So many people "chalk up" miracles to mere coincidence, missing out on God's amazing provision, sovereignty, and mercy. But, my mommy always said, "Everything happens for a reason." We never credited anything to "coincidence". Mom always told me that we don't always understand God, but we always trust Him.
Shirley was born in Streator, Illinois in 1937, in the midst of a very scary time in our country.
Back in the first part of the 20th century, polio was a horrible epidemic that killed children or left them paralyzed. Most of the time, when parents heard the dreaded word, "polio," it usually meant a "death sentence", or a changed life forever.
"I remember waking up in the middle of the night having to go to the bathroom,
but I couldn't move. I called for my dad to help me. I went to
bed just fine.... Dad was crying. He took me to the hospital. I was
scared. It was polio."
My mom was 6 years old when she contracted polio.
"I remember living in the hospital with polio in the iron lung for
warmth. It was scary. Only my head stuck out. A nurse
stayed with me during the day and my mom at night. The nurse took fluid out of
spine every day. I was so weak."
My mom talked to God when she was in the hospital. She prayed for better health. "Childish" prayers simply asking God to help her...to make her well.
When mom went home from the hospital, she couldn't walk. She was paralyzed from her neck to her toes. She couldn't feel anything. She couldn't feed herself. She was like that at least a year....Mom can't remember all of the details.
Mom prayed.
"God, please give me strength to walk again."
My mom's grandma and Aunt Emma would pray over her.
Shirley remembers having to relearn the easiest "baby milestones", crawling and pulling herself up. She remembers falling down a lot.
Shirley continued to pray . She made up her mind she wasn’t going to be paralyzed.
The nurses and doctors said there was no hope. They said she would need leg braces to be able to walk. They said she would never be able to ride her beloved biclycle again.
So, when the Springfield nurses drove the 2 hours to Streator to fit mom for braces....she was out riding her bicycle in the driveway.
My mom, very slowly, with the Hand of God leading her, learned how to walk again.
It was a MIRACLE.
Please visit Beth at a Mom's Life to read about more miracles.
4 thoughts shared....:
What a wonderful miracle! Sometimes the simple prayers of a child are the best!
(Mr. Linky is working again. I'll link you up.)
Thanks for sharing this precious miracle.
that brought tears to my eyes. i couldn't imagine, as a parent, the fear your grandparents must have felt when your mom was diagnosed...and the joy they must have felt when she recovered the way she did!
beautiful!
That's wonderful. I wish there were more happy stories like that. My grandfather was a doctor and when the Polio vaccine was first invented he gathered all his children and nieces and nephews to vaccinate them. One of his brothers (my Granddad was the oldest of 13) didn't trust the vaccine and refused. Less than a year later my dad's youngest cousin contracted polio and never walked again.
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