me hearing our very heavy front door slam but not shut and then our daughter Sadie let out a scream. Then another try (even typing this is so difficult for me because it all comes flooding back) but my husband did not know why the door would not close so he tried to push it again and Sadie let out another scream this one was much worse then even the first.

I tried to be calm due to all the children around and at first I did not realize at all the extent of the injury. I wanted to believe it would just be an awful pinch... When she removed her hand from covering the pointer finger on her right hand I almost passed out on the spot. Her fingertip, from the nail bed, was dangling by a small thread of skin along the bottom of her finger. I remember somehow ending up with a paper towel to hold it on. I remember screaming a lot. I remember screaming bad words, words I do not usually say. I remember telling Seana and Joeby to go to the neighbors house and wait for their grandparents, that we would call them to come get them. I remember Sadie wincing and screaming and crying at every bump, every movement, every scream we also let out...

I was so angry.

I was angry that this precious, beautiful, immensely kind-hearted and compassionate little girl was having to experience such a traumatic and gruesome and painful injury. I was really scared. I was scared knowing this was not going to get better before it got worse. Because sadly, ironically I had already been through this almost exact scenario. When I was around 9 or 10 years old my baby brother lost the tip of his finger in an interior door. We were simply playing tag. It was an accident. As was Sadie's, she was simply seeing her friends and father off. And, I knew it broke her fathers heart that he was ultimately responsible for this accident. Now in my brothers story, there were several surgeries and still major malformations and pain and difficulty with the nail re-growth. I did NOT want that to be our sweet little Sadie's outcome.

After we arrived at the hospital, the check in clerk had to check Sadie's finger. The ER nurse had to check Sadie's finger. The new ER nurse had to check Sadie's finger. The X-Ray tech had to check Sadie's finger. And the final ER doctor that did the surgery had to check her finger. And each time I had to remove the paper towel she let out a scream and cried and begged me to "Put it back on Mommy, please mommy!!!" And each time the tip would fall and dangle. Oh goodness I thought I was going to pass out. I thought I was going to throw up. I felt like I wanted to scream or hit something I was so angry she was going through this. I've always called Sadie my Sweety May... She is the rainbow after our storm. She's the baby we prayed and prayed for. Praying that she would have health and safety, because after losing our second baby, we longed for this little miracle to be happily in our arms. She is the little girl who thinks of others before herself, always. The little girl whose smile can light up a room and who laughs and loves and cares. Why her?

So, we prayed and prayed and prayed. I begged God for help! I begged God to help my baby girl through this. I felt like this was NOT Gods plan, that this was sheer evil and attack from the adversary. That disgusting enemy he comes to steal, kill and destroy and he was trying to destroy my precious, gentle little girl in those moments and create fear and cause havoc.

I wanted Sadie to be able to have something like twilight sleep for the re-attachment surgery... The hospital we went to had nurses that made me feel like the most horrible mother for wanting that because it had "too many risks". I still greatly question my mothering in those moments. I wanted a second opinion, but time was of the essence to do the surgery, and I was being pressured. So I caved in and allowed them to keep her awake and simply put nerve blocks into her poor beautiful little finger. I will never be able to erase from my mind the horrendous memory of the terrified and torturous look in her face as she screamed the most blood curdling screams you could imagine each of SEVERAL nerve blocks they gave her. I remember trying so hard to muster my strength to be strong for her, but I hated every moment of that experience. I wish so badly I could get rid of the nightmares it gives me to this day. After the doctor repaired her finger, she described the injury and possible healing outcomes to us. She told us that due to the fact that Sadie had lost her finger right along the nail bed that reattaching it may not have been successful at saving the nail, but that hopefully at least the finger tip would be saved. She said we may have to follow-up with plastic surgeries or later repair to work on the nail bed if it becomes deformed or chronically painful.

