Geneva Clark here.  In case you don't know who I am, I am the mother of Carlie, my now thirteen-year-old daughter.

I live in Nashville, Tennessee, with my family.  I am married to my husband of fifteen years (his name's Winston), and we have two wonderful children.  In addition to Carlie, we have an eleven year old son, Winston, Jr.  Winston, I'm glad to say, is healthy; has always been.

Carlie, as you know, is disabled.  Walks with a walker, and has speech problems.  Sometimes uses a wheelchair (like when she has to go to school or to places that require a lot of walking).  Carlie suffered a devastating stroke three years ago at the age of ten, and it's been a long, hard road for her to try to recover from it. 

With her spunk, her determination, we don't doubt for even one second that she won't fail to get back to where she was prior to having the stroke.

It's been a difficult journey, not only for her, but for us.  Her brother doesn't understand why his older sister can't run around like she used to, and he gets frustrated because she doesn't move very fast.  He gets impatient with her;  sometimes they fight.

I always worry when they do this because I'm scared that Carlie will have another stroke.  With her history, one can't be too careful; she could have another stroke--and the next time she could very well be dead or permanently disabled, more than what she already is now.

That is my greatest fear: to have our daughter lying in some nursing home, oblivious to everything going on around her, and not being able to do anything for herself.

Because of what's happened to her, Carlie is on a special diet, and she has to watch her cholesterol, salt intake, blood pressure.  She has to go to continuing therapy every week at the hospital, and she has to endure many stares or questions from other people.  She's embarrassed about using the walker, and she doesn't like to talk much because her garbled speech bothers her.

So far, our church has been very supportive of our daughter and her needs, as have our neighbors.  We appreciate this very much because many people do not understand the spcial circumstances we are facing.  Not many kids have strokes, and when people hear that our daughter has suffered a stroke, they are always surprised.

People think our daughter has been in a bad car wreck or suffered brain damage as a result.  We have to tell them Carlie's story, and after a while, it gets really old.  We are tired of the questions, and I know Carlie is, too. 

Carlie only wants to be seen as a normal teenager, nothing else.  She wants people to overlook her physical problems and see the person we see on a daily basis: a person who is funny, smart, and extremely outgoing.  She wants people to look past her walker or her speech and focus more on what she can do, not what she can't.

Sometimes Carlie has bad days, but happily, those are becoming fewer, far between.  She's having more happy days, and the old Carlie is slowly coming back.  We see glimpses of what she was, and it gives us all a reason to hope, believe, that another miracle is around the corner.

Maybe our dream of the old Carlie, running free, without limitations, will become reality.  We can only hope, believe.

God's gotten her this far; what's to say she won't be like she was before the stroke??

~Written by Geneva, Carlie's mother.

~To be continued.~