Karen DeAngelo's Personal Testimony

        This Page Deals With Spiritual Struggles, not shih-tzu. 
                      Feel free to print and share this story.
I am NOT an English major, so please excuse the errors.
I just wrote what happened.
I know many of you have experienced far worse than this.
9-11 for instance.
I am not a hero or a spiritual giant.
I just want to offer you hope that Christ can ease the pain when you
let him.
I learned to pray in earnest. Prayer is a powerful comfort.
I believe God has a purpose for all of us. He will allow situations
to get our attention toward Him. He works all situations out for His glory to those who love Him.

               In 1978 I gave birth to a little 3 lb girl named Christina Marie. When she got out of the hospital 2 months later, the Dr. told me she'd probably die of crib death within the next 6 months. We took her home to wait out the "death sentence".  One day after the "death sentence" was over in my mind, Joe, Dianna (20 months), Christina (8 months) and I, were in a auto accident on a rural road at dawn.  In those days, car seats were not common. I read in a baby magazine if you didn't own a car seat, the safest place to put your baby was in the floor of the auto. We were in an 1963 Pick-up truck with a steel dashboard (padding did not come until later). When we crashed into a ditch on a "T" road that ended, Christina flew up under the dash board (strapped in a little infant seat) and fractured her skull in two places. She  was in a coma for two months.  When she awoke, she was not the child she was before. Now she was quadriplegic, retarded and had another death sentence pronounced of not living until age 2.  I also crushed my face on the  dashboard, yet I managed to sing "Old McDonald" to Dianna, (age:20 months) all the way to the hospital. I worked there as a nurse, but when Joe carried me in, they did not know who I was.  How the truck drove after we crashed into a ditch, head-on, and how I didn't bleed to death during the 30 min ride to the hospital is a miracle in itself.  That is when I found Jesus Christ.  He carried me through.

A doctor at the hospital tried to get Joe and I to starve Chris to death in 1980. Joe told him he wouldn't starve his dog to death, what makes him think we'd starve our child? 
  
Christina was dying of gastric reflux due to brain damage and only weighed 9lbs at the time. She was 10 months old. They repaired it, as we demanded. She couldn't suck her bottle, so I had to use a vibrator on her lips to teach her to suck. It took years to learn to eat off a spoon. When she was 5, she learned to feed herself.  "Inconvenience" wasn't the word for our situation.  I depended on Christ to carry me through each day as my faith grew.

In 18 months after the wreck, Christina had 5 major surgeries and double pneumonia (which again, they asked us if we wanted to take her home to die, or leave her there, to die).  Some Doctors refused her care in three separate illnesses, telling me she was better off dead. Shrine Hospital in St. Louis was one of the places that thought she should have had treatment.
I do not believe what the Shrine professes, but God used them to help me.
Always, prayer and reading the Bible sustained me. During those 18 months, I was pregnant with Joanna Dawn. I went into labor early due to carrying Christina around in a body cast. Joanna's name means, "God's Greatest Gift in the Morning". You see, my heart was crushed with pain and decaying before I gave birth to Joanna, on December 14, 1979. I didn't know how to let go and allow God to heal me.
I had so much to learn! But the healing came with Joanna's birth. When I saw her born, it was like God reached down and took my heart in his hands, patting it together with love and placed it whole, back into my chest.

 All of us who have gone through such suffering knows that is where our soul lies.  

I had another baby on Joe's 29th Birthday, 1982... Joseph DeAngelo III.  I had four (4) children by the time Chris was 5.

  On Christmas Eve, 1989, our set of twins, Michael and Maria, were born!  In 1976 I was diagnosed with an infertility disease. So much for THAT!  But here, 13 years, and 6 children later I had my doubts about my abilities as a mother for SURE!  But, Jesus got me through it all by praying and asking Him for endurance and love.

For seventeen years I took care of Christina in her wheelchair. My kennel was my rest place the Lord provided me to escape a few minutes at a time from
all the busyness of the house.
   One day He provided a wonderful group home to take on Christina's care. It's called, "Heartland". Yep. Heartland. Where special people dwell. They took a big cross off my shoulders. All that remains is bursitis. J 
     So, you see... not everyone who doesn't show, is "just a puppy miller". Some people have very good reasons not to be out on the road showing. Now, I have children and grandbabies who need me home and who need me to spend precious time with them on weekends. So " the ring" is still out of reach.  My husband, children, grandchild, are my God given priority, under Him.  So many in America today have forgotten that.  People need to turn their hearts toward home. Forget the material junk. Our God shall provide all our needs... According to His riches in Glory.  Glory. Not materialism.  Homes rot and cars rust. Children's hearts grow warm or cold. Spend time with YOUR child today or someone you love. Tomorrow they might not be able to see or hear the love you have for them today. Death is only a breath away...
      Christ will heal the broken hearted. He is the almighty councilor. Ask Him to come into your heart to show you the TRUTH and it shall set you free from the bondage of sin.  Pick up a Bible and read LUKE and JOHN. Pray before you read it and ask God to reveal the TRUTH to you.

                                         A Message For You Heard on Paul Harvey:

A young man who had been raised as an atheist was training to be an Olympic diver.  The only religious influence in his life came from his outspoken Christian friend.  The young diver never really paid much attention to his friend's sermons, but he heard them often.  One night the diver went to the indoor pool at the college he attended. The lights were all off, but as the pool had big skylights and the moon was bright, there was plenty of light to practice by.  The young man climbed up to the highest diving board and as he turned his back to the pool on the edge of the board and extended his arms out, he saw his shadow on the wall -- the shadow of his body in the shape of a cross.  Instead of diving, he knelt down and asked God to come into his life.  As the young man stood, a maintenance man walked in and turned the lights on.  The pool had been drained.