Sadie's finger hurt her SO bad, so for about the first week, while it was bandaged carefully inside a finger splint, I held it up for her on a pillow. Oh so very cautiously , I held it and she slept (or tried to) in bed with us. She was having so much pain and flashbacks and fears that she was struggling to fall asleep until very late each night. And after the first week of agony, we knew she would still have more nightmarish pain to face when the stitches would need to be removed. Two were removed and she was in agony (and traumatized by her nerve block experience). After some discussion, we waited another couple days for the final stitches to be removed.

During this trial we had a band of prayer warriors standing by our side, our friends and family. And I remember one special evening in particular, when the worship team spent time praying for my precious little girls finger to heal properly. The specific prayer was that the nail bed would heal properly and not fall off or be distorted. And, that it would have no signs it ever even was injured at all, so she could paint all ten of her little nails like little girls often like to do without any embarrassment or pain and just to glorify God for His healing and redemption in the situation!

I always love when God not only answers prayers but literally answers prayers EXACTLY! And that hit me very powerfully when only a few months later, we painted all ten of Sadie's sweet little fingers.... And you could barely see any sign of which nail was injured. PRAISE GOD!

Top left is the finger tip with all stitches (I believe there were about 6 in all) still in. The top right shows how closely her finger tip came to being completely detached. Next picture clockwise shows how it scathed right beneath the nail bed. And the final picture (bottom left) shows our direct answer to prayer and literally can barely see any scarring! Nowadays Sadie has trouble even remembering correctly half the time which finger really is her "boo-boo finger". Praise Jesus! 

Day Nine

Hi! My name is Lauren Musser and I’m beyond thrilled to share God’s story in our lives with you. As I’m sharing this, I recognize that each of us has our own hardship in life. No one’s is harder or worse… just different. I am hoping that regardless of where you are in your story – that you are encouraged by the Truth of God’s character and His revelation of that through His work in our lives.

Our story is three fold. Yes – God has worked 3 very obvious and amazing miracles in our lives in the past 6 years. 

It started out with my husband and I having some very difficult years of marriage in our first years. My husband struggled with pornography and I struggled with control and unforgiveness. My husband sought out counseling several times but was shut down in one way or another each time. I eventually shut my heart off to my husband because I was in survival mode. I just couldn’t take one more deep wound. About four years into our marriage, we decided to have children. It took us a few months, but we were able to conceive. However, 10 weeks into the pregnancy we had an ultra sound that revealed that the baby was no longer living. I had to have a surgery to get all of the tissue out as my body was not doing it on it’s own. About two months later we were able to conceive again and this time it was a healthy, baby boy! I gave birth to Noah the following Springand he’s been our decisive, go getter ever since! He is 6 now!  :-o

When Noah turned 9 months, I began to have some very odd health issues. I had been strong and healthy all of my life – but one day that just ended. I became disoriented, dizzy, confused, I began having blurry vision that eventually took over my entire eye sight. I was hospitalized and tested for everything under the sun. To no avail. They found nothing. I lived with these health issues after that – they happened several times a month and I just powered through because I didn’t know what else to do. At Noah’s one year old birthday mark, we found out we were pregnant again! During this pregnancy, my health issues seemed to fade. The following January I gave birth to another precious baby boy. Joel Thomas Musser. Up for anything – happy go lucky little boy. My little lover. He’s 4 

