Overcoming the Odds: My Story of Tragedy and Triumph

I was born in the small town of Springfield, Tennessee on December 28th at Jesse Holman Jones Hospital which has presently become the Robertson County Office Building and Jail. I am the fourth and youngest of four children. I have an older half-brother, as well as an older brother and sister. I came along later in life as My mother gave birth to me at age 43 and my father was age 47. My siblings were all in their 20's when I came into the world. I was born with fluid around the frontal and rear lobes of my brain which is classified as an arachnoid cyst. I was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. I spent most of my time in Elementary school going through physical therapy to assist in building up my motor skills. I remember going up stairs as a horendous task but as I look back I am thankful for all those moments of physical therapy for it helped me be where I am today physically. The cool thing is that the doctor told my mom I would not be able to walk but at age 3 I took my first steps. I was also in the regular classes with my classmates at school and succeeded in my subjects even though my mom was told I need to be in the resource class. a brief fast foward to high school where I was told I should choose going to the rehabiltation center or a trade school instead of college, however I have completed my third degree and so I say to the non believers ha. Back to childhood. I am unsure if it was a chemical imbalance due to the fluid around my brain that caused it or if it was just simple immaturity but I was a horrible child as an adolescent. I mean I was a brat. I got sent to the principals office at school a lot as well as threw rediculous tantrums as a child but despite this I had such loving parents. Unfortunately I was too young and immature to appreciate what fantastic parents I had. Even though my dad battled alcoholism, I remember him always telling me he was proud of me and always calling my grandmother to tell her of when I did good in school. I did not get too much time with my parents because they passed away when I was a teenager. Dad passed away of Chronic Heart Failure due to his alcoholism when I was 13 years old. His death took a huge toll on my mother who was left alone to take of me who was this kid with behavior and anger issues. Not long after Dad passed, it was discovered that my mother had a brain tumor. The brain tumor was successfully removed but a spot was discovered on her lung. My mother said it was just a scar from when she had turburculosis and so she elected to have nothing further done. It turned out this spot on her lung was cancer and because she did not have it treated, it spread throughout her entire body. My Mom put up a hard fight for a year but the more the cancer spread throughout her body, the weaker she got and began to lose the battle. Eventually they had to move a hospital bed into the living room and she became bed ridden. We had to have a nurse or family member present to take care of her. I was fifteen years old at this time. On May 1st at 4:30 a.m. my sister woke me to come into the living room. There I found my other siblings and family members gathered around my mom's bed. I pulled up a kitchen chair by mom's bed and sat with her and held her hand tightly. From 4:30 till 7:30 that morning I sat with my Mom holding her hand. At 7:30 a.m my Mom looked me in the eyes squeezed my hand and took her last breath and I felt her hand slip away at 15 years of age. So there I was 15 years old with no parents, sobbing and wondering where I would go and who would take care of me. I spent that summer living with my sister until that July when I moved from Springfield to Brentwood, Tennessee to live at the Tennessee Baptist Children's Home. At that time the Children's home had 10 houses on it's property. 8 of these houses consisted of "house parents" while the remaining 2 houses consisted of "relief houseparents". Life at the children's home went in this cycle, You lived with the houseparents for 16 days then packed up 4 days worth of clothes and went to the "relief house" to stay with the relief house parents for 4 days then packed up and went back to your original house. every other weekend was "off campus weekend where you could go home with family or a "visting family" that sponsored a child. I alternated between my sister and brother's house on those off campus weekends. I lived with my original set of house parents for 3 years before going to a different house my senior year of high school known as the independent living house. My original house parents were good, caring christian people. It was while living with them I became a christian at age 15. Every house had a church it belonged to and the house I belonged to attended Grassland Heights Baptist Church. This was my first time in a church environment. My parents were christians and attended Mt. Sharon Prespertyrian Church but I don't remember us ever going. My Mom did talk to me about God a lot but I do not recall ever attending church until after moving to the children's home. When I was saved and turned my life over to Christ at 15 I felt a big change in my character. I was still no perfect angel though. I still got into my share of hyjinx and shenanigans which is typical for a immature high schooler. I moved into the Independent Living house my senior year of high school. The house parents there attended Clearview Baptist Church which is where I currently attend. Grassland conducted service the traditional style. It was a great experience for a new christian getting to experince this style of worship. At Clearview I got to experience for the first time the contempoary praise and worship style of worship which is awesome. Today Clearview offers two venues so you can experience the traditional style in the chapel or praise and worship in the worship center. I felt very close to God in high school. When I went to college I still felt that closeness to God but was attacked by satan mentally and emotionally. As people heard my testimony and asked me why didn't my sister or brother take care of me and as I pondered that I started to become angry towards my siblings for putting me in the children's home and not taking care of me. My freshman year of college, my grandmother who I was very close to passed away. She wrote me every moment she could while I lived at the children's home. After my grandmother passed away in 2001, I was dealing with emotions of sadness, depression, and anger. I became aquainted with the wrong crowd and started drinking and felt that was the answer to all my problems. I went through a dark phase in my life for about 6 years due to depression about my past and not fully grieving over my parents and my grandmothers. God saw I was traveling down a slippery slope and took those drinking buddies out of the picture and convicted my heart that he would put my mind and heart at peace which is what he has done. Fast foward to the present. Even though I had my demons the one thing that brought me genuine enjoyment and happiness was working with the children at church. God had spoke to me for years attempting to speak to my heart to become a school teacher. I studied business in my undergrad at Belmont University and I assumed that was what my path in life was going to be because that is what I wanted but not what God wanted. Thankfully God finally got through to my stubborn hard head because in November of 2007 I was laid off from the company I thought I was going to retire from but God had to get through to me somehow and show me his will for me was not the business world but the world of education. God had whispered this to me for years through other people but the lay off was God screaming to me! God had finally gotten through to my heart to make the transition from the board room to the class room and in January of 2009, I began following God's career choice for me and began my Masters program in Elementary Education at Trevecca Nazarene University! As of May 7th 2011, I have completed the masters program but still have to pass the Praxis exams and student teach and/or receive a transitional license. As I continue to get older, thankfully I continue to finally grow wiser and to mature in my walk with God. Today, God has taken away the depression that plagued me for so many years. As you have read this you can see I have faced much adversity in my life but am thankful to God for the peace he has now instilled into my heart and for the friends I have made over the years and my church family that have stood by my side to give me support and encouragement. I know that no matter what storms I face in my life, God will protect me and hold me in his loving arms to make it through the storms as he has done so my whole life. My motto to life is "sometimes you have to crash and burn in order to learn". I have crashed and burned quite a bit but it was in order for me to learn what God was trying to tell me and the path in which he is guiding me. If you are experiencing any trials and tribulations as you have read this, I have experienced plenty. I urge you to humble yourself right where you are and ask God to deliver you from the storms in your life because we can not fight the battle alone. If you are a non-believer you can come to know the love of Jesus today and experience true joy! Please comment if you would like to know how you may become a christian and I would love to help you make that life changing decision! Thank you for reading but stay tuned because there are many more chapters of my life to be written and God will make those present in his perfect timing. Thank you and God bless.