I am the youngest of my mother's four children. Each time she was pregnant, she had to deal with high blood pressure, which usually normalized after childbirth. I was born a day after her 30th birthday to so much joy and excitement. However, after I was born, her blood pressure never normalized, and she has been on a daily cocktail of medications ever since. She had spent the past twenty-five plus years diligently “managing” the condition as best anyone could, and there were no major incidents, until December 2014. On December 27, 2014, at about 3 a.m. US Eastern Time, my sister woke me up to say that my mum (who was in Nigeria at the time) was insisting that she was having symptoms of a stroke. There were no identifiable symptoms at the time, but we all prayed over her, declared her healed in Jesus' name and continued to keep chart of her blood pressure.
On Sunday, December 28, I was again woken from sleep, this time with news that my mum had suffered a stroke. She was getting dressed for church when my sister noticed the facial droop and other physical signs.
I did not take this news very well. I had lost my dad when I was 17 and the first thought that crossed my mind was that my children would never get to know and have relationships with my parents. I was overcome by incredible sadness and I broke down completely. I am typically the cheery optimistic one in my family so this was a pretty strange place to be. I did not feel like speaking to anyone. I was just sad and heartbroken.
Thankfully, the rest of my family remained strong and in so much faith. I would speak with my mum on the phone and she would encourage me. She would say: “Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere; I'll be just fine.” I noticed that my folks were not using our family chat groups anymore, and I figured it was because of me. They kept the pictures of my mum away from me and I did not mind, as it would do nothing for my fledgling faith at the time.
I returned home a few days later and my mum was already out of the hospital, and on her way to the quickest recovery I have ever seen of anyone with a stroke. Within a few days the facial droop was gone and there were no physical signs of the incident.
My sister suggested doing some scans to rule out any permanent brain damage and the doctors confirmed she was okay. Over the next few weeks she pretty much resumed work, and regular life, albeit on a larger cocktail of expensive medications and regular physiotherapy while we kept chart of her blood pressure. We were so grateful to God for what was an unprecedented recovery.
In May 2015, my mum travelled to the US on her annual leave. Just before she was billed to return, she decided to do the MRI's and other scans all over again just to be doubly sure everything was alright. On the day of the scans, I remember driving home from work overcome by so much gratitude to God for her healing. I thanked God for giving us such an awesome testimony and decided I had to share it in church.
About an hour later, we got a call saying the scans revealed a brain aneurysm. This is simply a weakened blood vessel in the brain; it is potentially fatal and typically shows no symptoms until it is too late – a ticking time bomb. It turns out the aneurysm was the main problem and it had triggered the stroke in the first place. She was advised to head straight to a specialist hospital for emergency surgery with a vascular surgeon and a neurosurgeon.
This time I had so much faith I could have skipped in excitement. God had placed a testimony on my lips barely an hour before the Devil's report. I was back encouraging everyone that God had taken care of her. The surgery went well and she was back at home within a few days. We were so grateful to God that the aneurysm was spotted in time and that she was able to get the best care available.
In the aftermath of the surgery, we had started to ponder about the hospital bills. We knew it would be steep especially because my mum's health insurance did not cover it. However, we were so conscious of God's hand in the matter and were confident He would help us come up with a payment plan no matter how steep the bill.
God had an even better plan. A few days after the surgery, we got a call from the hospital asking how we planned to pay off the bill. After explaining the situation and evaluating all her papers, this official who was on his last day off work at the hospital informed my mum that she qualified for emergency medical aid, and that all the bills so far accrued would be written off. A complimentary copy of the bill showed that we owed at least $133,000.00 (One hundred and thirty three thousand dollars) not including the two surgeons' bills. It was all miraculously taken care of by God.
I am thankful for God's grace, mercy and compassion even in the times when I felt too broken to stand in faith, for His unfailing love even on days I reckoned as bad days, for showing up even before I called, and for always going above and beyond, even when I would have been content with so much.
Surely, The Lord longs to be gracious to me; therefore He rises up to show me mercy (Isaiah 30:18). “Let the redeemed of the Lord tell their story – those He redeemed from the hand of the foe” (Psalms 107:2 TNIV).