4 months after his birth- my health issues returned with vengeance. I was having incredible migraines with aura’s about 3 times a week. I felt incapable of taking care of my two baby boys. Life was rough. Really rough. And during that time our marriage continued to decline. I was constantly exhausted and fatigued and I just didn’t have it in me to fight for our marriage anymore. So I just survived. I would be as kind to my husband as I could – but my heart was closed to him. I just couldn’t bearto let him in. It was too painful. Around this time, God was doing an incredible miracle in my husband’s heart. My husband decided to reach out for counseling, despite the dead ends he had encountered prior times. He decided that as a child of God, he was not to be held captive by sin. He began to heal – I was seeing undoubtable changes in his heart.  But I was stuck.  Stuck in by distrust toward him and stuck with my closed, hard heart toward him. So finally I began counseling too. I remember crying out to God to heal my heart. I didn’t understand how He possibly could… I felt that I was damaged beyond repair. And God spoke as clear as day to me, “Lauren – I CREATED you!  I most certainly know how to heal you!!!  Just let me do the work and stop trying so hard.  Just let me.”  And I released it to Him.  And let me tell you – He healed our marriage.  He changed both of our hearts and made them new!  Also around this time, we became pregnant again. We were surprised and overjoyed. Nervous too – but happy! I was about 14 weeks when I began spotting. And cramping. And I could literally see my belly dropping. We went in for an emergency ultra sound only to find that our baby had stopped growing around 12 weeks and had no heartbeat. The doctors didn’t know what was going on or why this had happened. They did genetic testing to try and figure out what caused this. They did not find a reason, but did find it was a girl. My first daughter. And I didn’t even get to cuddle her. They told me I needed to schedule a d&c and I said I didn’t want to. I didn’t want to let go of my precious baby girl. I didn’t want them to take her from me. But they told me I needed to because I was too far along and the risk of hemorrhaging was too great. So we scheduled the surgery. The day before my surgery- my mom just happened to stop over.  She found me crouched over in pain, grabbing my stomach. She insisted I call my husband home from work and get to the hospital immediately.  My husband came home just in time for me to pass the baby and begin bleeding….. Heavily. Very heavily.  On the way to the hospital, the bleeding became so bad that we had to call an ambulance. They got me to the hospital safely – but I was so traumatized. Not only had I lost my baby girl that day – but I was lying in a hospital bed hemorrhaging. But my husband did not leave my side. Not once. Not even for lunch. Not even to use the restroom. He held my hand through every minute. That day I realized the man beside me was a changed man. A new man with a new heart. I saw him as a new creation – one that I could trust. I told him that on the way home and he said that back when we were struggling in our marriage – he asked God to do whatever it takes to heal our marriage. We named our daughter Faith Caroline. Because through it all – we clung to our faith. It wasn’t easy – but God was faithful – you will see….

After losing our daughter Faith – my health issues returned again – to an even greater degree. I pressed into them more this time because I was certain that whatever was going on had to have caused the loss of my daughter. My hormones were a mess and even my cycle was becoming almost nonexistent. Everything just added up. God finally led me to my nutritionist where she found that I had Lyme Disease, which later was confirmed by blood work. I followed everything she said to a T and prayed like I’ve never prayed before.  I knew, from experience, God could heal! He healed my broken, hard heart…. I KNEW He could heal my body. So I prayed with confidence and passion. I needed to be there for my children and husband. After working with my nutritionist for several months – I had a health experience that I knew was not normal. I was pretty sure my body rid itself of the Lyme bacteria. Which was the plan because I was not eating sugar or carbs – therefor starving the bacteria. I went back to my nutritionist – and sure enough – the lyme bacteria was gone! I stood there in that office in complete shock and awe of what God had done! That was 2 years ago and I am still healthy! God is in the business of miracles! 

We decided to try to conceive again and were able to. However – at 8 weeks – there was no heart beat. I did not understand. How can God be so good but allow so much pain?  This was my third baby that I was not able to meet here on Earth. I threw a temper tantrum at God, let me tell you! I wrestled with God so much during that time. I felt so confused how He could heal me and be so faithful in one area and then completely drop us in the next. I remember just praying “help” because I could not utter another word.  I was so weary and hurting from losing my precious babies. About a year later – we finally got the courage to try again. This time…. THIS time….  God gave us a precious baby girl.


