The Destiny of One: Sarah's Childhood

Important Moments

1:00 AM

I don’t remember much until I was about six or seven. However, there were some very important things that happened from 1990-1997. This post is going to be a rush through Sarah’s early childhood.

1991 – Rose is born

I assumed that Rose was mine. I mean, Mom and Dad brought her home, pulled me into their lap, and them placed Rose into my arms. Obviously, they had given me a gift. While I was only fourteen months old, I would pick her up. Yes, I did drop her. Just be grateful that I was so close to the floor those days. Both Mom and Nicole had to rescue Rose from me, Somehow Rose managed to survive.

1992 – We moved from Dallas to Wimberley.

It is a bit odd, while I don’t remember our house in Plano, I still feel at home in the area. Take me to San Marcos or San Antonio, I feel the same way. It is odd how the places imprint so deeply on us. I happen to know that I was very happy about the move. Up until this point, I hadn’t slept through the night. However, we arrived in Austin and Rose and I shared a bed and both slept through the night. We did better together and away from the neighbor in Plano that played their loud music every night.

1993

Two things that I don’t remember happened in this year. One was a very happy event. My brother Michael was born. I was very curious about this new edition, as it was very different than my two other siblings.

We also took a trip to Arkansas. During this trip, I started running a fever that kept climbing. This was the day before cell-phones and internet. My parents had rented a cabin and had no idea where the nearest hospital was. Why did they want this? My temperature had climbed to 105 and still climbing. A long-distance call to a nurse friend gave my mom some ideas that started to bring the fever down. Why is this important? This was the first in what would become a regular occurrence for me. Every four to six weeks, I would run fevers that would often spike to temperatures that pushed me into the danger zone for seizures.

1994 – Sarah starts school and is saved.

While Mom had started homeschooling Nicole a of couple years before, she was excited to start preschool with me. Mom describes a very disgusted Sarah explaining that she already knew how to read. Mom pulled out one of the new reader she had bought to test me. She discovered that, sure enough, somewhere along the way, I had learned to read on my own.

It was also, through Nicole, that I came to a saving faith. Some may doubt that a four-year-old can understand enough to come to a saving knowledge of Christ. I, however, have no doubt. I may have come to Christ with a simple faith, but I would have time to grow.

Rose joined me for my school work, but she was already showing some signs of being very different from me. Mom had worked with autistic children during her brief time at college and saw the signs. Rose was a classic autistic.

1995 –Grace joins the group

Grace was born in July and is still has the distinction of being the perfect baby. She had the cutest little cry that reminded us of a kitten. She also started sleeping through the night at only a week old. Of course, that wasn’t every night, but it was often enough for my Mom.

1996 –A rough year

While six-year-old Sarah didn’t understand everything going on, it was obvious that it was a hard year. My Dad had some health challenges, my parents put our house on the market because they felt God was asking them to, even though they didn’t understand. Sarah also continued to undergo testing. While I haven’t mentioned it before, every few months, new tests were ordered to try to figure out why the fever returned every four to six weeks.

1997 – Rebekkah is born

My GrandMary, my mom’s mom, died when she was fifty-six. I remember going up for the funeral, I remember Dad asking me to be a good helper to mommy, as she was sad. Rebekkah came a few months later. I knew Mommy was tired, but I didn’t realize that it was because she had lost a lot of blood with Rebekkah. The midwife actually had debated moving her to the hospital she had lost so much.

The house was still on the market but hadn’t sold. We went into 1998 with a lot of uncertainties. Well, I should say my parents did. My hardships were my math book, wondering if the rain would ruin playing outside, or worrying about my siblings. However, I do remember a waking up hallucinating because my fever had climbed so high. There were a couple of miserable nights when I would look up praying and wondering if a fever would take my life. After all, everyone seemed very concerned. Contemplating your mortality atseven is not typical I’m told, but it would shape me in the future.

My somewhat normal life

My Story Begins

7:08 PM

Who knew so many of you would want to know about my childhood? When I did that poll in February, that is what people wanted to know about. I must have done a good job making my life sound interesting on my blog. For the next few weeks, I will share weekly posts about my childhood. But my story begins before I was born. It starts even before my parents met. Because honestly, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for God bringing both of my parents to Himself.

Neither of my parents grew up in church. Their parents were nice people, who worked to create good, safe homes for their children. Yet, both my parents knew something was missing from their lives.

My Dad had a friend in high school that was a Christian. My dad had questions and a heart to find God, cultivated by many outdoor excursions he had though the Boy Scouts. This friend had the answers. One day, he gave Dad a tape (old technology) that had a gospel message. My dad accepted Christ.

My mom had a far more dramatic experience. She had a hunger for God since she had a cousin who died in a car accident when she was in her early teens, but couldn’t find answers. She did know that what she wanted to do was to be a wife and mom, something that her teachers always berated her for (ah, the sixties). When she moved to college, she met and married a man and had my beautiful and talented older sister Nicole. The marriage was not going well, but God used a friend to bring mom to church. Here, she found people who cared for others and loved each other. She asked this guy there what made them different. He and his friend took mom to lunch and explained the gospel. My mom found what her heart had been seeking, and she accepted it that day.

After her conversion, her marriage became horrible. Her husband was unfaithful and abusive. However, Mom felt very strongly that she was supposed to stay. One day she came to find her the apartment empty of everything except for divorce papers on the table. Her husband had left her for another woman.

Over the next few years, God worked in both my parents’ lives, moving them both to Dallas, healing my Mom’s heart, and preparing my Dad. Funny thing is, when they met, neither of them were very interested in marriage. They became friends as my Dad spent time with Nicole as part of a program at church for single-parent kids. Through that friendship and the counsel of friends, God moved my parents toward the understanding that He had called them together.

My parents married on July 1, 1989. Later that year, my Dad adopted Nicole so that she was legally his daughter. On June 30, 1990, I was born. I was actually premature and spent the first three days of my life in a hospital. Wasn’t I cute?