The Holy Spirit At the start of this journey, I really had no true understanding of the Holy Spirit. I thought of the Holy Spirit as an "it" rather than a person. I'd never heard any teachings on the Holy Spirit at the churches I attended growing up except for brief mentions here and there. But never any detailed teachings and explanations. God gave me a first-hand lesson in the Holy Spirit during this trial. He let me know that the Holy Spirit is not an "it"--the Holy Spirit is God Himself! I cannot even begin to express how glorious it was to find out that God Himself lives within me, God Himself had been giving me personal attention throughout this trial and that God Himself is with me always. The power of God is in His Holy Spirit. The same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! Praise God that He has promised the gift of His Holy Spirit to all who believe in Him and accept His Son, Jesus, into their hearts!! Taking your relationship with God to a deeper level will also bring you into a deeper fellowship with the Holy Spirit. This deeper level of relationship with the Holy Spirit will allow you to experience the power of God moving in your life! The Holy Spirit was upon me while I wrote this section of the website. I was so concerned about saying the right things and doing God justice in trying to get it right. The Holy Spirit directed me to tell everyone that if you have any questions about anything related to God, His Holy Spirit or Jesus, just pick up a copy and read the roadmap, the guide He's provided for our Christian walk, His living Word, the Bible. Once you are living in the power of the Holy Spirit your life, your faith, and everything about you and the way you live takes on a new dimension. We need the Holy Spirit operating in our lives. It's the only way we can reach our full potential as human beings trying to be more like Jesus. The Holy Spirit also wanted me to tell you that when you walk by faith, God will direct your every step. He will guide you into all truth and will give you the wisdom you need to discern the truth from what your mind is telling you. God lives in our hearts and the glory of God is revealed through the hearts of men. God saw the desire of my heart at the start of this trial. He saw that my heart was begging for Him to save the life of my daughter. He saw that that was my number one motivation in coming to Him and that was okay with Him. He knew that when I came to Him interceding on behalf of my daughter that He would get what He came for in turn, me. He knew that I would give my life over to Him and He knew that He could trust me to share every aspect of this journey. He knew that after a while, He'd be able to turn off my mind and allow me to think with my heart, a heart that He was turning into a heart for God and all things holy. (I totally surrendered this writing to the hands of the Holy Spirit and He revealed a little more to me. Praise God!)

God reveals Himself through the Holy Spirit I started keeping a journal at the start of this journey when I realized that God was revealing Himself to me through the Holy Spirit. Sometimes it was a message on my heart, sometimes a physical touch and sometimes through His Word or the words of other faith-filled believers. Sometimes He used prophetic dreams and visions. God is so creative in how He gets messages to each of us. He treats us an individuals. What a blessing! Whenever God gave me a message, He would also reveal a way for me to be obedient and follow through. When I had a question, He was quick to show me the answer. -- God spoke many messages directly to my heart including "trust me, trust me, trust me." -- God gave me messages through His Word including that I needed to be "fishing for the souls of men." -- God showed me things to come through Chloe by giving her strength that she never had before on days when I truly needed a faith message from Him. -- God's presence saturated my life by filling me with peace and love and joy (the "fruits" of the Spirit) -- God sent "the Comforter," His promised Holy Spirit, at a time when I needed Him most. -- God filled me with His Holy Spirit and gave me the gift of "speaking in tongues." -- During a sermon on the day of Pentecost, God filled me with His Holy Spirit, which manifested as an intense "fire in my belly." -- God gave me specific instructions for "next steps" and confirmed them in the pastor's sermon the next morning (complete with the exact same scriptures!). -- The Holy Spirit gave me the gift of "supernatural" faith. -- God gave me several "prophetic dreams" and visions of Chloe kicking her legs feverishly, crawling and walking! -- Physically felt the hands of God on my head as He cleared my mind to receive Him. -- The Holy Spirit came upon me to write several sections of this website. -- God showed me the Bible opened to Psalm 67 in a very vivid dream. I knew that this website would become an instrument to get the message of God's healing and saving power out to the world. -- The Holy Spirit directed me to start a "prayer campaign" (with healing scriptures) and gave me the exact time to start a "faith campaign" with the simple message to ask people to "thank Jesus for healing Chloe." -- And, the message from God that made this website come true: The Holy Spirit woke me up in the middle of the night and told me to "give thanks and praise." As I began to pray, I heard the quiet, gentle, voice of God tell me "It's time to get your good report." I could go on and on with a detailed list, but I am just filled with awe and a deep love and gratitude too immense to express in mere words. My deepest desire is to grow closer and closer with God and give Him all the years I wasted not knowing Him and all the rest of the years of my life. It would take at least two lifetimes for me to express the love and gratitude I have and to give Him the thanks and praise He truly deserves.