Ainsley Paige Musser. Her name means “a clearing in the woods.”  And let me tell you…. That she is! She is 15 months now 

She is a constant reminder to me that even when we shake our fists at God and wrestle Him in the depths…. He never changes. He is GOOD. Even in the hardship. I don’t understand His ways. I just don’t. But I do know that if we hadn’t experienced great loss  - Ainsley may not be here today. And she is supposed to be here. To be a part of our earthly family. And my heavenly babies?  I can’t wait to hug them in Heaven. I often ask God to tell them how much I love them.  

Life is just not easy. But through the hardships and pain – God comes through. Maybe not in the same way for each person. But He is there walking with us. Even when we cannot see Him. When we do not understand His ways – We can always trust His unchanging heart!

Day Eight

What an honor it is to share our testimony of healing with the readers of Abi Dougherty's blog of supernatural stories today! It's true we often do not understand God's ways, but our faith in Him can be so encouraged when we hear of the mighty works He does in others' lives!

When this miracle took place, our foster son Jude was 7 months old and we were concerned at his lack of eye control.  During his attempts to focus on objects, his eyes would rapidly twitch back and forth. The pediatrician diagnosed him with a hereditary condition called nystagmus. Although, it's not really treatable, glasses often help the issue.

So, we pursued a pediatric eye specialist. The eye doctor agreed with the diagnosis and commented that sports, like baseball, would be very difficult for him due to the amount of eye focusing needed to hit a ball with a bat. He then proceeded to dilate his eyes to make sure they were developing properly. It was at this point in the visit that I wanted to cry. The doctor realized, after dilation, how severe of an astigmatism Jude had. He kept apologizing...over and over and over. I wanted to scream, "What are you telling me? What does this mean?" Finally he told me in terms I could understand: Jude could very well be legally blind and probably would never drive a car.

The severity of his diagnosis hit me like a rock. I felt crushed, scared, and totally out of control. I wept. I wept for this little boy that God had given us, this little boy who had already been through too much, this little boy who felt a part of our family, and yet, wasn't officially, nor did we know if he ever would be...

I was scared of the lifestyle that might lay ahead. Could I keep going? Did I have the strength and courage to face a mountain so big? Then I remembered the day we got the placement call several months before: God told me this journey was going to be a difficult one, but that He would be with us through it all. We were meant to bring this baby into our home. And now, when the doubts and fears were closing in, I clung to this promise that God was with us in the midst of this storm.

My dear husband took this diagnosis head on. He leaned into God, like I never saw him do before. Then, God began speaking to him through the passage in John 9 where Jesus heals a blind man. Verse 3 is what hit him: "Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life." We clung to this promise. Our faith was smaller than a mustard seed, but we chose to believe.

Jude started wearing his glasses at 8 months old. I remember getting so weary of people asking how we kept glasses on a baby. But, by God's grace and the fact that he could see better, those glasses stayed on and never broke once! About 6 months later, I began noticing him pulling his glasses off and not wanting to wear them. By now he was a mobile child, and I caught him running into walls and bumping into things. I began to wonder if his eyes had changed.

At this point we were scheduling surgery with the eye specialist to have his clogged tear ducts opened. I mentioned my concerns to the doctor at one of the appointments. He was very doubtful that Jude's eyes would've made any significant change in an 8 month period. But the doctor went ahead and dilated his eyes to check them out. I'll never forget the doctor's shock when he discovered Jude's eyes had improved...to the extent that his right eye was borderline for even needing glasses! He could give no medical explanation on how Jude's eyes could have improved that much! Of course, we give ALL the glory to God and His healing touch on Jude's eyesight. It humbles and amazes me that God took us through a very dark and scary time, only to have His glory and powerful healing do a complete miracle!

Today, Jude sees 20/20 with his glasses, but he is a vivacious, energetic 7-year-old who loves everything boys love. He whacks that baseball further than his older sister, he rides his bike with the speed of lightening, he loves watching airplanes fly overhead, and he reads with ease. Anytime I doubt God's goodness, I am reminded of His Hand in our lives simply by glancing at MY SON.

