I was a college football player. As a freshman, I was on the kickoff team. I sprinted downfield and saw the opening for a tackle, but I mistimed my jump by a split second. My head collided with the ball carrier’s legs. In an instant, I lost all feeling and movement from my neck down. At first, I thought it was stinger, but it turned out to be a spinal cord injury that left me a quadriplegic. I was told I would never be able to walk again and given just a 3% chance of ever regaining any movement in… Read More
Special Needs
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Morgan Cheek is a mother that has experienced the grief of losing her twin girls at ages 6 and 7 to a very rare neurological disease. The pain has been excruciating but through it all, she felt God’s amazing love and grace. Morgan and her husband, Hugh, found out she was pregnant with twins a little over a year into their marriage. Hugh had just started medical school so they were a little overwhelmed and wondered how they’d juggle his school with the demands of having two babies. So Hugh started memorizing Psalm 139 which underscores how God knows our future… Read More
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When I was 20 years old, I went in to have a routine tonsillectomy surgery. A day later, I was completely blind and deaf in one ear. It is still so shocking. After the outpatient surgery, I was discharged and my parents took me home. At 3:00 am, my mom came in to give me water to moisten my throat but found me totally unresponsive. I was rushed to the hospital where I was immediately intubated and put on a ventilator. I later was told that if I hadn’t made it to the hospital within 30 minutes, I wouldn’t be here.… Read More
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My son, Isaiah, has no peripheral vision and can only see one foot directly in front of him. But that hasn't stopped him from playing football. Or baseball. Or basketball. Immediately after he was born, my wife noticed there was something that wasn't quite right with his eyes. We thought it might just be fluid in his eyes. At two months, we took him to an eye specialist. After some extensive tests, he broke the news to us: Isaiah has bilateral optic nerve coloboma--the tissue didn't form properly around his retina. He actually has holes in his retinas. He would never… Read More
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I’ve been hand throwing pottery for nine years, beginning in high school. It has always come naturally to me and is a meditative, sweet time for me to quietly sit and talk to God. Being behind the pottery wheel, throwing clay, is one of my favorite steps in the entire process of making a mug or bowl. I love watching the dramatic change it goes through in just a few minutes. I’m reminded of Isaiah 64:8, which says, “Yet you, Lord, are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.”… Read More
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‘There’s a 10-day old baby girl and she has a disease,’ I was told. ‘I’ll take her,’ I said without hesitation. Just hours later, the social worker was at our door in Guatemala, holding a bundle wrapped in a blanket. She explained the baby was abandoned due to her diagnosis. She was left with nothing, not even a name. And this baby girl wasn’t expected to live very long because she had Hydranencephaly. She only had about 3% of her brain and an enlarged head due to an abnormal accumulation of fluid in her brain. The days that followed were filled… Read More