Today I want you to meet my sweet, funny, amazing cyber-friend, Rachel Wojnarowski. Her story is one of God’s redeeming grace and the choice she’s made to chase after His plans and hold onto His hope — with all that she has in her.
I grew up in a wonderful Christian home with fabulous Christian parents. We were faithful to church and I graduated from Christian school. I went on to Christian college and completed the circle by teaching in a Christian school. My future husband was a “preacher boy” and when we married, the plan was that he would take a youth pastor position wherever God led. Only after we married, he had serious doubts about his calling and stopped attending church all together.
After two years of marriage, a precious daughter was born to us via emergency c-section. She experienced oxygen deprivation and required resuscitation, but she lived. Three years after Taylor’s birth, I discovered that her father had been having an affair essentially four of the five years we were married. In spite of that great protective environment I’d always known, and being faithful to God’s house, sin had erupted my “perfect” life and my marriage to this man didn’t withstand. Bad choices were made by both parties and we divorced.
In spite of all the pain and loss of the “perfect” life, God brought a solid Christian man into my life and He has given us a wonderful story of grace and redemption. But in the midst of Matt and I falling in love, my dearest mom fell severely ill, diagnosed with a rare type of anemia. Two months later the diagnosis was changed to leukemia and she lived just six short months after that. Mom was the strongest, most faithful Christian I’ve ever personally known; she was my best friend.
During my divorce and my mom’s death, the discovery process for Taylor’s developmental delays became more intense. Doctors often blamed the delays on her lack of oxygen at birth. But in my heart, I knew there was more to her issues. Nine months after my mom’s death, the diagnosis for Taylor came through: MPSIIIB, a rare, genetic metabolic disorder which causes gradual neurological degeneration. The average life span is 10-15 years and there is no cure, or even a treatment.
Upon receiving Taylor’s diagnosis, my walk with the Lord became intense. I did just what Renee talked about this week in chapter four. I asked all the why’s and the how’s. I wanted God to spill out His plan for my life in one day.
But through His Word, God has taught me that faith is not only a one-time decision; it’s an everyday decision.
Trusting His plan for your everyday life is equally as important as trusting Him for your eternal life.
While God has richly blessed Matt and me with a beautiful family and more blessings than we can count, Taylor’s disease has not changed. Every day is by faith, that God would have His will for her life and ours.
Each day we claim His promises and make the choice to run towards His plan.
Rachel, your story has changed me. The first time you shared it in an email, I got Holy goosebumps up my spine, down my arms and into my toes! Your journey of choosing hope through your past and into the present brought tears to my eyes. I’m inspired by your faith and your surrendered life. To be broken daily, like bread, held up (like loaves and fishes) as an offering of God’s of love and mercy. You my friend are beautiful – inside and out.
And here are some behind-the-scenes “only Jesus knew” details: I didn’t know Rachel’s story. When God prompted me to ask her to be a guest I wasn’t sure what part of my book she’d write about. But HE did! How precious is our Jesus? He knew we needed to hear her story and be strengthened by the way she has chosen courage and one-day-at-a-time steps of faith. The way she is choosing to walk out hope gives us all a picture of what it looks like to live the message of chapter 4 with Jesus. Thank you, Rachel!!
Connecting in Community & Today’s Giveaway: What is God speaking to your heart through Rachel’s story? Also, is there anything from the questions He’s given us for the end of Chapter 4 you’d want to share? I’d love for us to connect here and talk about it.
Rachel has just released a new Ebook, The Scent of Prayer and she is giving away 5 copies to 5 of you randomly drawn on Monday from the comments left below today’s post. Just click “share your thoughts” and do just that.
About Rachel: Rachel is originally a small town country girl who converted to a suburban mother of seven by way of life happening. She and her husband, Matt, enjoy caring for their busy family, whose ages span 9 months to 21 years and includes a special needs daughter. Rachel leads community ladies’ Bible studies in central Ohio and serves as an event planner and speaker for special needs parenting groups. She is a member of the Ohio Writers’ Guild and the National MPS Society; and loves to inspire others through her blog by sharing faith, family, and fun. Wife, mom, reader, writer, speaker and dreamer, you can find Rachel on Twitter and Facebook.
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Rachel, thank you for your testimony!! What the enemy tried to destroy you with~God turned it around a100% of BLESSINGS to you! I was left at the hospital when I was born, my mother never laid eyes on me… Then five years later my dad found me and hid me in the mountains and then the incest began!!! So much more, but here’s a great time to give God all the glory for His protection over me as a child!! Through all the years the devil was trying to kill me, Had a powerful born again experience with the lover of my soul, Jesus took something so awful and now getting all the glory for all He has done me!! Bigger the pain~bigger the healing!! God Bless and know that God has a beautiful plan for your lives and you will be giving God all the glory!!!!! 🙂
Praise Jesus for you, sweet Dana.