Over the years we come in contact with many families who are discerning the call to adopt through foster care. I'm always honest when I tell them it won't be an easy journey, but God is ALWAYS faithful. And it's in the challenging times that He often chooses to involve us in miracles. 

So, whatever life may be throwing at you today, may you rest in the fact that God is in control, He is with you, and He desires to show His power in your life...just ASK HIM!

Here Jude is pictured at his first baseball game...yes, playing the exact sport the Doctor said would be too hard for him!!

Day Seven

There is absolutely nothing on earth that can prepare you for delivering your stillborn child. And it is certainly not a circumstance in life that allows much room to notice Gods answers to prayer, kindness or blessings. However, it is an opportunity to recognize first-hand that He is a God of the intricate and miraculous. Life is sacred and miraculous. When that gift is stolen from your very hands, it's evident as never before.

When I was five months pregnant with our second amazing little miracle for unknown reasons her heart stopped beating. This is a story very much like Day One, where there are many unanswered prayers, many questions and much heartache. And yet still, somewhere hidden among all of that, there are small glimpses of miraculous, answered prayer and Gods kindness.

 (This is an ultrasound picture of Joeli at 11 weeks. She was very much alive and very active at this appointment.)

I want to share a small glimpse into the ending of this immensely difficult story with you, because it is, for me, the one answer to prayer I look back on amidst that day and I can praise and thank God for hearing my cries. I want to invite you to read more of Joeli Grace's story here ❤️

So, we learned of her passing and the need to deliver her. We were given "options" and decided to be induced into labor and the next morning I delivered our tiny baby girl. Her whole hand fit right into a tiny corner of my palm. Her small fragile and intricately formed frame lay in my hands. I felt like life was not only gone from her little body, but that it was leaving mine as well. My heart hurt so desperately. But the difficulty of labor was not over. My body was struggling to release the placenta. The doctor gave me a longer time then they usually do for it to deliver on its own before they would need to do follow-up surgery to remove it, by D&E. But, I was determined not to lose time with our Joeli Grace. So I immediately asked for prayer from our support system that the placenta would deliver on its own without medical intervention. So, amidst our devastating heartache we began to ask God for this help! And we asked the doctor for just a half an hour more. We watched the clock. We prayed. And within the half an hour we spent time more precious time with our sweet tiny baby, not knowing if I may have to be wheeled back into surgery and lose that precious time with her. And then just before the doctor was to return, the placenta delivered. God is good! He answers prayers! He is "an ever present help in times of need" (Psalm 46:1)!

I know it completely stinks to have your dreams, your hope dashed and completely stolen. And not just dreams, but life... To have life stolen from our hearts and homes. But He is there somewhere in the bleak darkness. And He is whispering our name in the quiet of the lonely empty nights and saying He knows us intimately and cares about is infinitely. And He promises to restore all that's been ripped out of our hands and right every wrong and redeem every stolen gift. He overcomes death and the grave. "Where oh death is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55) One day this will be our song!

So, in the darkest moments of my life I struggled to even name what I had just experienced. I hesitated to call it "giving birth", because birth is so synonymous with life. And I had prayed the big mustard seed of faith prayers. I had prayed and told God I believe He is able to heal our baby if they were alive but needing healing, I believed He could even resurrect our child within my womb if they were dead. I really believed these things of Him. After all, I had seen God do the miraculous in my very own life! I KNEW He was able! But, I released my child to Him, knowing that He is also sovereign and if this was not our story that His ways are higher than my own and so I chose to follow Him no matter what! Despite the many unanswered prayers He is still the God who DOES answer prayer. I lost life's most precious blessing that day, my child. Yet I grew in depth of faith and Heaven grew closer that day than ever before because now there is a very real part of me already there. I choose to believe that though she die she now even more truly lives than I.

If you have not done so yet, I encourage you to share your own supernatural stories on social media with the hashtag #supernaturalstories so that we can corporately praise God for His work! Sometimes it is in the darkest of circumstances that His light shines the brightest. Keep shining it forth, friends!

