Patrick, our third child, was born with arthrogryposis. He couldn’t bend his elbows. Fibrous tissue had grown over his elbow joints. He had not bent his arms or moved them much in the womb.
He also had a club foot. The Achilles tendon was really tight so he couldn’t bend his foot up and down.
The first pediatrician I took him to was concerned that he may never be able to walk or stand or feed himself or groom himself or just about anything.
I took him to therapy, and the therapist was not very supportive. She didn’t want my other 2 kids to come to therapy sessions, and she tried to get me to stop nursing him and wanted me to start feeding him solid food before I thought he was ready for it. There were many things that I did not like about taking him to therapy all the time.
We kept praying for his healing from the time he was born. One night I got a word from the Lord through Benny Hinn that “Patrick is going to be fine”. Soon after that the therapist said that she thought he had plateaued and that he wasn’t going to get much more range of motion than he had.
I was fine with that because it meant we could have our lives back. I never took him back for therapy after that. We had 2 surgeries on his club foot when he was less than a year old.
Later we had to get another surgery on his foot because it had started to turn in when he was about 5 years old.
The first surgeries would have taken care of the problem but the arthrogryposis caused his Achilles tendon to be stiffer than it should be, and it caused trouble in the alignment of the bones in his foot.
So we had those medical interventions for him when he was young.
But ever since then he’s just been growing and developing with the Lord’s blessing on his health and His healing touch ever present.
He walks and runs just fine and always has!
The doctors who saw him as a baby would be shocked if they saw him doing this.
He is lifting 205 lbs. here.
He put up 205 lbs. eight times. Shawn was amazed. Then he went and lifted 205, too! He was inspired by Patrick to do more than he thought he could do.
He can do amazing things with his legs, too. He does kicks and lots of martial arts moves that require strong legs.
The next time Gary was home, he videotaped Patrick benching, and he benched 225 lbs!
Stay tuned. More to come!
"Oh that God would give every mother a vision of the glory and splendor of the work that is given to her when a babe is placed in her bosom to be nursed and trained! Could she have but one glimpse in to the future of that life as it reaches on into eternity; could she look into its soul to see its possibilities; could she be made to understand her own personal responsibility for the training of this child, for the development of its life, and for its destiny,--she would see that in all God's world there is no other work so noble and so worthy of her best powers, and she would commit to no other's hands the sacred and holy trust given to her." -JR Miller
Amazing testimony.
I pray that God heals me from Arthrogryposis as well.
Hey this Erika,
Thanks for leaving the comment on my blog. I am so thankful to see that video.
Erika M.