I know He has a plan!

So I would love to share my testimony with you of my experience with The Lord in the last seven months , but you see it ain't over yet! 

Of course, I don't think it ever is, as long as we continue to walk this earth! We just may experience several heart wrenching times that may inspire others as we write what we have faced, knowing and truly feeling the Holy Spirit walk each and every step with us!

This testimony starts on the morning of Jan7th 2013! I climbed out bed, noticing a pain to left side of my face. Due the lack of insurance from my husband switching jobs we where in a time lapse, so for two weeks I babied it as a tooth infection ! Well as you can figure , it did not get any better! Luckily, I work for a wonderful ENT, so we discuss the possibility of a tooth abscess and decided to try antibiotics to kill time till for my insurance to kicked in and I could go see a dentist. Well, after allergic reaction to that, I followed up with a dentist! Wonderful and very friendly office, my dentist tells my I have a " death grip" on my teeth at night and fixed me up with a night guard! Alright, happy to have a answer , I get my mouth guard, continue to eat ibuprofen for the pain and two weeks later , I'm calling him back !

This time he listens and is pretty sure I have contracted my muscle so much from griping my teeth I am having spasms and a form of TMJ! So, off to a Specialist I go!!

By the next week I am experience excruciating pain on the whole left side of my face and teeth. I begin praying, Lord please send me to this specialist and please be with him and prepare him with wisdom to be able to help me understand what is going on! Remember by this time I'm on week number seven of persistent pain! 

So, here I was, setting in his office and after two hours of him spending his time with me and figuring out a plan, I felt very relieved and Thanked God for answering my prayers!

So here we go.... New mouth brace for six months and monthly appointments for adjustments! Unfortunately, they got to see me on a weekly basis! The pain increased and the spasms lasted anywhere from 15 mins. to two hours and I lost all focus from dealing with persistent pain and different medications! After a month and half we were to a point they felt they could not help me anymore! But please understand they where very sweet group of people doing all they could to help! 

So, scared, worn, and in severe pain I had come to a point where I felt I had no where to go, no answers!

As I realize thru my suffering at this point from Jan - April , I had become stronger in my prayer life. The one and ONLY day my doctor was able to numb my face and I was able to talk, God had given me that day, to be able to lead a close friend to The Lord, setting on my living room couch -Amen- lets Rejoice here for a moment!!! 

Then two days later my grandparents gave my little family their camper, this may not mean much to you but tears came to my eyes cause I new it was a blessing from God! I had wanted a camper for two years but finicaly we were unable to afford one, and I knew if I was patient God would provide such a simple thing! But it is huge for me, so ready to make new memories with my children, as my parents did with me ( and the best part is my grandparents had given my parents their camper when I was a kid- so double dose of a special little blessing from God)

I realize at this point, okay God use this pain for Your will, heal me or not, just help me thru and strengthen my faith because You are so good!

In the next few days I receive a phone call from a lady that I yet to ever have meet in person, but she speaks as I listen in pain, and she tells me her story, which was exactly like mine to this point, by the middle of the phone call I could tell she was a child of the Almighty and He had sent her to me! The next day, she even called ahead of me, but I got an appointment with a new specialist she was using that was two hours from home ! When I called them that first time already in tears from pain , she had told them my story and I didn't have to talk and they got me right in the following Tuesday! So, that precious Sunday night at church the elders gathered around me and as I was anointed with oil as they prayed for me, the new doctor and for Gods will!

After a day of excruciating and painful testing, the doctor explains that from my scoliosis in my neck, griping of my teeth and weak joints I had contracted my muscle so much that I had dislocated my left bottom jaw. So we make a plan, 12 weeks of therapy and a new mouth piece for both top and bottom , the bottom being the most important! So here we go, made the molds and they said it normally would take up to two weeks to get that main mouth piece back and that one will help so much more! Okay ready for this process to get started and on a road of relief, papers signed, check wrote out and way we go home, feeling we had made a good choice and very thankful and giving glory to God that He had sent this lady to call me up and direct me to this place! Well, it don't stop there! Two days (two) the office calls and they had rushed my main mouth piece and said I could come get fitted right then! So you be,t I headed out for a two hour drive! Praising God!

Now here we are at nine weeks of therapy behind me ( a four hour round trip each week) still limited on food intake and the amount and volume of how much I can speak, but I have had such wonderful blessings as I look back along the way and the pain is getting better- they keep telling me " this didn't happen all over night so it's not going to be fixed all over night" . It will take time!

Today as I write this, I will be honest, it has not been a good day at all! I have had to come home from work and rest my muscles to keep them form spasming and as I laid down in tears again , this lady that God sent my way, text me a word of encouragement, and I had not heard from her in weeks now! You do not have to tell me! I know how Awesome my God is!!! 

So I lay here looking back at the past seven months ... I see how and where God has directed me thru unlikely people, how He my friends and family have cared for me, how so many have prayed for me and I have gained a sister in Christ, I have got to share His word with many as they ask me how I am dealing with this trial, I have felt a intimacy with Christ unlike anytime before! At first I will be honest I prayed He would just take it all way, now I see all the blessing and strength I have gained , I just pray for His Will as I get thru the pain! Because I Know He Has A Plan!

                                           And yes if you are wondering we have gone camping!! 

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9 NKJV)