How Life Can Change in a Matter of Seconds

Thanksgiving Memoir I was waiting in the car my mom was driving. I saw my brother sleeping so I could not play with him so I went back to sleep. My mom was calling” Ben Ben Ben!” I woke up, I was very drowsy It was time to get out of the car. My mom and dad were still waiting for my brother to get out of the car so I just waited. For 5 minutes I stood waiting for my brother to wake up.When my brother finally woke up feeling sleepy we headed to the front door and stepped over the threshold to see my relatives.

It was the summer of ’95 and one day I woke up and felt really sick. I lived alone ever since the passing of my dear husband, John, since I lived alone I needed someone to take care of me just in case something really horrible went wrong! Well anyway, I had called my daughter that morning and she sent little red riding hood on an adventure to get to my house to spend the night. About 45 minutes later I heard a loud knock on the door, being the curious

Anyway, after that, we went shopping for food for the week. That was pretty boring. We got home and sat around for a while, and a little longer,

December eleventh, 2012, started out as any other Tuesday did. After school, I left with my friend, Jessica, and her mom to go pick up her little sister, Sophia, planning to go shopping before heading to a doctor's appointment. When picking up her sister, we stayed to talk and eat popcorn with the family who had been watching her for about half an hour before heading to the

Five days had passed this time since anyone had heard from my mother. I remember praying to God to protect her from harm and for me to find her. The next day she showed up, but not in the way we had hoped. One morning as I was getting ready for school my sophomore year in high school, my phone rang to the voice of my stepfather. My stepfather had told me he heard a call come over the dispatch scanner at his work and my mother’s name was mentioned. The sheriff had informed my stepfather that my mother had been involved in an accident. My stepfather asked me to go to the emergency room and see what condition my mother was in because he lived a half hour away from the hospital. When I arrived at the hospital I found my mother cut out of her clothes, covered in her own urine, massive amounts of blood all over her body, and lying lifeless on life support on the table. At this point, no one knew whether my mother would be okay. My mother had bleeding on the brain as well as a tear in her shoulder, a shattered face, and a chest tube draining fluid from her lung which had collapsed. All I could do was pray! My mother’s life was in God’s hands now. Three days later she woke

For a few years of my life I felt confused and bewildered. Like a puppy left on the side of the road without any explanation. On an occasion people would ask me what I wanted to do with my life and I never had a response. I would think to myself often and ask myself what the purpose to MY life was. Then on one sunny and hot summer day I had a conversation with the women who threw me my first life line.

I sat down on the old wooden chair that was in the middle of the kitchen, everything was quite cramped together but we didn’t mind. He put a plate down in front of me and then plopped two pieces of toast on it. I thanked him and then hastily ate my food. I checked the clock on

My step-mom's mom was traeling to our house at seven o'clock in the morning. My dad, step-mom, sister, step-brother, and me were waiting at the house for her. We had some sandwiches to snack on.

We took Jackie's uncle to the airport and went to see her aunt Brenda. For lunch we stopped at a little shack and got boudin balls, the first day was just trying new foods that I’d never heard of, but they were absolutely amazing! Jackie’s grandma made crawfish fettuccine for dinner and gripe gave us some homemade wine and we called it a day and went to bed

Early morning towards the end of June last year, it was family rodeo back home where my mom grew up at. We had always gone back to that town and that rodeo since i was a yee young lad, around 5 or 6. We used to go see my grandma, but she died when i was 10. Anyways, it was my mother, my brothers, sister and her family, me and my girlfriend. Well, the car we were suppose to drive 5 hours north with was very cramped for all of us, so i asked my girlfriend if we could borrow her new car she just bought the day before. She “talked” to her mom and her mom said “yes,” so her and I drove in that car while my brother and mom and their friend drove the other.

It was cold when we left the house, then the weather changed up on me and that’s how my allergies came. 3 hours in the car but we finally made it to Oklahoma City. We went straight to the hotel and just hanged out for a bit. My mother and my siblings went out to eat sonic (ssvv). The next day we went out to enjoy the day in the City.We ate lunch at this pizza place, their pizza was really good. After that we walked around town we took some pictures and my mother looked at one of the picture and

By the time I returned home safe, something miraculous had happened. I still have no recollection of any traumatic incident from my first journey away from the safety of “home.” I never knew until recently that my parents were worried to death. I only have memories of my family going to church, living a Christian life, and my parents active involvement in our home church. God worked in my parents hearts, orchestrating His will with the innocence of a child. Maybe they realized that only God the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator can protect and bless, “He giveth and taketh away (Job 1:21)… All good things are a gift from God (James 1:17).” I don’t know what exactly happened that day, but I do know this one fact. A child named Danielle with enthusiasm and passion to know God, changed a family forever. I attended Beth Eden Baptist School during my later elementary years, I was blessed to be home-schooled by my mother and father in junior High, and attended Maranatha Christian for High School, graduating in 1989. My life has been filled with exceptional events, joy, heartache, surprises, pain, loss, and miraculous

One Sunday morning, a man in the congregation said he had a word from God for me. I was skeptical, but agreed to hear it. I do not remember it word for word, but basically he said... “ I see you standing and your feet are in cement buckets. This is not a bad thing, but a good thing. You are fixed in Him. Although the storm has blown, you have stood. You have been in a season of training which is coming to an end. You are entering a new season. There is one area in your heart – painful area – God is moving on your behalf. You will not even recognize your life in six months. I see a piano in your

I had an article in the Tulsa World, my family and I got to share my story on the radio, and I’ve been able to share it with people and groups. I’ve learned through this experience that God has a plan for everything. The things that happen to us may not be part of our plan, but they are a part of God’s plan. God sometimes uses our experiences to bless other people, or to help us learn something. The reason I believe God had me go through that was to show me that people really did love and care for me. My mom stayed in the hospital the whole time with me and I didn’t even know some of the people who visited me. Sometimes I’ll be with my parents somewhere and they’ll start to talk to someone that I’ve never seen before, and the person goes, “Hey, you’re Lauren! I prayed for you while you were in the

I thought my whole life was going great and I believed nothing could ever change that until my mom told me some news that I would have died not to hear because it broke my heart. I got picked up early from school and went home. and I walked into my house and there were people with blank faces and my mom crying in the corner. Then, my mom told me the awful news that no one never wanted to hear. After the news, I started to wonder why God did this, but I knew it was for a reason and I knew he had a plan for me, that’s also my law of life is that God has a plan for everyone.