Kelly's 18th-birthday breakthrough!

Many of you know my daughter, Kelly. For those of you who don't, Kelly is our first-born of three children. She was born with a rare syndrome called Cornelia de Lange syndrome or CdLS. She just turned 18 on August 26. I want to share with you all a very encouraging, some would say miraculous, story about what happened to her and to me on her 18th birthday:

Eighteen years ago, Kelly was born in Burlington, NC, near my hometown of Mebane. I had had to fly back from Mazatlan, Mexico where we were stationed in the Foreign Service at the time because the State Department wouldn't let me deliver the baby in Mexico. I arrived at my parent's home about 3 weeks before Kelly was born. My husband Larry arrived at the hospital, after a harrowing plane journey from Mazatlan, 40 minutes before Kelly was born. That should have been a clue to us that events around this child's life would have God's fingerprints all over them!

Larry returned to Mazatlan after two weeks, and Kelly and I joined him when, at five weeks old, she was medically cleared to return to post. She had a slight heart murmur that had been detected, reflux and seemed to sleep all the time, but otherwise seemed healthy and normal. Once back in Mazatlan, we found one pediatrician in the entire city who spoke English. When Kelly didn't seem to be meeting her developmental milestones, he sent us to the embassy in Mexico City and then on to Children's Hospital in Houston for further medical tests.

Kelly was diagnosed at 4 1/2 months old with a rare syndrome that no one in our family had ever heard of. We didn't know if she would ever walk or talk. We were told that all children with CdLS were mentally retarded to some degree. She would likely be a sickly child and would eventually need surgeries to correct her reflux and heart condition. She would require multiple therapies on an ongoing basis to learn things that come naturally to most children. The list of potential problems seemed endless; the medical research was full of information about only the extremely severe cases of CdLS. We had to inform our families by phone of what the diagnosis was. It was difficult news to accept, and difficult to be 3000 miles away from the support of our family and friends.

Fast-forward 18 years: We now live in Leetsdale, PA. Kelly is a junior at regular high school, but she's in a special education classroom most of the day. Kelly has an IQ of 50. After multiple surgeries and years of speech, physical and occupational therapy, Kelly reads at a first grade level, knows her multiplication tables, but still is only able to speak in two word utterances. She communicates most things in one or two words or even with her eyes, but at school they barely ever hear her speak or interact with others. Over the years, Kelly has done most of her talking when she is alone in her room in a sort of stream of consciousness mode: OK......tomorrow......spelling test. Wednesday....bath night.....OK.....now....brush teeth.....Daddy story. I often sit outside her door with my ear pressed against it just to hear her talk.

On Kelly's actual birthday weekend, I was in Gainesville, Florida, doing a "Sharing Our Faith" conference for the Anglican Communion Network where I'm now the Coordinator for Evangelism. I felt badly that I wasn't going to be home on her actual birthday which was on Sunday, but we had had a big cookout and birthday party during our vacation to Mebane, North Carolina in early August with my parents, my three siblings and their families, various aunts and uncles and some family friends at my parents' home. Kelly had even sung along with Shania Twain through a karaoke machine several country songs in front of the whole group. Everyone was thrilled. It seemed like a real step forward, but she seemed so beyond herself that I expected her to pass out at any moment. I kicked myself for putting her up to it. The next day she was ready to leave for home - "Miss my room." We were back to two and three word phrases. In hindsight, it was a glimpse of what was soon to come.

In Gainesville, each of the five speakers on our team was originally scheduled to preach at a local church. Two weeks before the event, I woke up with a distinct feeling that I wasn't supposed to preach. That day, I received a call from the Gainesville conference administrator saying that one of the five churches had decided they would rather not have a guest preacher the Sunday of the conference. I told her to just mark that church off the list; that I was the one who wasn't supposed to be scheduled to preach - though I still didn't really know why.

That left me without an official duty on Sunday morning. When I told Dr. Michael Green, who is our lead speaker, that I was just going to accompany him to the two services that he was scheduled to preach at, he said in his wonderful British accent, "I hate that you are not being used. Why don't you do a testimony? We have the Anglican service at 8 and then the Vineyard Christian Fellowship service at 10:30." (Servants of Christ Anglican Church, our conference's host, shares the Vineyard's facility.) I agreed to do a testimony and just assumed that I would share my testimony of my faith coming alive after attending an Alpha Course at Holy Trinity Brompton in London back in 1991. Saturday night as I thought about what I would share the next day and I had a conversation with the Lord that went something like this:

"You are not supposed to share that testimony."
"Well, it's the only testimony I've got. What am supposed to share then?
"You're supposed to talk about Kelly, it's her 18th birthday."
"Well, I know it's her birthday, and there have been plenty of amazing things that you have done in her life, but I'm not sure that these people are that interested."
"Trust me, they're interested."
"Well, okay, what am I supposed to share about Kelly, I mean I've got 18 years of material on that girl!"
"You'll know, just trust me!"

I usually like to be prepared for these kinds of things, but the conversation was definitely over. I said a prayer and went to bed not knowing exactly what this was all about.

Dr. Green and I arrived at Servants in time to quickly discuss with their rector, the Rev. Alex Farmer, the order of worship. The plan was for me to do my testimony after the epistle reading and then the Gospel would be read and Dr. Green would preach. The scriptures were printed in the bulletin so I quickly scanned them, trying to collect my thoughts and make a connection with God's Word for the day.

