67. Defying Odds in Life and Health: A Tale of Miracles & Hope with Kelly Asbell

When life throws an insurmountable challenge in your path, how do you respond? 
Kelly, our extraordinary guest, is a beacon of resilience, sharing her journey through cystic fibrosis and motherhood all while under the ticking clock of a terminal diagnosis. Her account, filled with hope and faith, will not just move you; it will offer a glimpse into the incredible milestones she's achieved – including a high-risk pregnancy with twins and her motivation to raise awareness for organ donation and life of the unborn. 

You'll feel the emotional tug of Kelly's life-or-death experiences, especially during the gripping tale of her lung transplant. As her health rapidly declined, and only 24 hours to live, a second chance carried with it not only a new lease on life but also a deep connection to her organ donor. Through the solace of faith, her story is a profound testament to the power of hope and the strength of family, even in the bleakest of times. 

Finally, we venture into the complexities of life post-transplant, where Kelly articulates the bittersweet reality of survival. While navigating the new challenges that come with a new lung, she speaks candidly about the personal transformations that accompany her journey.
 
Kelly's story is not just hers to tell; it's a guiding light for all who seek the courage to face their own battles.

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We all have a story, all of us, share your story. You don't have to have the perfect answer or the perfect life - share what Jesus is doing in your life. This is an easy, real way to witness & share your testimony.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Thank you for joining me on Ordinary People, extraordinary Things. I'm your host, nancy, and I get to talk to ordinary people just like you about real stories, stories of faith and hope. I'm sorry about the audio quality on this episode, but it is a fantastic episode. You will hear a couple of bangs in the background. I'm not really sure where those came from and we couldn't get them out, but this is a fantastic episode about Kelly's story. At the very end of the episode, I will have some information about something new going on with Ordinary People, extraordinary Things. So stick around to the very end. Welcome to Ordinary People, extraordinary Things. I'm Nancy and I'm here with Kelly Kelly. Thank you for being on.

Speaker 2: 0:53

Thank you so much for having me today.

Speaker 1: 0:56

I'm just so excited we are meeting for the first time and we got touched through Bridget, so we're just thankful for that little connection. Absolutely Well, kelly, people don't know you. Could you give three words or phrases to describe yourself?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Well, I would say I'm an encourager, I'm dedicated to what I do professionally as well, and also my mission of sharing my story as well as joyful.

Speaker 1: 1:29

That's a good one.

Speaker 2: 1:31

Well, I try to be. There's days where I'm not so joyful, but I try to be most of all. That's great. Now, what's your profession? I work as a vision care territory manager, so I sell contact lenses for Bosch alum.

Speaker 1: 1:45

Oh, very good. Yeah it's a fun job, and then your mission is what we're gonna be able to hear about today.

Speaker 2: 1:53

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 1:54

Organ donation, yes, can you why don't we just get started?

Speaker 2: 2:00

Okay, it's kind of a long story, but putting it in a short chapter, I was born with a fatal illness called cystic fibrosis, but we didn't know that I had cystic fibrosis until I was 10 years old. So I was a late diagnosis and, unlike many kids who are diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, I knew what life was like before my diagnosis. And then, after my diagnosis, I was thrown into a world of meeting other kids with my same disease, dying of the same disease that I was dying from going into the hospital doing long days of therapy and IV treatments, and basically from the time I was 10 years old to the time I was 40, I lived on antibiotics and your body was never intended to live 30, 40 years on antibiotics in it. So you become multi-drug resistant and there's really no other way to help you other than a transplant or, by some miraculous, a new drug, and new drugs weren't coming for me. So every year I was told my life expectancy was either 18 years old, 21 years old, 30 years old, and so we always celebrated those milestones. And then, when I turned 40 which only 3% of the population with cystic fibrosis ever turned 40 I did something that very few people ever get to do.

