My name is Judy and this is a story about God’s faithfulness in my life.

I met Keith in 1999. We were college sweethearts and he was my perfect match. I loved everything about him and if I had been given the opportunity to change anything about him or about us or about our life I don’t think there is anything I could have come up with. We were married in July of 2004 and lived in San Diego, California.

Our plan was to be married approximately five years before trying to start a family and that’s exactly what we did. We had those years and did anything and everything that we wanted and mainly just enjoyed being together. In 2008 we decided we were ready to have children. I was a middle school teacher and tried to plan it so that I would be pregnant, leave for spring break and then be able to roll that break into my maternity leave and ultimately be out for summer vacation, not returning to work until the next fall. It worked out perfectly. I got pregnant on the first try in September and had a due date of May 25th, 2009. In April I left for spring break hoping I could start my several months of vacation/maternity leave, and I did, just not how I ever would have wanted.

Keith had flown to Austin, Texas for the weekend and on April 10th I received the worst phone call of my life. I was told that Keith had been in an accident and he was in the hospital on life support. He had undergone emergency surgery in an effort to save his life but the swelling in his brain was extensive. So extensive that he probably would not make it, and if he did, he would never be the same Keith that all of us knew and loved.

In the blink of an eye, my world was ripped away from me. My life as I knew it would never be the same. All that was certain disappeared and all that remained was a life filled with uncertainty.

The next few hours and days were a nightmare. I immediately flew from San Diego to Austin, praying the entire way that Keith would still be alive when I arrived. As I walked through the hospital I saw the hallway lined with our family and friends, tears in all of their eyes as they watched me, very pregnant with our first child, walk to Keith’s room in ICU.

Not long after the accident he was able to come off of life support. I was believing for miracles and we got them. Initially he was lacking basic brain stem functions; he had no gag reflex, no blink reflex and no cough reflex. With time and prayer, he got all of these back. After being told he would be paralyzed from the waist down, he regained movement in his legs. The only explanation for his progress was prayer.

On May 24th I went into labor and was admitted to the same hospital where Keith resided in ICU. On May 25th, his exact due date, I gave birth to our son, Brooks. Brooks was the most perfect baby and to describe the situation and everything surrounding it as ‘bittersweet’ doesn’t come close to doing it justice.

Some time that summer, I want to say in or around July, I was having a quiet time when I very clearly heard the Lord speak to me. I was crying and struggling about the topic of having more kids. With Keith in a coma and possibly paralyzed from the waist down, I didn’t even have the option to choose to have another baby. The choice seemed to already be made for me. But as I cried on my bed I heard the Lord say, “You will be blessed with more children.”

Children. Not child. I froze.

Children?

Did I just imagine this? No. Because if I imagined it I would have said child. I more than likely wanted two kids total ~ three or more would definitely need to be discussed. Children? I couldn’t believe it.

For the course of sixteen long months I continued to believe that the Lord would heal Keith and restore our family. On seven different occasions I was told that Keith was dying and that he wouldn’t make it through the night. Seven different occasions. But Keith was a fighter and he held on. He continued to fight but he unfortunately never got any better. On August 28th, 2010, the Lord was gracious and finally called Keith Home. He was 32.

There was both extreme sadness and extreme release at losing him. The next several months were difficult as I adjusted to being both a young widow and officially being a single mom. I understood my situation and after some serious soul searching I decided to make the best of it. I had two choices: I could choose to die alongside Keith and remain stuck in the past or I could choose to live and move forward. I chose to live.

Early on I made the decision that I would not settle if and when it came to a future relationship. Consequently, I realized that I probably would not come across someone of Keith’s caliber and I was okay with that. I would be the best mom to Brooks I could be and the two of us would live a happy, loving life. That’s the way life went for a little while until I realized the Lord had other plans.

Towards the beginning of 2011 I decided I wanted to take a trip somewhere that summer. A trip of a lifetime. I didn’t know where or with whom, just that I wanted to do something BIG. I stumbled across our friend from San Diego who had recently moved to Australia and thought I might be on to something. He was Keith’s friend and I really only knew him in passing. I knew a lot about him, however, because Keith LOVED him. He ended up moving away from San Diego and landed in Dallas…so Keith set him up with some of his college buddies that lived there and they all hung out quite a bit.

When Keith had his accident, Patrick came to Austin and cried over his buddy who was laying in a hospital bed. He read him scripture and prayed over him. Later that fall, before he moved to Australia, Patrick sat in the nursing home with Keith, Brooks and me just as many of Keith’s friends had done throughout his time in various hospitals.

As odd and random as it might have seemed for me to plan a trip to Australia, it always seemed completely normal. Although I didn’t really know Patrick, I felt like I did because of how much Keith revered him. As my trip began unfolding, Patrick and I began communicating more and more. Suddenly there was a shift in our conversations and we both realized the magnitude of what we were dealing with.

We were married in December of 2011 and in January of 2012, Brooks and I moved to Australia with Patrick where we lived for almost a year and a half.

We knew we wanted to move back to the US in 2013 and in September of 2012, I found out I was pregnant so the talks of moving back became more and more serious as we wanted to be closer to family when the baby was born. In October of 2012 I found out not only was I pregnant, but I was pregnant with twins.

Twins.

Not one child, but two.

Children.

The Lord’s word was brought to fruition. I was blessed with more children. We decided to move back sooner rather than later so Patrick found a new job and we moved back home in April of 2013. The girls, Isabelle and Ella, were born just a few weeks later.

There are so many amazing stories within my story that showed God was with me and before me every step of the way. His plan was not my plan and His way was not my way, but in His love, mercy and graciousness He redeemed me in ways I never would have been able to come up with. He is good. He is faithful. And He is there for all of us.