This is part of a slightly longer video that was played at our church this morning. If you’d like to see the whole video, you can see it here, on our church’s YouTube channel: youtu.be/_GEtnpIuroM
00:00 About Abby
00:50 About Raelynn
02:41 We Have Hope
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This video shows what Raelynn’s spine currently looks like. Over a year ago, we talked with doctors about her probably needing spine surgery at some point. They were a little unsure at that point how soon she needed the surgery, but long story short, it’s been causing her pain these last few months, and it will likely only cause her more pain as time goes by.
Basically, in the last 3 months, her spine has curved an additional 20 degrees, and if left unchecked, it will only get worse. We can tell every month that goes by that she’s in more and more pain. One of the hardest parts of caring for Raelynn is watching her feel bad. So she needs surgery very badly.
We’re very hopeful that her spine surgery will make her feel much, much better. But because of Covid-19, the surgery calendar is backed up, and November 11th was the soonest they could schedule surgery. So that’s when her surgery is scheduled for: November 11th. In our opinion, it can’t come soon enough.
Visit Raelynn’s website to learn even more! hopeandsunshine.tv
👇 AND PLEASE SUBSCRIBE if you find this content helpful.
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The links below show a few seizures Raelynn has had throughout the years:
▶️ 17 months old: youtu.be/6BEdEB-OJXw
▶️ 18 months old: youtu.be/XhZMx7GHzBk
▶️ 21 months old: youtu.be/WXOeCJKECb8
▶️ 2 years old: youtu.be/om0LVyj74Xs
▶️ Almost 3 years old: youtu.be/pVMUT-pg0zU
▶️ 6 years old: youtu.be/EYNXrQSr9ug
▶️ 8 years old: youtu.be/GcIrDB5qkT0
A few playlists you may find helpful:
⏩ Seizures: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Tobii Dynavox: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Assistive Equipment: youtube.com/watch?v=…
⏩ Medical Procedures: youtube.com/playlist…
⏩ Living Life with Disabilities: youtube.com/playlist…
ABOUT RAELYNN’S YOUTUBE CHANNEL
Raelynn has epileptic encephalopathy, global developmental delay, cerebral palsy, cortical vision impairment, and I could go on and on. In fact, I’ll go on a little more. Raelynn is quadriplegic. She has a gastro-jejunal (GJ) tube through which she “eats” all of her food. She has a vagus nerve stimulator (vns), and is currently getting intravenous immunoglobulin (ivig) treatments to hopefully help with her seizures. She regularly wears a shaker vest, uses a nebulizer, and a cough assist machine to help her breath better, especially when she seems extra susceptible to aspirating on her oral secretions.
Raelynn’s been to the doctor more times than the rest of our family combined!
In this whole situation, if we were looking for hope in our circumstances, we honestly wouldn’t find much. Raelynn will probably always be in a wheelchair. She’ll probably always be fed via a food pump. She’ll probably never talk. And she has virtually no chance of getting better.
I can’t tell you how many times people have told me, “God can heal her.” I’ve actually come to find it a little funny when people say that (and I’m a pastor!). I know that God CAN heal her, and I know that God will heal her in eternity, but the point of life is not that we wouldn’t have difficult circumstances.
God is using Raelynn exactly as she is right now. I see how much I’m a better person because of Raelynn. I see the ways God has changed my family, the things He’s taught us, the people He’s put us in connection with, all because of Raelynn’s problems. When I see how much God uses her disabilities, I see that God takes the bad things, the hard things, the hopeless circumstances of our lives and brings beauty, goodness, and hope from them all.
That’s what this channel’s about.
We post videos of Raelynn’s life, seizures, and other disabilities to this channel three days a week (Monday, Wednesday, Friday).
If this sounds like something you could benefit from, please consider subscribing! Your subscription will help us keep making videos of Raelynn’s life and assistive technologies! ❤️
youtube.com/channel/…