Friday is Skylar’s last day of therapy (🙌🏼) which has me reflecting on this crazy journey. 

SUPER long post ahead but worth the read! 

I honestly can’t believe 2 months post stroke that Sky is where she is; I am in awe that Cole and I had front row seats to witness how powerful our God is. 

On top of that, we have been incredibly blessed to have SO many people come along side us acting as the hands and feet of Jesus. Our families, our friends, and our church family at First Baptist Dallas. I honestly can’t name every person but there are a few honorable mentions.  

My parents were by our sides in the hospital immediately and never left our sides the following weeks except to care for our dogs; which is no easy feat. Haha

Cole’s parents drove down from Tennessee and brought us all our favorite foods when we were sick of eating cafeteria food or hadn’t eaten at all.  

The Monday Skylar had her stroke, we were set to move the following Saturday. We had packed NOTHING (besides my books that I had thrown in a box. Obviously.🤣) My two best friends Hannah Smith (who drove 12 hours from Colorado) and Abbey David (who drove 3 hours from Austin) and her mom were in Dallas or making plans to be here within hours of hearing the news and packed our entire house top to bottom — with extremely detailed labeled boxes I might add. 😁

Thank you to: Paige Lamb for coming from Houston to spend time with us so we could laugh for a few hours. Lindsey Williams for doing laundry for us and blessing us in more ways than I can say.  Paula Herrera for driving from Abilene just to spend two hours with us. Mary Beth and Maggie for letting me text you endlessly about therapy related questions. Cole’s boss who drove from Houston at midnight so he could bring us breakfast at 8 am the next day + his incredible company Anvil International and coworkers who allowed him to be with Sky and I - no questions asked. Maxwell Busse for multiple meals and quality time sitting in a hospital room.  

Our church family — we could never say thank you enough. 2 minutes after the doctor told us Skylar had a stroke, I immediately texted Julia Sadler because I had no doubt she would spread the message to begin praying for Skylar to anybody and everybody. We found out later that she was in a staff meeting at our church and the group stopped and begin praying for Skylar right away. 

Everyday the nurses would make a comment about how popular Skylar was because we had a revolving door of people visiting from our church to pray over her. 

Our Sunday School class got a big group of guys together to move our entire house into a uhaul, into a storage unit, and then back out of the storage unit into our apartment. Our Sunday school teachers let us live with them for 3 weeks so we could be close to Skylar’s therapy until our apartment was ready. (Cole and I are now an Apartment Life Team in east Dallas.)

In what was the scariest time of our life, we could’ve felt so isolated and fearful, but because of every single person who came to visit, who brought us food or a drink, who prayed for us, who texted us — it honestly got us through every single hour. We have never felt so loved. I wish I could write down every person’s name who blessed us because I remember every single one of you. Just know we love you. 

I firmly believe Skylar wouldn’t be doing as well as she is if it wasn’t for the thousands of people praying for her. God heard every prayer and it’s been a joy for us that God allowed us to be a part of seeing Him work a miracle. One of the coolest things was a family friend who reached out to us telling us that he got to pray for Skylar at the pool of Bethesda is Jerusalem. How incredible is that?! 

I never want to stop telling Skylar’s story until she can tell it herself and I probably won’t stop then either. She’s the most incredible, joyful, and resilient girl. Thank you God for giving me the gift of being her mama. ❤️