Gather Your Children & Meet my Blind Daughter, Mary

Back by popular demand, I'm featuring Mary on today's blog to kick-off a new parenting series. Gather your children around your laptop or phone and let them meet our Mary.

Mary was our fourth and last child, born totally blind (and with a cleft lip). Many people ask me if we knew she was blind. We did not. She is a "rare and beautiful treasure*." (I had that on her baby annoucement, before she was born!)

Mary loves to imitate voices. ☺ She can even do the voice of a grown man. I don't know how she does it! God gave her very good ears, especially her right ear. If you leave a message on our answering machine, well sweetie pie, you are next! She loves radio drama and singing. To hear her do this, click here. 

She writes everything in Braille and has no use for pens, pencils or crayons. She can read in the pitch black dark. Isn't that cool?

Don't you think Mary has beautiful hands? I love watching her fingers read the dots. Her Braille Bible takes up two whole shelves. 

Scripture says that beautiful are the feet of those who give out the Gospel. That means Mary has beautiful hands and feet! She loves Jesus, and wants to be sure those she loves know Him.

Mary sings everyday. She sings in the tub, in her room, in the car, and sometimes, she gets invited to sing. Recently she sang on stage. I told her the lights might wash her face out, and asked her if I could put some makeup and lipstick on her before she sang this song. She said, "You sighted people. You are so into looks!" She did not want any. 

I learn so much from her. She is a walking picture of 1 Samuel 16:7: "Man looks at the outside appearance, but God looks at the heart." I'm so honored to be her mother.

Here's Mary singing that night:

Did you know the Bible tells us God sees us even before we are born? He sees our "unformed parts." Mary's eyes never formed, and Psalm 139 brought us so much comfort, knowing God loves her more than we do. He sees her "unformed" parts when he made her. So if God is good with it, so are we. 

He says "no good thing does He withold from those whose walk is blameless." (Psalm 84:11) If Mary needed physical eyes, He would have given them to her. I'm just glad He's given her spiritual eyes that can see God's love for her.

Once when Mary was learning to go down steps, she would not put her foot on the next step and she kept dangling it in the air for over 10 minutes. She had a hard time trusting the next step would be there. God spoke to me that very second. 

He whispered to my heart:

"Juana, when you don't trust me when you can't see the next step, it is just like Mary. Don't you want her to take it because you know it is there and you want her to trust what you say? Trust me Juana, know I only want good for you, just like you want for Mary. Trust me, and do what I tell you in my Word even when you don't understand and cannot see why."

Moms, you can read a personal letter to you that I wrote when Mary was born by clicking here.

Last month, my friend asked her to sing How Great Thou Art at a funeral. She memorized the verses in 2 days. Isn't God great? 

*Proverbs 24:4

Update: December 2013   Mary sang with The Tenors! To see the YouTube link, go to my blog post here.

Walk by faith, not by sight,