“I pray that God, the source of hope,
will fill you completely with joy and peace
because you trust in Him. Then you
will overflow with confident hope
through the power of the Holy Spirit.”
– Romans 15:13 [NLT]
About Amy
Hey everyone, my name is Amy and I am glad you are here.
I am super excited to bring the message “God is Able” to audiences and this is why:
I have something called CHARGE Syndrome. CHARGE is a complicated diagnosis and when I was born it came with a prognosis that went like this: “She will most likely be blind, deaf, mentally challenged, probably will not be able to walk, talk or eat by mouth.”
That is why I am so very grateful that:
- I have three older siblings giving me the determination to keep up,
- when I was four years old I started walking and talking,
- when I was five years old, I started to learn to read,
- even though I have a significant hearing loss and vision impairment, I am able to hear and see a lot. Can I just say that hearing aids are the most wonderful thing?!
- because of a developmental program that my family lovingly did with me for years, my brain has been stimulated and new pathways are always being opened.
- At age 20, I no longer needed a feeding tube and began taking nutrition 100% by mouth
Yes, I am super grateful for all of these things, but I am most grateful that I am a sinner saved by grace through the blood sacrifice of Jesus, my Savior.
I am thankful that when my insecurities, my fears, my frustrations arise – I can always count on my God to see me through.
Here I am with my friend, Lauren, who came to my book signing at my church’s women’s Bible Study.
This is me less than two weeks old before I left the NICU.
(Read more below)
June 9, 1995 was a very significantly scary day for me. I almost died. My parents took me to a big teaching hospital in Baltimore, Maryland for pre-op blood work and appointments with several different kinds of doctors including the one who ran the area where babies who were at risk for Sudden Infant Death (that was me).
I was scheduled to have surgery in five days to correct my severe esophageal reflux issues that were killing me and to give me a feeding tube in my stomach to replace the one in my nose. The intention that day was to get all the pre-op work done, go home, and come back in five days. But I didn’t make it out. Instead, the resident who was assigned to me that day and the SIDS doc were very concerned about the way I looked and the information that was being downloaded from my apnea machine. I was taken to the pediatric emergency room and then admitted to the hospital.
You know that phrase “just in the nick of time?” Well, I got to the pediatric emergency room just in the nick of time. Soon after, I crashed. All of the sirens on the machines monitoring my condition went off at the same time and a whole bunch of medical people came in to save me. It took a good while to get me stable.
BUT GOD did it!
Amy Meekins 