Speaker 2: 3:24

I turned 40 but going throughout my whole life I've always lived in fast-forward motion, like graduated early from high school. I got married like after a year and a half of knowing my husband. I, we had kids. We were one of six to have biological twins with cystic fibrosis. I was a biological woman giving birth to twins with CF, and a lot of the times we were told to abort one of our children because me and northern would survive. We've gone through the trenches and so my kids were 10 years old, the same age that I was when I was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis, when we thought I was just going to the hospital for a routine clean out of my lungs, which was cystic fibrosis. That's very normal. You go into the hospital for a couple weeks to get IV therapy or you go home with IVs, and so it was. We thought it was just a normal thing.

Speaker 2: 4:19

After I turned 40, my husband and some friends of ours went to Disney World. I came back and I never came out of the hospital. We thought I had a mucus plug and the first time oxygen was introduced. I spent 91 days fighting for my life. I went down from probably 120 to about 99 pounds and I was.

Speaker 2: 4:40

I was being told that I'd had a major life decisions. Do I brush my hair or brush my teeth? Because either one took too much, too much of my energy. I had written goodbye letters to my kids, had bought their birthday gifts to their 18th birthday. I would buy different gifts for them. They basically told us that I was starting to get the death breath and, you know, there wasn't lungs to be had, and so it was a very scary time for us, and I remember always hearing the helicopter come to the hospital and I was right above the helicopter pad and it would break through the quietness of the night and I would be like is this my, is this my neck? Is this my gift coming? Is this my gift going to be arriving tonight? And by the time my gift did arrive, I probably had less than 24 hours to live.

Speaker 1: 5:30

Wow, I've heard of cystic fibrosis. I don't really know what it is, could you?

Speaker 2: 5:36

okay. So one in 20 people are on knowing carriers of cystic fibrosis and you have to basically reproduce with somebody that's a carrier for it to be active in create in reproduction. It's a disease that affects every organ of your body, from your lungs producing too much mucus, to your kidneys dysfunctioning, to your ab, to your pancreas not being able to absorb foods. It affects every organ in your body and it makes fighting off bacteria and illnesses very hard because your mucus is so thick and sticky. A normal person can like sneeze out that bacteria or a virus and for us it gets trapped in our lungs and it just mutates okay, okay, do your kids have it?

Speaker 2: 6:23

they are carriers. My husband made sure before we had our kids that he was tested to see if he was a carrier. And he wasn't a carrier. But so they will be carriers, but they will never have CF oh, okay, okay, that's good to know.

Speaker 1: 6:38

And then you threw a ton of stuff on there, wow. So I unpacked that a little bit. So when, when did you? When were you pregnant and what was it like to have being told like you said, I assume, multiple times to choose one of your children?

Speaker 2: 6:59

Right. So Scott and I were married for about three months at that time and we had a very small window where I wasn't too sick and I was at a healthy stage in my diagnosis with CF, where my lung capacity was about 75%. And so they said if you wanna have kids, you better start doing it now because we can't guarantee next year that you're gonna be healthy enough to have kids. We went through IVF and I'm the notes to us both of the embryos that were in place. They told us it was a less than 5% chance that they would both fertilize and they both did. And my husband and I were whisked off into a room and at that point our twins looked like gerbils on a screen and they said which one do you want to selective reduce? And my husband and I knew that the Lord had put two babies in for a reason.

Speaker 2: 7:55

Throughout my whole pregnancy I was reading Dr Seuss books and doing makeup tutorials for babies. I thought I would never get to know, and so I remember during that pregnancy it was all about if I could just hear them cry, if I could just know. Then I knew my husband could be okay and that my parents and him would raise these babies to be wonderful people, but for me it was. I know that God put two in for a reason, and I know that God is going to do something amazing through this journey. And so when the day came that we had a C-section scheduled, I remember nurses coming into our room saying we were having stories about what we would tell the media about the mom that died in labor. No one could believe that I had survived, because at that time oh, oh, my goodness, oh yeah and they had tears in their eyes. And then, at that time, only six women with cystic fibrosis ever gave birth to twins, and four died within the first year of their baby's lives. So we-.