Here's what caught my eye from the Gospel reading from Luke 13:10-17: "Now he (Jesus) was teaching in one of the synagogues on the Sabbath. And there was a woman who had had a disabling spirit for 18 years. She was bent over and could not fully straighten herself. When Jesus saw her, he called her over and said to her, 'Woman, you are freed from your disability.' And he laid his hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and she glorified God."

I said to Alex, "I think I'm supposed to do my testimony after the Gospel reading!"

My mind immediately went to a prophetic prayer that had been prayed over Kelly when she was about five months old. A mission team had come down from a Vineyard church in California to minister in Mazatlan. They were doing open-air ministry in the city square. They said if anyone wanted to be prayed for to come forward. We had never had hands laid on us and been prayed for out loud by people we didn't know. We had never done anything like this before, but Kelly had just been diagnosed with CdLS, and we were desperate. We went forward.

The team prayed over each of us. They felt that the Lord was saying that Kelly would be healed, but that it would be over a long period of time. They prayed over Larry that he was like David, a man after God's own heart, and they prayed over me that I was like Sarah, that I would laugh at what God would do through me.

The fact that I was at an Anglican service worshipping in a Vineyard church (probably the only one on the planet!) on the day of Kelly's 18th birthday when the scripture assigned was about a woman being healed of a disabling spirit that she'd had for 18 years was simply too much for mere coincidence. This church uses the Revised Common Lectionary so the Gospel reading at the other church where I was originally assigned to speak would not have been Luke 13. I felt like God was doing a healing work in Kelly even as I proclaimed it during my testimony about her.

In the testimony, I talked about how special Kelly is to God and to our family. I talked about how many people have been blessed by seeing God work in her and through her. I talked about the many different healings that Kelly had already experienced. I explained how Kelly is great at just being a child of God, while most of us are busy doing things for Him. I talked about God's faithfulness to keep his promises like the one that he gave us that day in Mazatlan, that I truly believed was being fulfilled as I spoke. At the end of my testimony, the whole congregation sang "Happy Birthday to you!" to Kelly in absentia.

Apparently, there were several families in the small congregation with children with special needs. Many people were touched by her story. I shared a shorter version at the Vineyard service, thanking them that their denomination so openly embraced the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how that Vineyard mission team's prayer had given us so much hope over the years. After the service, the prayer ministry time was powerful. I felt that the prophetic word prayed over me 18 years ago was also being fulfilled as I prayed for healing for people and as gifts for ministry were being released in the people for whom I prayed.

Sunday night, nearly 200 people came for the follow up service at Servants to hear Dr. Green's talk called "A Spirituality that Works." Many had been among the 650 University of Florida students that heard Dr. Green debate a "Christian atheist" on Saturday night. Eight people accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior for the first time and others committed to join a seekers' group on campus. The whole conference exceeded my every expectation!

It wasn't until the team was on our way back to Jacksonville Sunday night that I even had the chance to call Kelly and wish her happy birthday! I dialed the number. Kelly picked up the phone. Kelly never answers the phone! I said, "Happy Birthday" and started to ask about her day. She interrupted me. Kelly has never interrupted me! She said, "Mommy, OK, my room is all ready for Tom Herrick." Kelly has never said a person's first and last name in the same breath! "I cleaned my room today. I'm sleeping in your room tomorrow. Tom Herrick's sleeping in my room. What time will you be home tomorrow?"

I nearly wrecked the van. Tom Herrick who was in the van now has the claim to fame of being part of Kelly first full sentence after 18 years of two word utterances! Kelly was saying things on the phone like "I'm a woman now. I'm 18. I'm an adult now!" My husband, Larry, was ecstatic! I couldn't wait to tell him about how all the pieces had come together from my end. We just praised God for the birthday breakthrough and said we'd talk when I got home the next day.

Since that day, Kelly's healing has been noticeable in the following ways:

* Kelly now gets up at 7 a.m. on her own and around 8 a.m. weekends where before we would have to wake her up if she wasn't up by 1 p.m. (in the summer!)
* She has continued to talk in sentences, initiating conversation and making eye contact where before she would only speak if spoken to.
* Kelly has always had a fear or phobia of characters in costume - no Santa Claus, no Easter Bunny, no Chuckie Cheese or Disney World for her. We attend a Pittsburgh Pirates game on Episcopal night and she was standing up with her arms raised, dancing to the music when the Pirates mascots - the parrot, the pirate and the pierogies - came onto the field.
* Kelly sang "I feel like a woman" by Shania Twain on her karaoke machine for her entire special ed class and chorus teacher on the day we had a birthday party at her school. She had her white cowgirl hat on and belted out the song with hand motions and a big bow at the end. This time she was secure in herself.
* Kelly has been putting on shows for us at home after spending hours strumming her guitar and singing along loudly with the country tunes that she plays through her computer.
* She is eating everything now and asking for seconds when before her diet mainly consisted of peanut butter, grits, ice cream and macaroni and cheese.
* She is bathing herself, dressing herself, brushing her own hair, and putting on her socks and shoes. For 18 years, we've been trying to show her how to gather up the sock on her thumbs to get it onto her size 2 feet. She always tried, then said, "Some help!" or "Too hard!" Now, she does it all herself and when we exclaim, she looks at us like "What's the big deal?"

Okay, I'll stop now. I think you get the picture that this is for real. The excitement of seeing the new things that are happening each day is so fun! We give God all the praise and glory! He is a God who knows our circumstances, is with us through all adversity, gives us hope for the future and keeps His promises!