Thank you for sharing..an awesome God he is to put amazing women in my life to give me hope. With hiccups in my own life thanks for sharing all your hopes and smiles! It would be so awesome one day to sit in a room and visit with such amazing women personally! I have to remember to be patient and trust! 🙂
Like Rachel, my ex-husband had affairs for most of our five year marriage. It brought on a time of questions for God but also was a time for me to really see the depth and strength of my own faith and the reach and richness of God’s grace and mercy. God used that time to draw me into a deeper relationship with him. Beauty for ashes.
More and more I am learning that God doesn’t care so much about the art of prayer or how we pray but just communicating with Him, getting to know Him, looking to Him for help and recognizing Him as God. Rachel’s story is inspirational. I thought my life was tough and difficult but Rachel had and has a lot of difficult and trying circumstances she went through and she went through them with God.
I am learning more and more that things don’t turn out the way we want them too but God is with us in the midst of them. We do have a lot of say in how we process and react in the midst of our circumstances. We can lay down and play dead, covering our eyes and head so we don’t deal with the problems or we can put ourselves and our loved ones and circumstances into God’s hands and allow Him to wipe our tears, heal our hurts, give us courage, hold our hand. God is big enough to take our anger and our hurt and turn them into hope, healing and peace. I am finding that being honest with God and ourselves about our emotions, hurts, confusion, anger, – all of these things will bring us to a place of healing and hope in Him.
Thank you for sharing Rachel’s story.
Such an inspiring story….beautiful family….great testimony of faith in God….may He continue to richly bless your family, Rachel. 😉
incredible encouragement and walking by faith.
Thank you all for being “Real” people and sharing your lives so others may start to have faith, trust , growth and more! So many trust and have faith in this dying world when they need Christ!! I pray thru out everyday to help the lost, comfort the weary , carry the tired and love the sick. And everyday God helps me to see through His eyes to help others get thru whatever binds them. He has given me everything so all I want to do is work for Him more. May the love of Christ touch you all in His realness!!!
I am learning so much from this bible study! I’m learning how to trust God to lead me every day of my life, in the big details and the small. I don’t think I realized how much I was trying to live my life according to my plans. And not the plans that Jesus has for me. This book and bible study are teaching me to “let go and let God”. The funny thing is, Jeremiah 29:11 has always been one of my favorite verses, but it has never made more sense to me than it does now! Than you Renee, for sharing your gift with all of us! Thank you Rachelfor setting such a good example for us to follow! I have felt such a sense of peace while reading this book, as well as the stories that have been shared with us. God bless you!
My husband and I have been married for 35 years and he has been physically unfaithful to me in at least 4 different relationships ( 1 was with a ‘friend’ of mine) that I know of for sure and I have suspected others but did not have the proof. Each time he begged forgiveness and said it would not happen again and I stayed with him. then 2 years ago I found out that he had been making phone calls to another ‘friend’ of mine for over 3 1/2 years. We are still living in the same house and I have forgiven him but I can not seem to put this behind me and wonder if I am just not faithful enough to God in letting Him show me what I should do or what. I have tried giving this to God but I seem to keep taking it back! I feel that I am being made a fool of by my husband because he thinks I should just drop it and get over it. Reading what you went through seems to be helping me understand what i need to do now but I am going to go back and read it about 4 or 5 more times to make sure that it sinks in. Thank you for sharing what you went through with us. I do feel like I am getting closer to God if I could just turn things over to Him and not take them back. I wonder whether I am wasting my time trying to stay in my marriage. He says that he wants it to work, but he wants everything on his terms. I am so confused.
Jan, I am not a marriage counselor by any means, but I prayed for you just now. That God would show you the right path and the best decisions for your life. Thank you for sharing with us.
Thank you so much for your prayers! I told him that I was tired of trying and the ball is in his court and I think that has scared him into realizing that I have had enough and he will have to put forth the effort to make me want to stay with him and show me that he means it this time. I prayed and prayed yesterday and last night and then today at church. I know that things happen in God’s time and not ours and I know that everything that we go through is for a reason.i have givven it 35 years so I guess a little longer may be what it will take. But i have told him that I will not go through this again!! Thank you so much for the prayers and for sharing what you went through!
God has made me stronger with each storm!
Thanks for sharing your storm and the rainbow on the other side!
Thank you so much Rachel for sharing your story about your amazing faith, and beautiful family. I will be praying for Taylor, and for the Lord to continue to be with all of you, strengthening you daily.
Thank you for praying!
Thanks for sharing your story. Very inspiring and encouraging.
