On the first day of our month-long retreat, as we traveled along I-40 West in our white 12-passenger van, I purchased a book.
From the moment ‘Kisses from Katie’ first appeared on my iPhone, I felt different.
I mean after all, I had just downloaded a book onto my phone, while traveling along an interstate at 65 mph, with the touch of a button.
“I believe that God totally, absolutely, intentionally gives us more
than we can handle. Because this is when we surrender to Him
and he takes over, proving Himself by doing the impossible.”
-from “Kisses from Katie“
I was maybe 10 weeks pregnant with our sixth child when we packed our bags and locked the doors to our home in North Carolina.
I was debilitated with morning sickness and exhausted beyond words.
We were headed to Manhattan so that our 18 month old daughter could undergo a three-stage brain surgery.
We really had no idea when exactly we would return.
We hoped this surgery would allow doctors to identify and remove the area in her brain responsible for debilitating seizures that threatened her development.
When I was pregnant with Gabrielle…
I never asked for an infant with a brain malformation who would begin seizing at the age of 6 months.
I never expressed a desire for a baby who would undergo 5 brain surgeries before the ripe old age of 3 years.
I never requested a child with hemiplegia and developmental delays.
I did not sign up for a kid who would require daily medications, exercises, and orthotic devices.
I prayed for a perfectly healthy baby, as I had so many times before; a rosy-cheeked infant with a hearty cry, who would thrive and develop normally.
Almost every time I go out somewhere with my children, I get asked the questions…
Are they all yours?!
or
How many do you have?!
or
Don’t you know what causes that?!
Sometimes people just stare in disbelief…
or I see them counting the “stair-steps” as we pass on by.
Regardless, we always seem to get some kind of reaction. And honestly, I find it quite entertaining.
Do me a favor, won’t you?
Go open up the door to your medicine cabinet and tell me what you see.
Does it house Tylenol and Motrin?
Some cold remedies?
Vitamins?
Perhaps some Benadryl or allergy medicine?
Maybe some basic first-aid supplies?
For many years I had an ordinary medicine cabinet, half-filled with common household remedies.
