This website was created for the purpose of encouragement and understanding, sharing information with believers and non-believers alike. 

Most of us face hardships in our life but  you can either wither away and allow yourself to be overcome by your struggles and forget about God, OR you can draw nearer to GOD and trust in Him to help you through the struggles. The choice is yours. God is always there opening His loving arms to you and promised He would not abandon you.
We will always have changes in our lives, things we would rather not have experienced, but it's awesome to know we have a Heavenly Father to talk to and draw comfort from and know that He will not forsake us!

My personal experience:

    I am a single mother of  two children- now young adults, were raised in the same household, same rules, same beliefs, but with completely different personalities and choices for what they did with each circumstance for them.
We have had our own struggles like your average American single family.

   My son Robert graduated from high school the spring of 2005 leaving  home immediately after graduation. He held a typical teen attitude feeling invincible and ready to take on the world.  I kept praying and lifting my son up to the Lord throughout the previous years and various trying situations. He was living life and having a fun time, with very little concern about what the elements of this world might bring upon him.
  Robert was in an auto accident September 2005 on Labor day which was only 3 months after graduating from highschool. While working for a small business that shuttles privately owned vehicles along the river for river recreationalists down around Fort Smith. A front tire blew out on an unfamiliar vehicle he was driving and he lost control. When all was said and done, he ended up laying beside the overturned vehicle, unconscious and body laying in a slump barely breathing  what the medical personnel described as breathing his last breath. Had they arrived a few minutes later he would not be alive today.  Robert suffered TBI which is Tramatic Brain Injury.
  
   As a mother I can tell you I remember every single moment from the time I got the phone call about his accident and frantically finding my way to the emergency room in Billings, awaiting arrival of my son by Mercy Flight. I had waited hours to hear when the medical team would transport him to the hospital from the accident scene because they had to wait until he reached a safe medical level for transport.  It happened far from any hospital. I was wondering what to expect, only told he was unstable and had suffered severe head injury. My imagination of course went wild to all the possibilities. I had no concept to what "Tramatic Brain Injury" entails.
All I could do during those moments was cry out in helplessness to God and anyone who could hear me, feeling so many strong emotions.
He arrived at the hospital in Billings but I couldn't see him right away because they had to clean him up and prep him for immediate head surgery. Every single minute not knowing if he would pull through or not. Doctors dealing with the swelling in his head and telling me that the first couple of minutes were so critical and once we got past them it became the next couple of hours would be critical and then beyond that stage we faced the next couple of days would be critical. But even among all of that uncertainty  there was this inner, deeper feeling of complete assurance that our God knew what was going on and was preparing the steps for us to follow. I went through all the emotions of shock and uncertainty which is normal, but I still had a very deep confidence that things would work out.
Sounds a little strange I know but I had choices- I could choose to trust and believe God knew what was going on and was directing the whole situation or listen to the lies of the ever-present deceiver and become hopeless and completely give up on everything.

   God said that whatever you believe in your heart with no doubts it will be done for you. Believe and trust with true confidence. [Truly I tell you, whoever says to this mountain, Be lifted up and thrown into the sea! And does not doubt at all in his heart but believes that what he says will take place, it will be done for him. For this reason I am telling you whatever you ask for in prayer, believe (trust and be confident) that it is granted to you]  (read Mark 11:23)  

   I began to pray and I asked everybody I knew to pray. I didn't know what the outcome was going to be with this crisis in our life and what condition my son would end up in, but I had assurance through reading the bible and visits from people I knew from church and prayer partners from Faith Chapel sharing and telling me that God knew and God was going to see us through this crisis. God was making a way where there seemed to be no way. [Do not fret or have any anxiety about anything, but in every circumstance and in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, continue to make your wants known to God. (read Philippians 4) .

   I had no idea what we would be up against in the following days, or weeks, or months or even years ahead. My faith and trust is in God  and continues to be the strength that I rely upon. God never promised us an easy life here in this world, but we are not alone in our struggles. He is with us, His Word reminds us, and I find great comfort in that!

   There were  moments they told me my son Robert was going to die, a moment when the lead doctor came to me and told me to "make necessary arrangements."  My heart sank! But I still didn't give up believing he would get through this!
We were given a very hopeless scenario of my son's future care. Should he survive  we might have to take him out of state for additional special care, but they might not accept him as a patient if he didn't respond more then he was doing. It went on and on, day by day. I sat next to his bedside every day for a month, I was not going to leave my son in case he woke up and needed me. I kept remembering reading stories how survivors from a coma said they heard conversations and knew what was going on around them even while they were in a coma, and I just knew I had to stay there and talk and pray over my son and not leave his side. God was taking care of all the needs during this critical time.
Throughout the weeks  of  being in ICU we had strangers drawn to us because of our unity in prayer, and doctors and nurses telling us later on how amazing and "miraculous" it was to see the "unexpected"  occurring in my son throughout this time. Many didn't think he was going to make it or if he did he wouldn't be able to function like before, and they all watched me staying at his side praying day after day not giving up. I somehow just knew who was in control and I knew God was preparing us and I held onto that faith.   

