Well, everyone, I am starting off another post with an apology for being absent on this blog. Things have been more than crazy, and are on the verge of being out of control. But, God is still in control and always will be! I will try to do better at being more consistent with posts now that some things have calmed down. I will be writing posts about these things as time goes on. I have a lot of things I still need to process and get my mind wrapped around.
But, in the meantime, it’s a new year!! We made it through another one! I think 2018 was probably one of the worst years we have ever had as a family, but God is faithful and brought us through it all in ways we never would have imagined. My God is amazing! When I thought all hope was gone, something would jump in front of me and prove me wrong. I have begun to notice more clearly how God works things together. Things that seem so meaningless and unconnected to everything else in life end up proving to be some of the biggest pieces to the puzzle down the road. Do you ever sit back and wonder how God is able to take something so unrelated and make it the answer you were needing??! I occasionally do that, but have to remind myself that God isn’t limited by our finite minds and resources. He can do ANYTHING. How comforting is that?!
These last few months have proven quite difficult in many aspects of our life. Many of you probably remember my daughter, Laiyla, being diagnosed with Acute Flaccid Myelitis (AFM). She was diagnosed just over three months ago. When she was diagnosed, she could not move her right arm from the shoulder. There was nothing there. She could feel touch on her arm, but there was no movement at all. The doctor and neurologist didn’t know if she would ever get her movement back. They didn’t seem too hopeful. But my God is bigger!!! Within three months, she has made so much improvement! Her physical therapist doesn’t know what to think about it. He is so excited with her progress!
Here is the weirdest part about her recovery. With the doctors down at the Children’s Hospital telling us that she may never move that arm again, we prayed. HARD. We had everyone we knew praying for our little girl. About a month or two before Laiyla got sick, a friend of mine told me about this supplement she was taking to help with her anxiety. I had been dealing with anxiety for a couple years, so I thought I would try this supplement. It is only herbs, so it can hurt anything. Why not try it?
God knew I needed these supplements. Within the first few days, my husband started noticing a difference in my moods. He told me the stuff was working. I asked how he could tell. He grinned a little bit and told me I hadn’t bitten anyone’s head off in a couple days. LOL! A few days after that, I started noticing other things it was helping. I was sleeping better. I didn’t wake up every few hours during the night. I also noticed that my joints felt better. After a hard training at jiu-jitsu, my hands weren’t locked into a fist anymore. I could actually straighten my fingers after class! I hadn’t been able to do that in years! These herbs were taking the inflammation out of my joints! I felt so amazing!
Herbs. Someone told me about herbs. Not something that will really affect anything else in your life, right? Herbs are something so completely unrelated to the rest of my life. Wrong. When Laiyla got sick, we were told what causes the paralysis in her arm is inflammation on her spinal cord. She had two spots on her spinal cord in her neck that were causing the nerve pathway to be blocked from her brain to her shoulder muscles. The inflammation was what was causing her to not be able to move her arm. As soon as I heard “inflammation,” I immediately knew I needed to get her started on these supplements. I figured since it was only herbs, it couldn’t hurt her in any way. Why not try it? God knew ahead of time that we would need these herbs for something much more than my sore hands and joints and my anxiety. God knew they could help return my daughter to her normal self. God had everything set in motion before I had any idea how much we would need these. My God is amazing!!
Most people with AFM take years to return to their normal activities. If they get their movement back at all. Laiyla was diagnosed on September 28th. By December 24th, Laiyla was lifting her arm above her head again, unassisted!! She still has a bit to go before she has all her strength back, but her range of motion is almost completely returned! My God is amazing!! We saw her regular doctor this past week. He was in awe of how far she had come. He is one of the doctors who were praying over my daughter before we left to go to the Children’s hospital. I know I shouldn’t be, but I’m amazed again at what the power of prayer can do in a person’s life. The prayers of family, friends, and even some people we don’t know have helped my daughter beat a disease that doesn’t have a cure or treatment. God can use anything He sees fit to change a situation. In this case, he used a ton of prayer and herbs. My God is amazing!! He can do anything!!
I don’t know how to explain how all of this has come about, or even if I could ever explain it, but I do know this. My God is amazing! He can take an impossible situation and turn it into the biggest blessing of your entire life. Once you have kids, they are your life. You do everything possible to keep them healthy, to keep them safe, and to keep them thriving. Sometimes they don’t stay healthy. Is that because you are a bad parent?? Absolutely not. There are so many things out of our control. That’s where God comes in. There is no possible way we could have done anything to help Laiyla. But God was orchestrating everything months ahead of time. He had everything set up for us to be able to help Laiyla as much as we possibly could. He was caring about us and for us before we even knew we needed it.
These last few months have definitely been an eye-opening experience for me. God has allowed me to grow in so many ways. He has allowed my husband to grow. He has allowed us all to grow together as a family in so many ways. My God is amazing!! My God can do ANYTHING!!
This is just one of the many miracles that has taken place in our lives in just the last three months of 2018. We definitely finished out the year with a bang. And I can’t wait to see what miracles God has planned for 2019!! Is it bad that I’m actually somewhat excited now when “bad” things happen?? I am so completely excited to watch God work everything out. He has been allowing these things into our lives so that we learn how to trust God. I thought I trusted God before, but I apparently needed some more work on that topic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m nowhere near perfect or completely reliant on God. I still fail miserably each and every day. But, I will say, I am much quicker to see the good in the situation now than I was before. I can see how even the tiniest things have been orchestrated to perfection by an amazing, perfect God. I’m not perfect. I still worry about pretty much everything, but God is slowly starting to get through this thick head of mine. He is showing me that worry does nothing good, and that my energy would be put to much better use in prayer. My God is so patient and forgiving. We would be absolutely nothing without Him. Completely useless. But, my God is AMAZING!!!!
Imperfection At Its Finest 