Day Six

Over the past few years, my husband, Alan, and I approached God with many ‘big’ prayer requests about having children, asking God to do things that doctors believed were impossible. Battling infertility, experiencing the physical and emotional pain of failed fertility tests, and being unable to experience a natural childbirth are all things that we pleaded with God to make different. In His infinite wisdom, God chose to give us the strength to journey through these situations, rather than to deliver us from them.

However, there have been other times when instead of having us journey through the pain, God answered our requests in ways that are nothing short of miraculous…

During my first pregnancy, my OBGYN told me that if we could get to 36 weeks, he would be happy.  Because of a congenital anomaly, I am considered ‘high-risk’ and my doctor didn’t think a full term pregnancy was possible. I remember leaving that appointment and immediately asking God for a full term pregnancy. At that point, the medical community considered a pregnancy to be full-term at 37 weeks.

When I got to 37 weeks, I just assumed that I would go into labor because God had answered our prayer request for a full term pregnancy. Around 38 1/2 weeks, the American College and Obstetricians and Gynecologists released new information and redefined a Full-Term Pregnancy as 39 weeks. I laughed to myself as I read that!

I walked into my scheduled C-section a few days later and delivered my full-term baby boy, never having gone into labor.

Due to being ‘high-risk’, I had many ultrasounds with a specialist during my pregnancies. During one of those routine ultrasounds with my son, the specialist told me that my son had clubfoot. Alan and I started asking God for healing for our son, specifically before birth. At the same time, we told God that we would be faithful no matter how He chose to move. We chose the name ‘Josiah’ for our son because one of the meanings of the name is ‘our God is healer’. We believed that God would bring healing, whether it was in the womb or after birth through conventional methods. I continued with the ultrasounds, praying each time that the ultrasound would show healing, but multiple ultrasound techs and doctors all confirmed that our son had ‘significant’ clubfoot.

Josiah was born on October 25th. I remember asking the nurses how his feet looked. They gave me a bit of a confused look and replied that his feet were totally fine. He was born perfectly healthy with no clubfoot.

When Alan and I started trying for a second baby around a year later, I told God that I wanted to get pregnant without any fertility treatments. After trying for a little while, we speculated that God wasn’t going to answer that request with a ‘yes’ and we decided to go back to our fertility specialist.  At our appointment, the doctor did an ultrasound and told us that everything looked good, but that we weren’t going to be able to get pregnant that month. I was born without a right fallopian tube, so I can only get pregnant when I ovulate on the left side. The doctor said that we would start blood work and treatment the following month.

A couple weeks later, I took three pregnancy tests and got three positives. I was in absolute shock. Ultrasounds during this pregnancy all confirmed that I had in fact ovulated on the side where I do not have a tube. God had given me my heart’s desire through a medical miracle. Our healthy baby girl was born September 18th, full-term, just like her brother.

Being in the position of needing God to do what only He can do often feels terrifying. I never know for sure exactly how He’ll move. When I came to God with my desire to have children, I knew that He would be faithful and never leave me, but I didn’t know if He would choose to answer my prayers in the ways that I wanted. I have seen God answer my prayers in many different ways. I have seen Him say ‘no’ and other times I have seen Him say ‘yes’, but I know He is faithful either way.

-Story of Gods miraculous power, goodness and infinite wisdom by Jacqui Ivey 

Day Five

Story of answered prayers by Amber Matyi

Rewind time 10.5 years. My first child, Hannah, was 6 weeks old. I got a call a few days after my check up from a nurse at my OBGYN'S office. She said that my doctor wanted to see me right away and she would not say why. I made the appointment, but did not realize how much that visit would impact the rest of our lives.