Speaker 1: 8:56

But you had two people who had survived this ever.

Speaker 2: 9:00

Yes, and so the odds were against us. Like I said, we were preparing for my husband to bring home two babies, but not me, and for me it was all about if I could just give them life. I know that they'll have a good life if, even if I have to be sacrificed for them to live Wow.

Speaker 1: 9:22

I'm just kind of trying to wrap my mind even a tiny tiny bit around this and I kind of feel like I'm listening to the Bible story where it's like oh, joseph was enslaved for this many years, but no worries, cause he became second in charge. But sometimes it's important to sit in that right and the waiting-.

Speaker 2: 9:46

And it was grouchating because I wanted to mom so bad these two little human beings. But it was almost like I had to love them enough to be okay, even if I wasn't okay, for them to survive, because if my only purpose in life was to give them life and make them go on through my legacy, they would carry my legacy. I knew that the Lord would take care of me and I remember throughout the pregnancy I was trying so hard not to get attached. Do you know what I'm saying? Like you tried so hard, like cause. You know the statistics and you know what doctors have said.

Speaker 2: 10:28

And it was the biggest hurdle that we ever had to face. I mean, I had to go on IVs at 20 weeks of pregnancy because I was getting infection in my lungs and we were being told if you choose this drug, your babies could have a disease where they don't feel pain, or they could be born deaf. Or in having to make these life altering choices and some of them were in for my best interest, for them to be having the best interest for the kids, and I've done this brand of research on this animal and you will have to share a picture if you can, because your kids are how old?

Speaker 2: 11:03

They are now 16 and driving and they have their own little lives and it's been a miracle. Six years since my transplant.

Speaker 1: 11:12

Wow, wow, and they're, they're healthy.

Speaker 2: 11:16

They're absolutely healthy. My four pound they were four pound primies. They were born at 34 weeks and they were in the NICU. And my son is now six, two, two, twenty. He's on the football team. My daughter's a dancer for her local team. She's a straight-A student. They're amazing kids and it was a journey in faith for us. I can't.

Speaker 1: 11:40

I can't imagine and I'm sure it wasn't just one time they said, hey, pick one of these. Did you? Did you ever start to wonder am I making the right decision? Or were you just crystal clear from God on that?

Speaker 2: 11:53

Well, and I'll be honest with you, it was a struggle like no other for me, because I was journaling to them every day and and I was, I was hoping and praying it was. It was through prayer that got all of us through it. My husband was always my stronghold. He was always Adamant that God placed two of these babies in here. For a reason.

Speaker 2: 12:14

We don't see the first page last, we don't see the last page first. I'm sorry, but we knew that there was a purpose greater than maybe my life when it came to these babies being born, and so it was the Christmas miracle that year, like I said, doctors were meeting to discuss how they would tell the media that I had passed away. We had nurses coming in. It was a testimony to the nurses that were coming into our room. They were coming with tears streaming down their cheeks, prepared to see a very sick mother or Somebody that was on a vent, or because they had no idea how these babies were gonna even come out, because a lot of the times when CF women had these babies, they were getting embolisms and they were passing away very quickly after.

Speaker 1: 12:59

Wow, wow, and I feel like this is you just said you don't see the last page, or however. You said that so eloquently. But now we are right. I mean, the story is not over but, we're, we're seeing like oh okay, well, it all worked out. But oh my goodness, that was wow.

Speaker 2: 13:17

It was definitely, I said, a faith journey, but God, the, the fingerprints of Christ, were all over this pregnancy and it was just whenever I felt defeated they would come in, like it when I was hospitalized because my lungs were really I was sacrificing my lungs for that, to give them life, because my body was getting weaker and I was coughing up blood, and I remember my assurance every day was when they would bring the Doppler in, and to hear their heartbeats, and knowing that, even though that these babies were given these medications that could possibly harm them, that God was like I'm protecting them, you guys are gonna be okay. And being able to be able to hear that every day when I was in the hospital Really gave me hope, knowing that we did make the right decision.

