Miracle Monday....the Power of Prayer and Polio

Welcome back to Miracle Monday! It has been so LONG since I have joined in. One thing that has been on my heart for months is to write about my mom. She really is a walking miracle. So, I have decided to share her incredible journey on Miracle Mondays. As I continue to blog about Mom and her life, you, too, will see how God has been over her life, performing great miracles and showering her with His love. My mom has been an inspiration to me, and I pray that she will be to you as well.

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.

This was terrifying because so many children my mom knew and across the country were dying of polio or infantile paralysis . Didn’t know what caused it. It happened to lots of people at a time. If the children survived, it usually meant that they would live in an iron lung or be paralyzed, never to walk again freely. Some would be able to walk with the help of leg braces, but would not be able to run, ride a bike, or live a normal life as a child.

"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.