NJ is a 38 year old wife and mother of six.  Yes 6.  They range in age from 29 to 8. When I was a professional guardian in Florida, I hired NJ as a caregiver for some of my elderly clients.  NJ was working on her nursing degree when she worked for me.  She also worked for hospice and I was blessed to see her in action as she comforted one of our favorite clients in her last days.

NJ and I have maintained a friendship across the miles thanks to Facebook.  I caught a recent post saying she was off work due to an emergency surgery and she had lost significant income from the situation.  I asked to hear her story.  It is a testimony to her faith to our very loving God.  I asked her if she would write up her story as I wanted to feature her in my blog.  She replies “Sure, I think I could do that.  We gain our strength through sharing our experiences.  I know for me as a young Christian, it helps me to recognize the Lord more when I read other’s testimonies.  (I say young because while I have always known there was a God and I went to church as a child, I only recently gave my life to Him and opened up to learning.)  It is amazing what we see and learn when we surrender.”

Some know her as NJ, some know her as Nancy and others know her as Janey.  She has as many names as I do and is also named after a beloved family member!  Her house is never dull and she says sometimes the 8 year old is the wisest.  She has been off work for two months from having a full emergency hysterectomy.

This is NJ’s story

I am a home health nurse and it means I work “per diem” so I don’t get paid if I don’t work.  Thankfully my husband has insurance for us through his work.  This job and these benefits have come after nearly seven years of praying for God to open a door for a better position for him.  We made our needs known to God and continued to thank Him for what we had.  Finally the day came when my hard working husband was blessed with a wonderful position with great benefits.

I finally finished nursing school two years ago. I had been working a very low paying job to “gain experience.”  I was just settling into a better position with higher wages and things were starting to look up.  For the first time we were able to take a vacation.  We had the funds to allow our children to be involved in extra-curricular activities.  I was able to do things for my patients like recognizing them on their birthday and remembering them on special occasions.

I was struggling however to maintain myself.  For the past ten years I have experienced pain, insomnia and extreme fatigue.  The fatigue was so bad my children jokingly said I was worse than grandpa at falling asleep.  My pain continued to get worse.  I had severe pain around the kidneys so bad I could not stand up straight or sleep lying down longer than 2-3 hours.  Bladder spasms seriously brought me to my knees when they hit.  I saw many doctors over the years and was given a label and a pill but nothing helped.    I was even told that the problems were all in my head.

I was beginning to feel hopeless.  I cried out to God.  I know something is wrong, please God help me.  And guess what, He did!  I continued to bleed more and more heavily.  It got so bad I was bleeding heavily every day.  A visit to a new gynecologist put me in the hospital for a full hysterectomy.

Everyone tried to prepare me for what to expect after the surgery.  They warned me of great pain in the healing process.  When I woke up from the surgery, I HAD NO PAIN.  God had healed me and I could feel it.  I was sore, but I felt soooo much better.  My doctor told me I had a lot of infection, tumors that were malignant, endometriosis and more.  The nurses kept asking if I wanted pain meds but I didn’t need any.  I WAS HEALED.

Then the reality of being out of work set in.  But God had all that worked out too.  Our bills were paid, a couple of donations arrived at our home as well as Christmas gifts for my children.  Our luxury bills like the car payment and the private school payments were able to be deferred without issue allowing my husband to afford groceries and pay the other necessary bills like day care, car insurance and gas.  We were making it.  We had a vacation coming up.  It was already paid for as we booked it last January.  Our only need was for gas and food.  We were accepting the fact that we were going to have to cancel this family vacation due to lack of funds with me out of work.  But again, God blessed us.  I have truly experienced a blessing ten fold.

Every day I give from my heart every chance I get.  If I feel the Holy Spirit put it on me to do something, I do it.  Sometimes my husband will say we didn’t have funds for that or “what were you thinking!” but when I tell him God put it on my heart, I remind him we are never without.  We don’t have much of a savings, but we are never without.  God encourages giving out of love.

God provided yet another blessing. We received a monetary gift to allow us to go and enjoy our family vacation.  I am still in awe.  For the first time in ten years I have slept through the night.  I have gained energy and feel like a new person with no pain.  At times, I seriously thought I was going to die young.  Now I look forward to going back to work on December 30, 2016.

Our God is great.  I never expected this kind of blessing.  I am truly feeling it ten fold.  I am so grateful for his love.  I know I fail daily but the fact that I see and feel Him here reassures me that He LOVES me and continues to be in control.

Commentary From Polly

And so friends it is an appropriate day to post this story, the day she is released and able to return to work.  Healed by a mighty God.

I asked her for a couple of photos for the blog and she sent me 35!  She is such a proud mama sharing this beautiful trip with her family to a cabin in the woods complete with snow and winter wonder.  She is a Florida girl who craves mountains and snow.  She is in amazement of all that God provided by loving angels.  They were provided with beef roasts, turkey and even her favorite coffee “Barnies White Christmas.”

The God-mother of one of the children (pictured left) was one of the many angels.  NJ said for this Christmas they had so little and God put so many things in motion and people blessed us beyond measure.  It was our grandest family Christmas ever.

They sold some things before leaving home in order to get tickets on the Polar Express in Bryson, NC plus new pajamas and slippers for the girls.  She said the train ride was magical.  Dancing chefs served hot cocoa and freshly baked chocolate chip cookies while they sang to the children.  Each child received a Polar Express book.  When they reached the “North Pole”  Santa boarded the train and every child received a bell and Santa signed their books.

At their cabin they played Christmas games, baked cookies and hiked.  They even found a 6 foot live Christmas tree at Tractor Supply for $1.99 to decorate their cabin.  God thought of everything.

If you have a God story, please contact me.  I would like to share it.

 

Enjoy the wonder of what God provided this family.