God is perfecting Chloe...right down to her toes! Our family is very sensitive to the voice of the Holy Spirit. We listen and wait and move when He tells us to move. In doing so, we are always richly blessed. I would like to share a very special testimony of how God has blessed us in the waiting. This is a message that I sent out to family and friends back in July 2007: Wow! God is so awesome. Our family had been crying out to God for a family vacation. We've been behind the four walls of our house--all of us--since Chloe got out of the hospital back in November of 2006. We pretty much had to keep Chloe in a controlled environment because of cold and flu season risks and because of asthma and reactive airways that made her allergic to perfumes, hairspray, fabric softeners and a whole range of scents in the environment. Well, God released us from captivity and delivered Chloe from that affliction! Hallelujah! On Thursday, June 28, we left for a week-long vacation to Atlanta, Georgia. God ordained the trip, told us when and where we were going two weeks before the trip and laid all plans in place for a safe and enjoyable journey! Not only that, He gave us such peace that we were excited to get on the road for the 1,600-mile, round trip voyage with all of Chloe's medical equipment in tow. This in itself was a major breakthrough because we were concerned about traveling 16 miles in a car with Chloe let alone 1,600! God's perfect love cast out all fear and He sent angels with us and ahead of us and the glory of the Lord was our rear guard! Miracle on the way We stopped in Florence, Kentucky on the way down so we could rest before continuing on to Atlanta. It was there at the Red Roof Inn that God healed Chloe of asthma and reactive airways. We knew immediately that it was done because the only available room they had for the night smelled like someone had spilled a bottle of perfume in the carpet. We had just checked the hotel down the road and they were all booked so we were facing the prospect of driving further to find another hotel or taking the last available room at the Red Roof Inn. We put our trust in God that He would make everything okay and He did exceedingly and abundantly above and beyond what we imagined! Chloe breathed in the scent of that room WITHOUT ANY REACTIONS! In the past, a scent like that would have sent her into a major asthma attack requiring emergency meds and oxygen. She slept peacefully, without incident and her oxygen saturations stayed at 98% the entire night. She woke up happy and refreshed. All glory to God!!! Under Attack We continued on toward Atlanta on Friday, June 29 praising God the entire time for the healing He had brought to Chloe's airways the night before. Somewhere near Tennessee, Satan tried to steal the victory that had already been claimed in the name of Jesus. Chloe began to breathe rapidly then turned blue and completely stopped breathing. Jason pulled off the freeway and I began declaring the Word of God over Chloe and rebuking this attack. Within minutes Chloe was breathing the breath of life and napping peacefully as we continued on our journey toward Atlanta. Praise God!!! Divine Appointment God opened the door on Saturday afternoon (June 30) in Atlanta for our family to attend a Benny Hinn Miracle Service at the Georgia World Congress Center. We were in a room with 10,000 people praising and worshipping God Almighty. It was glorious!!! At the point in the service when Pastor Benny said "the anointing is falling, people will begin receiving their healings" Chloe started praising God saying "Hallelujah! Amen!" and clapping her hands! The Word of God states in Psalm 8:2 "You have taught the little children to praise you perfectly. May their example shame and silence your enemies!" (TLB) Jason and I were in awe as we watched our sweet, 19-month-old daughter praising God. Suddenly, she reached up and tried to snatch her feed tube out of her nose! Jason grabbed her arm before she could do it and she immediately lifted her other hand to her mouth and began to gesture like she was putting food in her