Brenda-Kayla-Moore-ENDER-By Brenda Moore

When your child is sick with a diagnosed or undiagnosed illness, what do you do? How do you cope? You wonder if your child will survive. If you will survive. Could God actually have a purpose in allowing the illness to happen? These are questions that I still don’t have all the answers to, but my family and I have traveled this road. I hope our story will encourage those with an ill child to persevere, to not lose hope, and to know that even though at times unseen, God’s hand is at work. God has a purpose in everything that comes into our lives.

It started for us in July 2009. We were enjoying a week of vacation when our daughter Kayla became sick with what we thought was the stomach flu. Over the next few days she seemed to get better. But in August when she started her junior year in high school, the symptoms returned and seemed to intensify. We thought maybe it was the stress of the new school year, so we tried to downplay it, encouraging her to just keep plugging away. When she started turning her friends down to hang out or spend the night, my husband and I knew something was wrong.