As a young teen of 15 years I wondered about the truth of the Bible and the reality of heaven and hell. I didn’t receive satisfactory answers from my mother, my stepfather claimed to be an atheist so I prayed to the God I wasn’t sure existed. “God, I don’t know if you exist or not, but if you do, I don’t want to come to the end of my life and find out that I made the wrong choice.  So if one can know here on earth, I would like to know.”

Surprisingly a few days later I found myself in a sledding accident, losing my spleen and one of my kidneys. Statistically I was told that 70% of the people in accidents like mine die immediately and the other 30% die on the way to the hospital.  I was a miracle! This accident stimulated a greater awareness of God but no forthcoming answers to my questions until my freshman year at Auburn University.

In Short, I found Christ and I finally knew why God spared my life at age 15. My life did have a purpose. My remaining years at Auburn were filled with happiness that only comes from a life surrendered to Christ. Upon graduation, with a double major in Education and French, I felt the Lord’s leading to humbly be a secretary.  The Lord kept assuring my heart He would use my position.  Little did I know that the very skills I was acquiring would be needed to help run the home business of my future husband. This would support all the children God would give us.

Upon graduation I lived with my mother in Atlanta.  One of my goals was to be a witness to my mother for I yearned for her to see that I was now different from the ornery, spiteful, emotionally up and down teen-ager I had been.  I started attending a Baptist church.  There I met Lawrence at a Bible study he was teaching and we were engaged in February 1978.

During our engagement we met with a doctor who specialized in internal medicine.  He cautioned us that it was seriously important I never get a kidney or bladder infection, to protect my remaining kidney. The doctor talked with Lawrence about the importance of him helping take care of my health.  Lawrence came away from that meeting deeply committed to protecting my health. 

Three weeks after we were married I became pregnant with our first child.  Lawrence was not thrilled because we were headed towards the mission field. We had never studied the Scriptures regarding God’s perspective on children. The night after receiving the positive test result for pregnancy, some friends came over.  They thought it was wonderful that I was expecting and quoted Psalm 127 “Children are an heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is his reward”.  After they left, I’ll never forget him sitting in the slipcovered winged chair in the corner of the living room seriously reading the psalm.  He closed the Bible and said, “If God says they are a blessing, then they are a blessing.” Yet strangely we did not see the logical link that this meant God wanted us to trust Him fully to have all the children He wanted.