Speaker 1: 14:05

Hmm, so good, yeah, and I can't imagine what your husband was going through, oh wow.

Speaker 2: 14:13

Like I said, he's the strong that he's. He's a hero in he's. His cape is hidden, like he's. He's amazing Wow.

Speaker 1: 14:21

Yeah Well, we might have to hear his story someday, but we'll focus on so. And then you said you were about 24 hours From death when, when your transplant came in I bet that was I Mean so someone had to pass right to give right.

Speaker 2: 14:44

Well, and that was a thing I was in the hospital for 91 days. I was slowly seeing my weight deteriorate, had to get a feeding tube put in. They almost lost me, they said when they put my feeding tube in because my heart rate went so low. And just you know, again you're. You're praying, lord. Instead of let me hear their first cries, lord, if I have to go, please let them remember me. Let let these children, who are now 10 years old, not be traumatized for the rest of their life because of this. And so it was a faith journey for us, because what 45 year olds should be planning their funeral, telling your spouse what music you want played at your funeral, who you want to pass or over your funeral? I mean, we had to make every decision because we weren't guaranteed that lungs were gonna happen for me, and so I was on like 12 liters of oxygen. My body was turning ashy gray, I was literally having the death breath, and I remember, looking back on that moment. I never felt more closer to God and all my life than the moment I needed God the most. And I remember, even after getting my lungs I would tell my husband I miss that piece that I felt, that assurance that you know, here I am on my deathbed and not very many people get off their deathbed and get a second chance. But the piece that I had. I couldn't even talk. My talking was through my eyes because I was so weak. But I had the assurance that either if I woke up in the arms of Jesus or if I woke up to the ones that love me the most here on earth, either way I won. Either way I won. And so we were kind of getting prepared that lungs weren't gonna come. And it was 13 days after I got listed. The phone call came and they said we have lungs available and so you have to call everybody in. It could be just that it's a rough run and the lungs are no good, but we had to wait around to see if the lungs were good. I remember waking up on the ventilator and my husband was there and he missed out on them taking the tube out. But we'll never forget. I kept telling my husband she was black and she was murdered.

Speaker 2: 17:07

And why did you play Frank Sinatra music in the surgery room? And the doctors all around us kept saying you know, we didn't play Frank Sinatra music. What are you talking about? And I'd say it was a good eight months where I would be awoken in the middle of the night by a song I had never heard of. I knew it was Frank Sinatra, but I didn't know the song. And I typed in what I was hearing and it was called Fly Me to the Moon by Frank Sinatra. It's a 1940s old song. I just knew his voice, I didn't know the song. And so, eight months goes by, they're charting that I'm still hearing this music. They wanna give me, like these medications that helped me with stress and you know, they wanna give me these medications to medicate me, not realizing that this came from my donor, eight months after my transplant.

Speaker 1: 17:55

Well, they thought I was like psychotic or something Right and I was feeling like I was going crazy.

Speaker 2: 18:00

Right and eight months after my transplant I get the letter that every transplant patient dreams about and it's the letter of finding out who's living in your chest. And I opened up the letter. There's a beautiful picture of Tracy. She's a black 28 year old mom. Pictures of her daughter. The story went two blocks from my hospital room. You could see the park. She took her five year old little girl. Rival gangs were shooting at each other and she saw a bullet go right toward her five year old little girl. She fell on top of her, doing what any mom would do or any parent saving her life, my life and 16 others. That day.

Speaker 2: 18:43

My husband was the one that noticed in the memorial page. On the back of it it said every night before bed she would sing that song to her little girl fly me to the moon. And so a year goes by and we had people praying all throughout our churches and we just walked in faith that God was never. He was always a just in time God. He was never too soon and never too late. He was going to be a just in time God. And I later found out that my donor was a third generation Jehovah Witness. They never donate organs or anything. It is against their religion, I believe. They don't donate blood. And she told me, the mom told me in the last conversation I wasn't the only one to hear the music. The man that got her heart and the four year little boy kept hearing that same Frank Snotcher song. I did, wow, yeah, talk about God knows every detail and we all received ourselves and it carried that memory to us, god knows.

