Donate $1 to Aid Stephanie's Healing

When the treatments, surgeries, medications, and doctor visits started literally adding up, the thought crossed my mind to create a GoFundMe. It’s hard for me to ask for help for myself, so my brain went straight to reconciling this with, “What if I just asked people to give $1? And then they could tell 3 people and they could give $1 and so on, very ‘Pay it Forward’ like. That way, each person is only giving $1! That wouldn’t be asking much, right?” So here we are. I also considered writing this out as if it came from my husband or sister, again, the struggle of asking for help for myself. But, that would be dishonest and after some prayer over it, I decided honesty truly is the best policy and everyone needs help sometimes.

“But those who wish to boast should boast in this alone: that they truly know me and understand that I am the LORD who demonstrates unfailing love and who brings justice and righteousness to the earth, and that I delight in these things. I, the LORD, have spoken!” Jer 9:24. This is just a little boasting about God’s story through my life: I truly live out Jesus’s words that it is more blessed to give than to receive (Act 20:35). The people in my life tell me I am the most caring, kind, giving person they have ever met. I serve in a local after-school program primarily with homework help, and occasionally I do science experiments as “Scientist Stephanie” and also at their summer camp.

I completed a surrogacy for another couple.

I put on free yard "sales" where people donate things & I give it all away & even provide lemonade.

I have served in practically every capacity in our church, especially in the children's ministry, even behind the scenes setting up for Sunday services.

I am a mentor to a female that has graduated from a Christian-based human trafficking program.

I was a high school science teacher that loved my students well beyond the classroom.

After one of my students graduated, the student had a baby and was no longer able to stay at her house, so we housed them until I helped her get a job and get stable on her feet.

We also just completed a foster-adjacent emergency temporary custody of a 19-month-old. She was 9 months old when we took her in.

I serve weekly as an adult leader in our local Landing group, which is Celebrate Recovery for middle & high schoolers

… I say all of that to say that that is not the person that I used to be. Before the age of 26, I was an atheist that made a point to put down Christians using science as my weapon of choice. He has delivered and healed me of many physical and mental illnesses and continues to do the good work in me that He started long ago (Phil 1:6).

I ultimately had to leave teaching due to my diagnosis of an Inflammatory Bowel Disease, Ulcerative Colitis. I stayed for almost a year and a half after my diagnosis but between all of the doctor visits, infusion center visits, and generally being unwell, I could no longer work as a teacher in a classroom. I do still work in a servant capacity as I was able to get a full-time job working from home for the Department of Veterans Affairs. I serve veterans that have come home and are filing a disability benefits claim. I pray that I am not let go as part of the federal government’s reduction in force (RIF). The UC came with an umbrella of other conditions: low iron without anemia, chronic fatigue, brain fog, hair falling out, arthritis, etc. It also exacerbated, contributed to, and/or just piled onto my existing conditions of menorrhagia, ovarian cysts, scoliosis, chronic neck & shoulder pain, chronic headaches and migraines, chronic sleep deprivation, cognitive impairment, double deviated septum, enlarged turbinates, severe tongue tie, etc.

I am now at a point in my ongoing treatments that we are beyond things that insurance will cover. We are trying to repair physical, anatomical issues that are contributing to a low quality of life and have high hopes that we can also be proactive in preventing future issues that seem to only compound on each other. It is here that I find myself at the end of my financial ability. I have previously gotten additional jobs and done odd jobs when I needed more money, but my body isn’t physically capable of that in this season. God wants me to surrender it to Him. This is me doing just that. Love, Stephanie