My health journey began when I was a little girl. At 9 years old I had a severe reaction to the Varicella Vaccine (Chicken Pox Vaccine) and developed epilepsy. My seizures typically came at the night time and I remember laying in my bed to go to sleep wondering if one would start to happen. When I would begin to feel the onset of one coming on, I would try to delay it as long as I could so that I could call out for my mother. But I never was able to as I would soon tire out and succumb to the seizure as it ran its course. 

I remember at 10 years old sitting in the waiting room to get a follow up MRI. At this point I had been experiencing these seizures for about a year. I saw a boy sitting next to me in the waiting room and I watched as he had a seizure every couple minutes. It disturbed me at such a deep level that this poor boy was experiencing the feeling of seizures so often. I felt so grateful that I usually only experienced them at night. And it propelled me at that moment to pray to God for the seizures to go away forever, for both me and that little boy. So for the duration of the MRI, I laid in the machine praying for him and praying for me. I do not know what happened to the boy. But I never had a seizure again. This would be the first of many miracles in my life.

In High School, I developed Epstein-Barr which led to an array of additional symptoms that followed me into adulthood. I was plagued by symptoms of brain fog, fatigue, pain throughout my body, subluxations in my neck, teeth issues, painful menstrual cycles, and an overall feeling of defeat. My digestion was a mess, as I had my first hemorrhoid at 12 years old, and a hole in the lining of my stomach at 17. After I gave birth to my first son I felt like I had gotten hit by a Mack Truck. Every nerve throughout my body felt as if it were on fire. Then after I gave birth to my second son, I ended up extremely anemic followed by getting two hemorrhoidectomy surgeries and an umbilical hernia repair. I finally got fed up after the doctors told me that I would need a third hemorrhoidectomy surgery, the recovery from which rivals that of childbirth, and that there was nothing I could do to prevent needing another surgery in the future.

I remember sitting half-way up a flight of steps in tears and praying to God — there has to be a better way. And just on cue, God showed up for me, again. 

Immediately after praying this and while still sitting on those steps, I started flipping through Instagram. I found myself scrolling past posts about people describing symptoms just like mine and explaining how they drastically changed their diets to begin healing. I had done something similar before but not in this way and so I decided to give it a try. One of the first signs of my health restoration was that my hemorrhoids shrunk to almost non-existent within days! Days! All of the money spent on those surgeries -- wasted -- and the pain -- wasted! My energy returned, my head cleared, and I found myself being released from what felt like a vice grip around my whole central nervous system. I knew at this moment that God once again had broken me free from a health nightmare. The next step for me was to figure out how to change my thinking so that I didn’t end up in a health crisis like this again. 

After I gave birth to my third child my husband and I walked into a non-denominational church. Tears rolled down both of our cheeks as we felt found after being lost for so many years. God’s Word has become the cornerstone of our lives ever since. We start our mornings in praise, fill our minds with Scripture, and face fear with prayer. We are led by Jesus’s laws of love alongside the promises of hope that God has established with all of His people. Praise Him for His mercy and compassion as He leaves the 99 to reclaim His lost sheep. 

I am a homeschool mother, now to 5 children, and living a beautifully busy life in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. Together with my husband, extended family, and church community, we are raising our children to know the ways in which to walk a straight path in this undoubtedly fallen world. I am writing this testimony as a witness to the redemptive love that God has for all of us. He has filled my heart with gladness and an inclination to help others as they begin to invite God into their hearts and minds. It is never too late to call out to Jesus. You cannot out-sin the cross. We all have the capacity to change. Let God facilitate the change in you and bear witness to the healing that follows. Amen!