If Your Child Faces a Health Scare
Focus on Marriage Podcast
Focus on the Family
4.7 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 17 April 2025
⏱️ 12 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
If your child faces a health scare, that can be a real test for a marriage. John asks Erin about how her and Greg have navigated through health challenges with their youngest daughter. Plus, Jim Daly talks with Brad and Marilyn Rhoads on how they learned to show each other grace during an especially difficult time.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | If your child has health issues, it can put a real strain on you personally and on your marriage. |
| 0:11.0 | Now, if you're facing that scenario or you know somebody who is, this is going to be a dose of encouragement for you. |
| 0:17.0 | I'm John Fuller, along with my focus colleagues, Aaron and Greg Smalley. And, Aaron, |
| 0:22.6 | you and Greg have been very open about the health struggles of your youngest, Annie. That's taken a lot |
| 0:28.4 | of time, a lot of energy, a lot of finances and effort. How has all of that affected your |
| 0:34.8 | relationship as a couple? I mean, I would say there's been stress, but also |
| 0:39.7 | blessing. So it's both sets of emotions. Annie was born with something called amniotic ban syndrome, |
| 0:48.6 | so she has cluff and palate, and she has a hand difference. And so she's had 18 surgeries. |
| 0:56.7 | And so over the years, just, you know, |
| 1:03.7 | figuring out what needs to happen, which doctor, keeping her healthy prior to surgery, being available for the surgery and recovery, it's a lot of stress and strain. And it has caused |
| 1:08.5 | Greg and I to really hone in on our teamwork around this because it has to be a lot of stress and strain. And it has caused Greg and I to really hone in on our teamwork around |
| 1:13.5 | this because it has to be both of us. Thank goodness there's two of us because I don't know that I |
| 1:18.5 | could manage all of it on my own. And having his support and working at this as a team has been |
| 1:26.2 | a game changer. So there's stress and, you know, there's finances involved in surgery as well. |
| 1:31.0 | But I constantly, we adopted Annie when she was three. |
| 1:34.8 | And I am always amazed at how God provides. |
| 1:38.1 | And I have no idea the total sum of the surgeries. |
| 1:43.1 | And I don't want to know because God has provided every |
| 1:46.1 | last penny for her surgeries and has cared for Annie in such an intimate way. And so I would say |
| 1:53.3 | that there's the strain and the stress, but there's the blessing. And such an honor to get to walk |
| 1:59.0 | with her. And I'm so, so thankful that we were blessed with her and that we get to walk through her health challenges with her. |
| 2:07.7 | Yeah, because God knows, and he brought her to you. |
... |
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