Speaker 1: 19:51

Well, it's hooked up, yeah.

Speaker 3: 19:56

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Speaker 2: 20:52

What's more ironic, this is how God works, and you know, I'm just so amazed at how God works everything out. So I always lived in hospitals my whole life and I knew, when I got these lungs I missed. The only world I ever knew was hospitals and doctors. They became my family and so I started the journey of getting off a disability and proving to myself that I can make something of a career. And I always would see these reps come through with bags and I would always pray that they would have my cure in their bag. And now I carry the bag.

Speaker 2: 21:28

I'm in pharmaceutical sales and the one thing about meeting my boss I broke every cardinal rule. I told her. I said I can't guarantee you five years that I'm going to be here. I've had a lung transplant, I have diabetes, I have CF, I have every cardinal rule. And she has tears streaming down her cheeks and she said we donated my mom's organs three years ago but I never realized where my mom's lungs went. She hires me the next day, two weeks later. Her mom had died three years before I had my transplant. We found out the day that she was donating her mother's lungs away. She donated them to the Cystic Vibrosis Foundation and her mom ended up saving my life by going into a trial called Kaleidiko, which was a clinical trial to help me sustain my lungs to transplant. At the same time she was signing off her mom's lungs. I signed off my lungs for the same trial. She ends up hiring me and she says I feel like you're going to help me heal from my mom's passing, and so everything has been orchestrated by God. He knew that I was supposed to work here and to help, so I just I love that story in the Bible I think it's in Matthew 7 that talks about building your house upon the rock and where your foundation is.

Speaker 2: 22:48

And it talks about two different people the one that built their house on the sand, and the winds and the rain came and the house was demolished. But the one that built their house on the rock. They stood firm and the house wasn't destroyed. And it's not that the rains and the waves didn't come, it's just the foundation that set them apart. And I hope that my story is that my foundation was always centered on Christ. And the rains and the waves came and the torrential rains kept coming, but God was still sovereign, and sovereign and good and he kept his promise to me to never forsake me or abandon me, even through transplant.

Speaker 1: 23:31

Wow, I mean, you can't even make these things up as far as like, right, Honestly, honestly, when you get to heaven, God will be like but I did this too and you didn't see this Right.

Speaker 2: 23:44

It was kind of moving and all it was so weird too. With my first job I worked in OBGYN sales, so I was like selling birth control and stuff to doctors to try to get them to prescribe it for their patients. And it would be odd because I would walk in at these times where I would hear the doctors telling their nurses well, go tell them that they can always have another baby. Those babies have no quality of life. They were talking about babies like me, babies who would be diagnosed with cystic fibrosis in utero, and they were telling them to abort these babies. And God used me living in hospitals to basically let them know it's not just a textbook. I am that baby and it may not be the world you want for your child, but I've had a life and, as a result, seven babies were born because my donor decided to be an organ donor and I in turn used her gift to help these doctors be educated that babies have quality of life with CF.

Speaker 1: 24:44

Oh my gosh.

Speaker 2: 24:45

Wow, so good. God is faithful, right.

Speaker 1: 24:52

Wow, so have you always had this faith.

Speaker 2: 24:56

I remember my mom always read to me like Bible stories and stuff. But my faith didn't become really real to me until I was in the nine West. I was on the floor called nine West at Children's Hospital and I remember we were there's like five of us that would always go into the hospital together and every year I'd go back to the hospital. I would lose another friend and I so happened to be in the hospital and my friend, david, was cystic fibrosis, was losing his battle, and I got to hear the code over the speaker and I knew it was his room.

