OUR STORY
Natalie Mahne was born in 1989 as a healthy baby weighing seven pounds. However, by six months of age, Natalie had acquired an immune deficiency and had to receive gamma globulin for the next ten years. As a baby, she received six shots in her bottom, every three weeks. By the time she was a three-year-old, she was no stranger to IV injections of gamma globulin every three weeks.
At night, Natalie did not sleep more than two hours at a time. She was not being bad. She just had insomnia. Her dad figured up that I had rocked Natalie in a rocking chair for an amount equal to six months during those first three years. Natalie's immunity problems continued for ten years.
I knew God was shaping Natalie's character and personality during this time. It was also changing me. When Natalie started school, she wanted to take a box of bandages with her for classmates who had "boo-boos" on the playground. At times, she would wrap up an item that was at the house and ask if she could take it to someone who was not feeling good.
On our drive home, she asked me one day if I could hear angels singing. I was a little startled and told her no. She said, "I do. I hear them right now." Then she asked me if I had a piece of paper that she could write on. I tore a page out of the back of my checkbook. She proceeded to write a poem about Jesus.
These writings started when she was five years old and continued through the age of about twelve. I kept all of the original papers; some were just scrap pieces of paper or whatever she could find to write on at the time. All of the writings were about Jesus and God.
I have wanted for years to publish her poems. I felt that they would be an encouragement to other people and that people would be blessed from reading them.
Natalie also has some artistic ability she inherited from her dad. We decided to put the artwork with the writings, to create a coloring book.
I believe because of Natalie's illness, God planted a seed in Natalie's mind and heart to have a desire to work within the medical field. She became an EMT and worked for three years in that capacity full time. Then she graduated and became a registered respiratory therapist. She currently works for Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. They are having their hundredth anniversary. Natalie and I are compiling her work to create this coloring book that will bring praise to the Lord and encourage children and their parents. We want all of the proceeds from the book to go to Children's Healthcare of Atlanta.