Thank you for reminding us to live a surrendered life.
Rachel you are a strong woman. Thank You for sharing your pain and through it all you found Joy.
Rachel’s story made me reflect on the mustard seed and how that amount of faith will carry us through our earthly existence. Praise God for all that he has done and continues to do. Praise him through the midst of it all!
I’m glad I read this, I wish I could hear more of her story and how she is coping.
My husband and I struggled with iinfertelity for years, with 3 early miscarriages and 1 in my second trimester. We decided to adopt and in December of 2010 we got “The Call” our son Joseph was born, we brought him home 5 days later. 3 months later we found out I was pregnant. Well the pregnancy and delivery (minus an unexpected c-section) went well. The day I got to go home with jacob I got a call that threw our lives into a deep hole. Joseph (13months at the time) was diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We celebrated and mourned once again. Most boys with Duchenne live to their late teens to early 20s. Well our hole became deeper last week. We went to see an awesome doctor, who does a ton of research with Duchenne, in San Francisco. He researched Joseph’s genetic make up, well there is only one other documented case as his in the entire world, a boy in japan. After further discussion the doctor revealed that he is hoping Joseph is going to make it to his 5th birthday.
We are at a loss and a have a huge feeling of abandonment. How can anybody be allowed to go through such horrible experiences. Our friends have stopped contacting us and our church tells us they pray for us on Mondays with the prayer team, that’s it!. I have reached out, asked for their support, and have received NOTHING.
I needed to read this. I am glad I’m not the only one that is going through such awful times, but losing hope real quick.
My heart goes out to you, Kim. Joseph must be a little angel sent to you and your husband to give you blessings for the time he is here. Enjoy him, treasure him, love him, make memories with him while he is with you. Maybe journal and take pictures of your treasured time together. (we have pictures of my granddaughter’s little angel who was taken back home to Heaven at 4 months old).
Never give up Hope! We have an awesome God. Keep sending up prayers because our God is the ultimate healer. His Will will be done. We have to trust and believe in Him.
Thank you for sharing Kim.
Oh Kim! I am so sorry to read of your situation. People will fail you; that is for sure. And churches fail to support, simply because they are full of human people. But God will never fail you, dear friend!! Prayed for you just now.
Kim, may i share something extraordinary with you: my daughter just told me the following after i told her of your son Joseph. The evening of little Xoey’s death, (she was 4 months old), my granddaughter and her husband, along with the rest of the family, were gathered in the living room. There was a high ceiling fan with its’ shadow. Another granddaughter happened to look up to the ceiling and told the others to look up and asked if they saw what she saw. It was a shadow of an adult angel with wings holding a baby with wings. Two shadows: the ceiling fan shadow and the shadow of the two angels…which they knew was God comforting them that little Xoey was now in Heaven with Him. One of the granddaughters has a picture of this.
Little Joseph is here to be a blessing and to touch people’s lives in an angelic way. It is my feeling you have been truly blessed as you have been a blessing to little Joseph. One day, we will all understand what we cannot understand down here on earth.
Lois,
Thanks for sharing that. What a touching event for you and your family!
I am so encouraged after reading these posts. Thanks to everyone for sharing their hearts, their struggles and the way that God is working in their lives. It is not only a daily struggle for me to fully trust and put my faith in God, sometimes it seems like it is minute by minute. I think I’ve been let down by people and it’s hard to truly trust that God will always be there for me. I don’t have to be strong enough. He is strong enough to carry all of my burdens and to replace my hopelessness with hope.
“if God loves me, then why…”.I have had a desire to have children for as long as I can remember, but after 17 years of marriage I am childless. Sometimes I wonder why, but I think I have a closer relationship with my Savior because of it since He is my Source and my Comfort.
Thanks Rachel for your story-so full of hope.
I had a rough childhood-diagnosed with a hearing loss at 6 and went thru childhood illnesses. My hearing loss now as an adult is severe to profound. Have 2 or 3 other illnesses/conditions.
My faith and hope has saw me thru so much. I’ve had a alot to happen to me that at times i think it’s a miracle I’m still here. I know God has a special purpose in mind for me otherwise I wouldn’t be here.
He’s revealed that I’m still not trusting him to fill me up completely and to depend on him for everthing-to ask him for help for everything. That is why i was struck most “faith is not a one time decision but a daily decision. I’m fully aware it’s not about me. I sense his purpose for me is to know him and know that God is more than enough. And, to also live my life so others know our God is more than enough.
Blessing and Grace to you all
Wow God works in such an amazing way. As soon I found out about your daughter God touch my heart to lead me to pray for her healing. With God all things are possible may God bless you and your family in such in amazong way. May your faith grow richly in the lor Jesis.
Thank you Veronica!!