Speaker 2: 25:30

I saw them take him out on the white gurney and I remember that day I didn't know how to pray. I just bowed my head and I said, lord, if you allow me to live long enough to do all the things I want to do in life, I promise you that I will share your goodness with everybody and it kind of. You go through peaks and valleys in your walk, but I can honestly say I've never felt more closer to the Lord than when the Lord was all I had in those hospital rooms, seeing these kids dying from the same disease I was fighting every day to live with and the transplant journey and having my babies. It was always after. I look back on it. I always seen the fingerprints of Christ on my life and on the story that he gave me.

Speaker 1: 26:24

Well, I'm so glad that you're sharing that with us. Thank you.

Speaker 2: 26:29

You had a lung transplant six years ago.

Speaker 1: 26:31

I'm sure that life isn't just like perfect with with no.

Speaker 2: 26:39

And everybody. I think that's the misunderstanding about transplant is that everybody thinks you get these new lungs and then it's almost like the proverbial bus ticket the doctors give you these lungs. You've been your whole, your whole life. You were told that you're going to die, so you prepare yourself that you're dying, but no one teaches you how to live. You're trading in one disease and for another.

Speaker 2: 27:01

So I may not have disease lungs anymore, but I treated it in for diabetes. So now I'm a diabetic. Now I'm more prone to skin cancers. Now I'm more prone to cancer in general because I'm prone to anti. I'm prone to having to possibly go through rejection of these lungs. I have to take anti rejection meds for the rest of my life that are affecting my kidneys. Now my my kidneys and my liver suffer because of the side effects of the medications that I take, and then my blood sugar suffer because of the prednisone that keeps me alive. Wow, so it's. It is trading in one disease and for another.

Speaker 2: 27:39

But I'm just. I'm more no-transcript aware of life than I've ever been before. Like I walk around and I'm like why are people not looking down at their chest and watching it fall and rise? And for me, I was never able to take a deep breath in without gasping for air or like coughing jags or coughing up blood and I'm like why are people not excited about living? Why are people like it takes hundreds of different functions for your organs to go through to actually live 24 hours. Why are people just walking around like this is nothing? This is a huge deal that we all get to live.

Speaker 1: 28:19

Yeah that's really.

Speaker 2: 28:20

And so there's times where it's very isolating and sometimes you feel alone and it's like the survivor guilt gets you. Why did my kids get to have a mom that is still with them, while this little girl lost her mom, who saved her life to save my life, and that's another thing that you struggle with is the survivor guilt.

Speaker 1: 28:44

What would you say to yourself for that?

Speaker 2: 28:47

Well, I say that Tracy didn't die for me and she was going to die. She was brain dead. There was no way of fixing what happened to her, but in her death she decided to live and, as a result of the gift that she gave, others are being saved those seven babies with cystic fibrosis whose moms heard my story and their moms decided that they were not going to abort them. I did a speaking engagement and a man came up to me and a man said to me your donor didn't just save your life, she just saved mine. And I said what do you mean? And he said before I volunteered my time here tonight, I wrote my suicide letter. I was going to commit suicide tonight. I was going to volunteer one last time, but after seeing what your donor did for you, I want to live. Just like your donor gave you a gift to live, she's also saved my life and she gave me a gift to live. Wow.

Speaker 1: 29:55

Wow, Wow, this is so amazing. I again want to say thank you for sharing your story and this reminds me and I want to say this because you have such an incredible story but I want people to hear this, to A be inspired, to be encouraged to do something. Maybe they want to donate their organs and have that ready. But also, don't think I don't have a story like Kelly, so I don't have to share mine, and I'm just so passionate that everyone has a story and you don't know how your story is going to impact somebody, and so I just do want to say that, because your story is so incredible, Right, Don't be, don't think that you're. If you're listening, don't think your story's not incredible.

Speaker 2: 30:45

Absolutely. God calls the equipped. He doesn't equip the called. The story that you're given he's going to use, if you just say, just allow me to be used for your glory. You know, my best friend has stage four cancer and she found out someone down the road who has stage four cancer and I told her Greta, you know, god isn't sending me stage four cancer patients, he sends me people whose kids have CF and I minister to their families. Your ministry is through the cancer and God uses every bit and he shatters that alabaster box to allow us to pour onto others, even our hard times and our hardships. We are the. Our testimony is the most glorified if we share with others. Everybody has a story.