When my husband and I met with the doctor, she informed us that the our nurse at the hospital had not administered my RhoGAM shot and that my bloodwork showed a low level of antibodies in my blood. These antibodies had the potential to complicate future pregnancies, or even result in miscarriages. Our doctor referred us to a specialist who did a series of tests. Than he had us schedule a follow up visit in six months when they would run the same tests and compare the results. After much prayer, our second round of test seemed to show no more antibodies. The doctor told us that the antibodies that showed up in the first round of test were more than likely left over vaccine from the shot I received at seven months gestation. We were relieved and put the whole thing behind us.

Fast forward to three and a half years later. I had just given birth to our second child, Isaac. He was struggling to eat, and was very fussy. Our nurse arrived in our room on the morning of day two with a "Bili-bed" and informed us that both the baby and I had antibody levels off the chart and that Isaac was severely anemic and jaundice. He would have to stay under phototherapy lights around the clock, in order to get his numbers down low enough to come home. My heart sank. Isaac's body weight had dropped by 10% in the first 24 hrs and now we were faced with having to transfer him to the children's hospital downtown if his redblood cells did not rebound fast.

We immediately called our church family and had them begin to pray. Two days later we were able to get his levels to stabilize enough to bring him home, but that only lasted 12 hrs. His numbers spiked and we were sent downtown to the children's hospital. That began a three year journey of doctors, specialists, endless medications and three procedures that required sedation. By the time we finally were able to get Isaac to a state of full health, my dreams of another baby had pretty much disappeared. Specialists had warned us of the dangers future pregnancies could hold.  They had spoken such fear into my heart that ultimately my husband and I put those dreams to rest, and decided to simply enjoy our Hannah and Isaac....

But God....

Is a God of miraculous answers to prayer!

After Isaac's third birthday, I began to have vivid dreams of another baby. Dreams of being pregnant, feeling the baby move and of course the delivery room. I kept these dreams to myself and did my best to ignore them. Over the course of two years these dreams intensified until I couldn't ignore them any longer. Finally, in the summer of 2014 I began to recognize and vocalize my desires for another baby to my husband. At first I think he thought I was crazy, but to my surprise, he eventually agreed to leave it up to God. We were pregnant within the month, and a new journey began; a scary journey of faith, trust and prayer. During my pregnancy, we once again relied on a group of prayer warriors who held our arms up when we could not hold them up ourselves. A group of people who encouraged us through every step of the journey. We experienced countless doctor visits, diagnostic ultra-sounds and endless bloodwork. But through the grace of God, our baby boy, who the doctors were not even sure would make it through the first trimester, was born at 35 weeks 5 days. Luca spent 23 days in the NICU and underwent 4 blood transfusions and endless blooddraws. Most of those first 3 weeks were spent under phototherapy lights, but through it all, he remained a happy boy. Although he has struggled with the complications from severe reflux, he has been able to go from the 7th percentile for his weight to the 50th percentile, and he is meeting and exceeding all of his developmental milestones!

Our journey through the past 7 years has been a difficult experience, but our faith has been strengthened, and our family has learned to trust the power of prayer. God gave me a verse during this time that summarizes our story perfectly.  Ezra 8:23, "So we fasted and earnestly prayed that our God would take care of us, and he heard our prayer."

-Amber Matyi

Day Four

I've had women's health issues since I was young. In fact, I was actually born with double inguinal hernias that weren't discovered until I was around 6 months old. My parents always told me that when the doctor did my surgery he came out of the operation telling them that the internal organs (namely my Fallopian tubes) were all twisted and misplaced from the hernias and due to this fact he said I may have difficulty ever conceiving a child. My parents prayed and believed in a different story for me, but it was always something there was concern over. 

As I aged many painful symptoms developed. The year we married was one of the worst. I developed agonizing pains all throughout the month and other symptoms that would leave me often writhing in pain or vomiting from the severity of the pain. I remember the one night in particular we had driven in toward Philadelpia to watch a friend's concert. As we sat there the pain in my pelvic region grew so severe I thought I may pass out or throw up. That evening we drove to the LGH ER and they found that I had an ovarian cyst. Pain meds and more tests until they eventually discovered I had a fibroid tumor at the base of my cervix. 

