WHY MY DAUGHTER!!!

"I want to die! I want the earth to open and swallow me, now! I want to scream...I want to hit something! God please...not my baby girl! How can this be happening to my Shelly? NOT MY SHELLY! The baby girl that I longed for, cried for, loved, nurtured, and raised! She made it to college and now this? How can this be happening? How? She is the most beautiful, sweet, funny, strong, outgoing, loving, caring and responsible young woman I've ever known! Why her? Why not some evil, murdering child molester? WHY MY DAUGHTER!!! I want to know WHY? Why her? Aren't there enough horrible people in the world who deserve punishment? SHE IS NOT DESERVING OF THIS!!! God please save my little girl from this!

How will she ever get over this? How am I ever going to tell her? I want my daughter back, the way she was on December 23, 2006! Why did her life have to change in an instant? God, please have mercy on my daughter! Please heal her right arm! Do this to me!!! I can handle this! But daughter can't! She shouldn't have to! Take me now! Torture me a thousand years...just please don't let my daughter have to live with this for the rest of her life! Not my baby! My heart breaks for her! I hurt for her! She has always been so independent! I mourn for the life she was on her way to living! She has always had such big dreams...to own her own business...have her own house...to get married and have children...now she will need help with everything...getting dressed, cooking, I don't even want to think about the things she'll need help with. My daughter should not have to go through this! I'm so ANGRY! I hate the whole world right now! I know that life isn't fair! But why do such bad things happen to such good people? God has a plan, God has a reason...I know! I've heard it over and over. But it doesn't help my little girl! I've prayed - like I've never prayed before...God hears, I know He does! I love Him...Shelly loves Him. I don't understand why God allows such things. I've read Job. I understand that He let those things happen to Job because He knew his heart, and He knew Job wouldn't curse Him. But I'm not that strong! I can handle anything except when it comes to my children!

We are here on this earth to protect our children. From the moment a woman finds out she's pregnant - she instinctively protects her stomach. She shields it, holds it, rubs it, loves it, and sings to it. Then the first movement! A mother's heart jumps for joy! The sonogram- The ultrasound- a face and a body! How miraculous! My baby, perfect and precious... a gift from God! Motherhood is a 24/7 job for the rest of your life...motherhood never ends...why should it? A women's very existence depends on the health and safety of her children. We are used and abused and I don't know another mother who would have it any other way! I would be better off if someone would rip my heart out of my chest, throw it on the ground and crush it! I can't bear to see my daughter hurt and suffer, much less have to deal with a lifelong disability with losing the use of her right arm! I will find every card she ever signed...I will find every note she ever wrote. I will frame every picture she ever drew! Oh, God...Please don't do this to my little girl!"


Doesn't sound much like a Christian, does it? During a time of crisis, we all question God...even Jesus questioned God while He was on the cross. Jesus wanted an answer from His father..."My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Matthew 27:46. But as we all know, God will never leave us or forsake us. It only feels like we are alone. But ours prayers are heard...and the Holy Spirit comforts us in our time of need. I wrote the above on the back of our neighborhood directory (it was the only paper I could find!) about five days into our stay at U.A.B. Neuro Intensive Care Unit. We watched our beautiful 18 year old daughter fight for her life. She had a traumatic brain injury, which in itself is very frightening. She did not recognize anyone. She was scared, and fought everyone who came too close to her. She was extremely violent and had to be put in a straight jacket and tied to her bed. She had a cast on her leg. She had spinal surgery and therefore had a neck brace on (which she tried to rip off at any chance she had), and a feeding tube placed in her stomach because her vocal cords were paralyzed. Then there was the spinal cord injury which left her right arm paralyzed. She had multiple injuries, but at the time we just wanted our daughter to live. We had already decided that no matter what state she was left in, we were taking her home with us. We couldn't bear to put her in a nursing home/long term care facility. Our only prayer throughout this whole ordeal, was if Shelly died, one soul would be saved for the Kingdom of God. We didn't want her life to end without an impact on someone who was lost, and needed to see Jesus through Mark and myself. And by the way...Prayer works! Shelly walked through the door of our home three weeks after her accident. We were told she would be in the hospital for at least 6 weeks, in Spain Rehab for 4 to 6 months, and would probably never be the same. Her brain injury alone would leave her with lifelong disabilities...

Fast forward two years later...Shelly is now a junior at The University of Alabama, double majoring in Marketing and Management with a minor in Computer Science. She has learned to write with her left hand, and well, do just about everything left handed and one handed! In fact, Shelly received the Council of President's Freshmen Academic Achievement Award, and has made the Dean's list every semester since she has been at Alabama! She went snow skiing, has played tennis, learned to hunt with a crossbow, and now has a compound bow fit with a leather strap to pull back with her teeth, so she can hunt this fall! We always wondered why she was such an independent little girl, maybe even a little head strong, and now we know why! God made her that way for a purpose...to be used by God to glorify Himself through her healing and testimony! So that we can testify to her healing through prayer, and to witness to others who are going through the same thing we went through. There is hope...and there is a God who loves you and wants to be in your life. He made every atom in your body and yes, even the hairs on your head are numbered. John 14:6 Jesus answered,"I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except through me." John 10:28 "I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one can snatch them out of my hand."

If you are going through a difficult time in your life, please know that God is with you. Things may not turn out as you want, but God has a reason and a purpose for everything. We continue to pray that God will heal Shelly's spinal cord injury, and that she will regain use of her right arm, even though the doctors say it is impossible. But as Christians, we know that with God, all things are possible! May God bless you and keep you in His Holy protection all the days of your life.