mouth and eating! She knew exactly what she received from God at that moment. It was beautiful to see the faith of our toddler arise in the presence of God! Since her hospitalization last year, Chloe has received all of her nourishment in the form of formula via her NJ tube. We are in the process of getting Chloe's next swallow study scheduled and are giving Him thanks and praise in advance for her ability to eat solid food again. All glory to God! Family Fun With our newfound freedom and liberty, we decided to take the kids to the Georgia Aquarium on Sunday, July 1. They both had a blast! Chloe got up close and personal with a beautiful Beluga whale and was in awe at the beautiful variety of fish and other sea creatures. We went swimming at our heated, hotel pool and the therapeutic waters inspired Chloe to kick and practice swimming like a little frog! All glory to God!! We were so thankful to God for preparing the way so that we could enjoy "normal" family activities together and the blessings just kept coming one after the other. Chloe did not stop smiling the entire time. As a beautiful added bonus, the kids were able to visit with Grandma and Grandpa too (my Dad and Step mom live in Atlanta)! Miracle back home We took our time returning back to Lansing. We stayed an extra day in Georgia and made another overnight stop in Kentucky before continuing home. From Kentucky to Lansing Chloe kept saying "toes, toes, toes." I thought she simply wanted a foot massage so I kept massaging her feet during the ride. When Chloe was in the hospital last year, I was crying out to God and telling Him that I know Chloe is healed and I asked Him why it was taking so long for her healing to be fully manifested. God said "it's taking so long because I am perfecting her--right down to that little thing with her toes." I was in awe because only God could know the "thing" with her toes. Her third toe on each foot is completely crooked and besides my husband, only one other person knew about her crooked toes--Pastor Mary from one of the Mount Hope neighborhood churches who was there every day to pray and comfort and hold both Chloe and me during the hospital leg of Chloe's journey. Pastor Mary was also there to greet us on the evening of July 4 when we arrived back home in Lansing from Georgia. As Pastor Mary listened to the details of our journey she gently caressed Chloe's feet when suddenly she looked down and said "Nichole! Have you noticed Chloe's toes?!" I looked down and saw that all of the toes on Chloe's right feet were completely healed and straight while the third toe on the left foot was still crooked! GOD IS STILL PERFECTING CHLOE--RIGHT DOWN TO THAT LITTLE THING WITH HER TOES!!! All glory to God!! "And I am convinced and sure of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will continue until the day of Christ Jesus, developing and perfecting and bringing it to full completion in you." Philippians 1:6 (AMP). For family and friends who may have been shocked that we "suddenly" packed up and jumped on the road, please know that it was all God. "Spontaneous" has not been a word used to characterize our family in the past year. This vacation was a HUGE step of faith for our family. We stepped out in obedience to God's direction and leading. This is something we would have NEVER even considered on our own accord. God is so good! To all those who interceded in prayer during our journey, we just want to say thank you from the bottom of our hearts. God heard your prayers and He poured out immeasurable blessings upon our family. I pray that God continues to richly bless each of you and fulfill your hearts' desire. We are so humbled by the love and faithfulness in prayer by all of you who have seen and will continue to see God's miracle-working power in the life of our family as He brings Chloe's healing miracle to pass in the natural. Here at home, the blessings have continued as we keep our eyes on Jesus. I will send another e-mail update soon about God's miraculous provision in answer to Jason's prayer. Be blessed! Love, Jason, Nichole, Noah and Chloe