Hear the amazing story of how God transformed the heart and marriage of a young, special needs mother.
Today I’ve got a story that will take us from incredible despair to hope!
Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada, and you know I’m not going to waste any time because I want you to meet my friend Shawn Pierce. Well, Shawn, I am so excited that you are at the microphone today, and I want others to hear your story. Share with me what God’s been doing in your life.
SHAWN: Oh, amazing things, Joni. Nineteen years ago the Lord allowed my husband and I to give birth to a beautiful baby, a little girl named Alisha. Alisha was born with cerebral palsy and had hundreds and hundreds of seizures a day. She required 24-hour care, and the doctor said she probably wouldn’t even live her first year. With the stress of that, nine months into Alisha’s life my husband and I divorced. We did not know the Lord, and we did not know disability, and we did not know how to handle such pain.
JONI: The day-to-day routine, the social isolation, the strain financially.
SHAWN: All of it!
JONI: Yeah. So he left…
SHAWN: He left. We divorced, and I was so desperate because I had no hope, and I didn’t know how I was going to get through this, and I did not want Alisha’s life to be this awful and terrible, so I was going to take my own life and Alisha’s life as well.
JONI: How old were you at the time?
SHAWN: I was 23.
JONI: Wow, a twenty-three-year-old single mom with a severely disabled daughter toying with the idea of ending your life. How did God rescue you out of that?
SHAWN: The Holy Spirit just put a doubt in my heart. I had this plan together of how I was going to do it, but at the last minute, I thought, “What if, what if that isn’t enough.” And I needed some confirmation. And I was more worried about my daughter, Alisha. I didn’t want her, you know, to be in hell, so I went to the Baptist church just down the road – Bethel Baptist – never attended there before, but I thought “you know what? They’ve got the answers there. And I actually watched some high school students grow up going to that church, and they lived a good life. They just seemed like they might have the answers. So I walked in the door with Alisha in her car seat just looking awful, and I sat down with Pastor Steve Anderson, who was the pastor; told him my plan…
JONI: …to take your life and your daughter’s life…
SHAWN: …to take my life and my daughter’s life. At that point there was no Scripture, I know he prayed with me, but what he said is “we’re going to get you through this. We’re going to start with today.” And from that point on the hands and of feet of Bethel people just loved on me. They just showed up with a meal; the nurses would come over from the church and let me go for a walk or take a shower and again became the hands and feet of Jesus.
JONI: So there you are, having accepted Christ. Your daughter must have flourished under that kind of spiritual encouragement. Then was happened?
SHAWN: Well what happened was—I also had another daughter at the time as well—Ashley was five. Ashley and I began to pray for my ex-husband and prayed and prayed for five years that he would come to know Jesus.
JONI: And did he?
SHAWN: And he did! He did! That whole time that we were separated we never dated anyone else; we didn’t want to be with anyone else, we just didn’t have the glue that is needed for marriage. So after Scott accepted the Lord, he was baptized, and then the following Sunday we were remarried.
JONI: Oh, my goodness! Oh, what a great story. Does it have a happy ending?
SHAWN: It has a happy ending in that our daughter, Alisha, went to be with Jesus on November 24th in 2010. But you know Joni, the Lord was so gracious in that we had 44 hours to say goodbye to her. I was able to lay in the hospital bed and hold her and sing songs to her and pray with her. And we ushered her out of this world and into the arms of Jesus in a very peaceful, loving way.
JONI: Well, Shawn, we need to hear more of this story, and I think we need to continue. Are you willing to come back the next time?
SHAWN: Yes, I am. That would be great.
© Joni and Friends