   Weeks of therapy after ICU brought about a lot of stages in the healing of Robert's brain, going through things that I would rather not talk about here. What occurred were several things that nobody can be fully prepared for. I had moments wondering is this the stage he will be stuck in forever? Is this the worse thing or is there even worse yet to come, etc .
I still had the knowledge that I would draw my strength on the Lord, and He would see us through all of this nightmare somehow, someway.  

   Waking from the coma my son had to re-learn to eat, swallow, walk, talk, in fact every function that we take for granted each day, he had to re-learn and retrain while his brain was healing. He didn't remember his dad at first and didn't remember me at first. In fact at one time when he was first starting to talk he asked me for my cell phone so he could call his mom (me) and ask why she hasn't been up to the hospital to see him. While the brain is healing there are alot of things that take place both for the person hurt and for the family that is standing by their side. A person isn't prepared for any of it. But I feel that God gave me the strengths needed to get beyond this crisis.
Has it been difficult?  Yes!!!  Were we ever promised an easy life?  NO!!! As God is my witness, I can say my faith has increased and my heart is filled even more with thanksgiving and joy.
I could have chosen to blame God for everything and despise the hardships we endured, but I choose to see the good that occurred, the slow healing of a mother/son relationship that went bad during his high school years, the prayer in my heart  asking that the Lord touch my son, the prayers of the many people some who didn't even know us personally ..... on-going changes were completely incredible. 

 

My son has finished with all the immediate rehabilitation programs. He is learning to live as independent as he can, trying to overcome various daily challenges along the way. He has gone from weeks of being completely paralyzed and non-responsive in ICU, to walking with no assistance at all. Praise God. Some physical challenges are still evident , he cannot do some activities he used to be able to do, but he has come a far distance from what the doctors initially anticipated.

    Robert is not the same person anymore , he has changed in alot of ways and we have all had to learn to adjust and deal with his struggles mentally and emotionally. Just in dealing with daily normal circumstances that most people face in life. He has said that he is glad for what has happened to him that things will be different from now on because he sees life in a whole different view. Some simpler cognitive  functions of his brain are a struggle for him and there are moments when he gets physically or emotionally exhausted and confused.  A normal person deals with daily life choices and decisions at the moment of need but Robert has those same things occur and he has to stop and think hard on it and try to sort it in his head and it doesn't always come out right, but he is so grateful to be alive and I am so grateful and thankful to God for our answered prayers....My son may be permanently disabled and unable to relate to others in his age group but he finds ways to compensate for it and he is still alive and able to move forward in life.
All praise and honor and glory be to God.

 

Be blessed and be a blessing.
RC

God loves us so much He gave His only begotten son that whosoever would trust and believe in Him would have everlasting life. Thank You Jesus!

Remember not the sins of my youth and my rebellious ways;
according to your love remember me,
for you are good,
O LORD .

For you have been my hope,
O Sovereign LORD , my confidence

 
 All I have seen teaches me to trust God for all I have not seen.  Ralph Waldo Emerson

~*~*~* HAVE  FAITH  and BELIEVE! *~*~*~

In Memory Of            My dad was a hard working man, raised in the Montana mountains. He started working at a very young age, a son in a very large family. He met my mom, a city girl  in her teens and they eventually got married. It was obvious to everybody the love my parents had for one another. There were hard times and various struggles like most people. He was a well respected member of the military working his way up to senior master sergeant of the Army National Guards airplane mechanics.        We lived most of our youth on a small farm with my parents hoping to raise their own food and crop, to raise us 6 kids, and we all pitched in doing the chores necessary to keep the farm going. I remember dad having to work more then one job at times, just to make ends meet. During all those years my favorite memories were when I was a little girl watching my dad shave, I loved it! I was the only girl of 6 kids.        He took us camping when he could and had all 6 of us kids lined up along the mountain streams fishing, running back and forth trying to help keep our worms on the hooks and get  our snags undone. He taught us all to hunt safely, hunting big game which was meat we lived on throughout the year. We learned to respect the mountains, the animals, eachother. Mom had alot to do with raising us too don't get me wrong, she was a city girl that learned hard labor on the farm doing the chores many women would never be caught doing, out of necessity.  I don't remember ever hearing her complain!        Dad was a strong, big man, who didn't show alot of emotions, but when something touched him enough to form a tear in his eyes you knew he was feeling it.  Watching his health deteriate in his last years was probably the hardest thing I ever experienced personally.  The final days of his life were very difficult to deal with. To this day I feel like he is just gone on a trip, that I will see him soon. I miss him. Blessings. RC

Before I Go   When my life has reached its very end,  And I take that final breath; I want to know I've left behind,  Some "good" before my death.   I hope that in my final hour,  In all honesty I can say: That somewhere in my lifetime, I have brightened someone's day.   That maybe I have brought a smile To someone else's face,  And made one moment a little sweeter While they dwelled here in this place.   Lord, please be my reminder And whisper softly in my ear, To be a "giver," not a "taker," In the years I have left here.   Give to me the strength I need, Open up my mind and my soul That I might show sincere compassion,  And love to others before I go.   For if not a heart be touched by me,  And not a smile was left behind .. Then the life that I am blessed with,  Will have been a waste of time.   With all my heart, I truly hope  To leave something here on earth .. That touched another, made them smile  And gave to my life ...  worth. ~ Author Unknown ~