I am not sure why, but I continue to be amazed at God's grace. I was saved almost 45 years ago and I completely understand His saving grace, not because of who I am or what I have done, but simply because of the goodness of God. But this matter of living grace has been taught to me over and over again, upclose and personal through the life of our oldest daughter, Heather Sharee.
Heather celebrated her 28th birthday just a few weeks ago, but almost 19 years ago, she began to have some health problems. A couple of years later she would be diagnosed with two rare disesaes, Parry-Romberg Syndrome and Rasmussens. The two disesases combined are even more rare. Both of these diseases were diagnosed after an onslaught of seizures began in the summer of 1994. Her first seizure lasted about 30 minutes, but the next seizure she would have almost two months later, lasted over 6 hours. Over these last 19 years Heather has had ten's of thousands of seizures, but God has given Heather a Sufficient Supply of His Amazing Grace.
I took this picture yesterday morning around 11:00 am, as Heather was sitting in Dr. Rankin's office awaiting an appointment with him. Heather helped to lead Dr. Rankin to Christ back in September of 2007, when she was in the hospital with having over 100 seizures a day. By 11:00 am yesterday, Heather had already had about 15 seizures just since she had awaken around 8:00 am. By the time the day ended yesterday, Heather had seen Dr. Rankin, had more lab work done, an x-ray was completed on her chest and neck area, plus she had an ultrasound done on her legs, as well as having over 30 seizures.
Nineteen years of appointments with many different doctors, medications, MRI's, EEG's, seizure after seizure, grand mal seizures, petit mal, focal, drop seizures, Ketogenic diet, drug induced coma, feeding tube, brain surgery, plastic surgery, VNS surgery, shunt surgery, core decompression surgery, immunoglobulin, high doses of steroids, battery replacement surgeries, fall after fall, broken teeth, Avascular necrosis, collapsed hip, broken ankle (twice), hospitalizations, ICU, walkers, broken nose, wheelchairs, hospital bed, chair lift, pull-ups, cpap machine, nebulizer, damaged peripheral vision, electro lodes, oxygen 24/7, video monitoring, and test after test after test. (She will have a total hip replacement on March 15)
Heather truly is a miracle, but God has and still Sufficiently Supplies Heather with all the Grace she ever needs. II Corinthians 12:9, "And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me."
Please be much in prayer for Heather and about a new ministry that we are desiring to start up to share lessons that we have learned and continue to learn about God's Grace.
Heather's life has been included in a book that has been written and is awaiting printing. My wife and I are also currently involved in writing a book about Heather's life so please keep us in your prayers about that as well..
