Stretch Marks: Believing Beyond Your Capacity: A Mother's Faith Journey

TWO BOOKS IN ONE! This book features Our Story and also Our Devotional. The devotional is a 40 Day journey to encourage and inspire you in your faith.

This book is also INTERACTIVE with many color photos and QR codes that you can scan to see all of the videos I talk about and be immersed in the story right there with us!

For those of us who have been pregnant before, we understand what it’s like to share our bodies with another human being. As the baby grows, we gain weight and our skin stretches. Some of us haveStretchMarks from the growth that never go away. They are a reminder that we have brought life into the world...a life that is eternal.
In the same way, God is growing our spiritual beings. All of us, male and female, as Christians and disciples, are pregnant with the Word. As we grow in our faith and our character into mature followers of Christ, there are many times that we experience “spiritual stretch marks.” They leave a lasting impression on our souls. They are a reminder that we have a greater purpose, an eternal purpose; an assignment from God. We grow the most in times of tremendous pain and sorrow. Will we allow the Holy Spirit, the teacher, to help us enlarge our capacity?

Thursday, March 1, 2012 will forever be seared into my memory. I was sitting at my desk at work having a discussion with my daughter, my boss and our friend. My daughter suffered her first stroke right in front of my eyes.

Three weeks later, after more brain bleeds, she was ushered in for her first of four craniotomies in nine days. The fourth craniotomy was described as a "Hail Mary" by the neurosurgeon. He explained that she probably wouldn't survive the six-hour-plus long surgery.

SHE SURVIVED

That became the ongoing theme for the duration of her illness.

"She probably won't survive the coma."

SHE SURVIVED

"She probably won't survive the months of experimental chemotherapy."

SHE SURVIVED

"She probably won't survive the Game-knife radiation treatment."

SHE SURVIVED

They sent her home in a vegetative state with a feeding tube, breathing tube and high-octane drugs to die.

SHE DIDN'T DIE...