Khaela: Life, Lockdown and Siblings with Additional Needs

Hey, I'm Khaela and I'm 15 years old. I live in Hertfordshire with my parents and my two younger sisters. I play football and I enjoy going to school. I love having a routine. And I feel as though it gives me structure. So in the whole COVID situation, it's pretty difficult to adjust to make some sort of routine.

I did grow up in a Christian household and I always believed and witnessed God's presence in my life and my families. But I would say something about this year was a turning point in my faith, on a personal level.

12 years ago, my life changed when my mom gave birth to my two younger sisters. My older sister and I were so excited, until later they were diagnosed with global developmental delay. This basically means autism, but on a whole other level. After a long time being in hospitals and many complications, doubt and uncertainty as to whether they would even live. But because of, I believe, God's intervention, they were able to come home. Every day that they're alive is a miracle and doctors really didn't and don't understand how they've made it this far.

There's so much to tell, and to be honest, I don't really know where to start, with sharing just a bit of my story. As an old sister to them, naturally there is a care and a love for them. But the level of support and attention they need has heightened. I view them as my own children and they're a big part of my everyday routine. But the challenges day to day can be tough. And recently during lockdown, we've had to adapt to my sister who has occasional epileptic fits, and this was really hard. Also due to the medication, the side effects of this added difficulty of mood swings and tantrums.

It's still currently ongoing, but I started something different. I mean like prayers and in the night I would lay hands on her and pray in Jesus name. Even sometimes while she was having a fit, his prayers and power would immediately calm her.

Our family's mentality is to not give up. To continue to pray and fight day by day and to invite God into the situation on both the good and the bad days. I don't know what your beliefs are, but I just wanna encourage you with this tiny part of my story during COVID where God felt all of this, has really kept me. And by this, I mean kept me together. As sometimes I feel like I could have fallen apart.

There's something powerful with prayer. Consistently praying to the God, he has always been there for me and my family. So I wanna encourage you that in every situation there is always a lights and a hope and the darkness and difficulty of it all. A constant word for me has been, "God is in the midst of her, she shall not be moved, God shall help her, at the break of dawn".