The pain continued. Eventually I was sent to a specialist at Hershey Medical Center. He recommended a very risky surgery to remove the tumor which could have left me with a hysterectomy if it did not go well. He wanted to do one final test before the surgery to determine that the tumor was definitively benign. Before I left his office that day I remember distinctly him telling me, "Because of the location of the tumor you may never be able to conceive any children." 

Those words were like an arrow to my heart. 

Ever since I was a young child, myself, I dreamt of having children someday. Those words were ones I went home and wept over. I remember a phone conversation with my wise Mother-in-law who encouraged me to lay down my desires at the feet of Jesus because He knows my hearts longing! I cried so much! 

Then, as I pulled into the hospital the morning of my MRI to determine whether or not the tumor was cancerous I sat in my car and prayed and told God, "if this whole situation is just so that ONE person could know You and find salvation it would all be worth it to me..." And then, me and my wanna be gangster self took my Mace CD into the test because they told me I could listen to a CD while the test was being done. Mace had supposedly become a born-again believer and so his lyrics had changed quite a bit apparently from the rapper he used to be. So, when I got ready for my test the tech asked a series of questions, one was, "Are you pregnant?" Which brought some more tears as I said, 

"No. Sadly I'm not." So he asked a bit more, "Are you sure? Is there any possibility of you being pregnant?" Which brought more tears and led me to more fully explain, "No, there's no possibility, in fact I've taken two negative tests just in the last couple weeks and I was just told I may never have children which is one of the reasons for this test." He finally was satisfied with my answer but he said, "Well, if we do see that by some chance you are pregnant we will stop the test IMMEDIATELY!" 

I tried to ignore what he said and handed him my CD. He looked at the CD and a shocked look came across his face. "MACE?!", he said. "You do not look like the kind of girl who would be into Mace!" I excitedly told the tech he should listen to the lyrics and that I'd heard that Mace has changed a lot since his past albums. And that he had sorely misjudged me, I love rap music I always have and I always will🎶😉

But anyway, I thanked God for the opportunity to share my faith through song as the test finished up the album made it all the way through the song Mace sang about salvation! I thanked God I was able to hopefully plant a seed that day in the techs heart as he listened to the lyrics! 

That next week I went to work and on my lunch break I received a very scary phone call from the doctor himself. 

He started the call by saying, "Well, we have the results of your test back. You do not have cancer BUT..." 

"BUT! BUT WHAT?!?! Oh my goodness what else could it possibly be?", I thought to myself. 

"WE THINK YOU ARE PREGNANT!" 

"You think I am what?! But you just told me I probably could never have kids. And I just took those two negative tests. And the tech just told me if he sees I'm pregnant he would stop the test IMMEDIATELY!", I thought to myself. 

He continued, "We want you to come in first thing tomorrow morning for an ultrasound to determine what is going on." 

Okay, in my unbelief I asked him, "What else could this be other than a pregnancy?" 

"Extra fluid." He said. 

And that was all I needed to hear because I immediately believed that was all it was. I went back upstairs to the room I taught in and told some of my co-workers about my relief but also my bewilderment at what I'd been told. I believe, like Sarah, I laughed it off. They did not laugh. They looked at me like I was crazy and told me to go home and take a test immediately. I wasn't even going to do that because I was in such disbelief. I figured I would just wait until the morning at the ultrasound appointment. But, because of their coaxing I went home and did take a test. Crying, shaking and in amazement I remember calling Sean (who was not home for the day yet) the news over the phone, "Happy early Father's Day! I'm pregnant!" 

That night, we knelt by the foot of our couch and prayed and thanked God for this little miracle and prayed protection and health and praised Him for the life He had hidden away inside of me to reveal His glory in His timing! 

The picture above is us dedicating our miracle baby to God! We named her Seana Jane, which means Gods Gracious gift twice over! 

#miraclebaby #praiseJesus