Speaker 1: 31:34

Yes, yes, well, this has been so amazing. We're kind of wrapping up. I don't want to, but yes, what is your favorite Bible verse or story?

Speaker 2: 31:47

I seriously think the Matthew seven verse 24 and 27,. The building the house upon the sand, the terrible. I think that's my favorite story and my favorite Bible verse would have to be Philippians 4, 13. I can do all things through Christ. That gives me strength. That is the foundation of what I've had to live on my whole life.

Speaker 1: 32:06

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 32:07

God's strength and my weakness he has made stronger.

Speaker 1: 32:11

Yeah, I see that all over your story and I also see how I think it was Paul said to live is to die is gain, but to live is oh darn it. It's such a Right, it's just a nice passage. But you kind of said the same as far as like if I wake up in heaven, I win, and if I stay here, I win. And sometimes those Bible verses you're like I don't understand that. But then you hear someone who's actually gone through it and it's like, oh right, it's real.

Speaker 2: 32:43

Right, yeah, and not all of us have a Paul the saw moment, but God uses our weakness so that he's made stronger. I mean, it's all about sharing our story, and Romans five says that our sufferings breed perseverance. Perseverance breeds hope, and our hope lies in Christ, and I feel like everyone has a story to share, and it may be something as small or it could be something as big, but God's going to send those people that need to hear your story when they need it. Right, it's just. Are we going to use our story to help those? And I think, hopefully, I've encouraged someone to share their story.

Speaker 1: 33:21

Yes, yeah, what are you grateful for?

Speaker 2: 33:27

Every breath for the ones that hurt in the moments that take your breath away, to just the hard moments. Every breath is a gift and my fear is I'm not using these breaths to the best of my ability. I'm thankful just for the breath of my lungs and the ability to share my faith and my story and to see God's goodness and fingerprints. I'm now looking through the rear view mirror of what he's done and I'm a testament that he's still a God of miracles. He's still a God that performs miracles, and I'm a living example of that.

Speaker 1: 34:09

And when you were talking about am I doing enough? I feel like that's such a good reminder for everybody and for me as well, and it's so easy to get caught up in just kind of life and things that really don't matter, things that are not eternal, and think that they are, and I feel like that's a good reminder.

Speaker 2: 34:36

Absolutely.

Speaker 1: 34:38

I was thinking last yesterday was a Super Bowl and we were watching and my son was, he's 10 and he was like I'm so mad that the Holy Nine didn't win. And I was like, yeah, I don't know, like fun worker, and you know, I was like kind of letting him be in it, but I was like, but also like it doesn't matter, like I need to say that for everyone who like gives their all to it.

Speaker 1: 35:05

But it's like oh, you know if we could care this much you know, rooting, cheering, and like having so much investment in a game as we do in sharing Jesus with others, telling your story, doing something that's going to show kindness to someone and make a difference, maybe with a world we change.

Speaker 2: 35:28

Absolutely One story at a time, right.

Speaker 1: 35:31

Yeah Well, thank you, I had an amazing time chatting with you and. You too. Thank you so much, tori. It hit me very hard, so thank you for sharing.

Speaker 2: 35:43

You're so welcome. Have a great night.

Speaker 1: 35:45

You too. I hope Kelly's story was as impactful for you as it was for me. Don't forget to share it. Share it with your friends and family via text or email, Give it a like on social media and share it and give us a review on any platform that you listen to. Ordinary people extraordinary things. We have a brand new team for ordinary people extraordinary things is our prayer team. If you would like to be a part of praying for ordinary people extraordinary things, please go to our website. It's generations to generationscom. Under the podcast tab, you will find a box to put in your name and email address to join our prayer team. You'll get a weekly email from us on how you can be praying with the other team to pray for ordinary people extraordinary things and what God is doing in our communities, sharing faith and hope through ordinary people stories just like yours.