ABOUT

About the Author

S. G. Willoughby is an adventurer at heart, whether that means playing a fun new board game with her brother, sister, and parents, trying an exotic new food, venturing into Narnia, Hobbiton, or some other fictional world, wading through mud at the beach, or hiking up a mountain. She currently lives in the desert state of Arizona but has moved around a good bit in her short 17 years on earth, from Florida, to South Korea, to Washington state, and elsewhere. Most importantly, though, she loves Jesus. He is the King of her heart and life.

My Story

When I was fourteen, I got sick. Very sick. At first, it was just a case of strep throat and a tonsilar abscess. But when that got better, I didn’t. I just kept getting worse. The next years were a rollercoaster.

Rollercoasters can be fun, but not constantly.

It took nine months of pain and continual new symptoms until we finally had a diagnosis. Through clearly God-orchestrated events, we discovered that our house in Washington state was harboring quite the collection of toxic molds. Molds that were making me, very sick. In a flurry of chaos, we found ourselves in Montana at a friend’s property.

The plan was that we’d live there for six months to a year, get healthy and free of mold, and then return to Washington. Sounded reasonable, right?

Apparently, we still hadn’t grasped the idea of a “long-term illness”. And especially mold. Neither of those things magically go away.

Instead of six months, we were in Montana for six weeks before we come to the conclusion that mold was harder to escape than we realized. So we moved to the dry state of Arizona, where we discovered the cofactors of Lyme disease and MCS (multiple chemical sensitivity).

Several months later, we finally found a safe house (again through miraculous events), and I started to feel a little better.

Until I felt worse, of course. (I’m sticking with the rollercoaster analogy, people.)

It got so bad that I couldn’t even feed myself, get out of bed myself, bathe myself, or really do much more than roll over (and that with a lot of effort). We didn’t know it then, but I was dying.

Finally, we found a doctor who could help. (She was the 7th one.) Slowly I began regaining health, and now at seventeen, I’m decidedly on the road to healing. Things have been tough and there are still ups and downs, but through it all God has done so much more in my life and others than I’ll ever know.

About the Blog

Sara started the first version of this blog in September 2016. Here you’ll find encouragement from a fellow teenager trying to navigate faith in God in the midst of long-term sickness. On this website, we’ll have practical tips for living with a chronic illness, discussions about faith in the midst of it, and the occasional post about writing.