My name is Matheus Oliveira, I am 20 years old and Today I have pretty normal life, but there was a time where that would have been seemingly impossible. To further understand my story, we need to go back to 1987 when my father immigrated from Brazil to America. My mother did the same in 1991. When my mom immigrated to America she ended up going to the same church my father went to. They met each other and soon started dating. They got married in 1993 and five years later is where my story began. My mother had gotten pregnant with me and both my parents were overjoyed by this news, but neither of them were aware of the tough news that would soon come to follow. While my mother went to the doctors to get all the tests and examinations that any other pregnant women would get, the doctors found something and delivered the upsetting news to my parents. The doctors told my parents that I would be born with L4 Spina Bifida. Spina Bifida is a birth defect in which a developing baby's spinal cord fails to develop properly. This condition is so rare that it only affects fewer than 200,000 newborns a year in the U.S. In other words what this meant for me was that I was going to be a paraplegic and there was nothing in the world of medicine that could be done to help me. When the doctor explained this to my parents he said that "this child will not be able to walk, poop by himself and will also be dependent on the both of you throughout his everyday life. He won't even be able to kick during birth and with that in mind, if you would like, this hospital will fully support you in your decision should you choose to abort this child." Obviously, that didn't happen because if it did then I wouldn't be alive to write this article. Instead of aborting me, my parents decided to put their faith in God and go through with the pregnancy and birth no matter what happened. When the day of my birth had finally arrived, something impossible happened that no one in that delivery room would ever forget. I was supposed to be a paraplegic and my legs were supposed to be useless limbs attached to my body but when my mother gave birth to me something insane happened. To the surprise of every one in that room I came out of the womb kicking. this completely stunned the doctors and nurses as, again, I was supposed to be paraplegic. My family had such a good support system in the church throughout my mother's pregnancy with me. They had friends who would pray with them for hours a day everyday for weeks prior to my birth and so, on the day of my birth God had answered their prayers but he wasn't done yet, for he had bigger miracles to perform in my life. Shortly after my birth the doctor came to talk to my parents and he told them that "I don't know how this happened but don't get used to it because he is going to have surgery in a couple hours". Despite this warning, I was still showing signs of improvement even after my back surgery. My dad went to visit me in the newborn wing of ICU when the doctor came in to give me my medicine. The doctor had known about my parent's Christian faith and had often witnessed them and their friends together praying for me prior to my birth. When he saw my dad looking over me in ICU the doctor looked at him and said "whatever you're doing, keep doing because its clearly working". After I was released from the hospital my parents never saw this doctor again but my dad thinks that after witnessing Gods power through the events of my birth that he may have converted. The story doesn't end there though. When I was a baby I had many surgeries, one of which was to implant a Shunt into my body 7 days after my birth. In medicine, a shunt is a hole or a small passage which moves, or allows movement of, fluid from one part of the body to another. The term may describe either congenital or acquired shunts; and acquired shunts may be either biological or mechanical. In more simple terms, it's at tube that is surgically inserted into the body to filter the fluids from the brain to other parts of the body .At 1 year of age I was getting prepped for surgery because my original shunt was clogged and so they needed to replace it. At 2 years old I had my second back surgery which ended up being my 8^th and final surgery. Fast forward 14 years and at age 16 I went back to the hospital for what was supposed to be a routine MRI that I would have every 2 or so years but things were different this time. When I had gotten my results back from the doctor they had told me that my spine was curved and if it had gotten worse I would need another surgery. They told me to come back in 6 months to have another MRI to be sure of whether or not I needed surgery. I came back after 6 months and they told that my spine only curved because of how much I was growing but because I didn't have that many years left to grow they said I didn't need surgery, but things were not over yet. The doctor had a second piece of news to tell me. He told me that even though my spinal curve was no longer an issue, he did find another problem. That problem was the fact that my shunt was disconnected and had stopped working. He told me to wait a little bit before coming back for another MRI and in the meantime look out for specific symptoms that are commonly associated with this issue. After waiting another 6 months for another MRI appointment while also not exhibiting any of the symptoms the doctor warned me about, I went back and got another MRI. When we got the results back from that MRI and the doctor told me that he had good news and bad news. The good news is that the disconnected shunt was no longer a problem and that he thought that I was at the stage in my life where I no longer needed it. The bad news is that he found a new problem. He told me that there were liquid sockets formed in my lower back. After waiting another 3 months for another MRI, I was told that it was no longer an issue. After a year and a half, I was finally free from medical scares. Since then I have been living a normal life. I go to church and bible study, I play the piano and I do Brazilian Jiu Jitsu of all things. For anyone reading this I hope that if you take anything away from this story it's this. Through God all things are possible, all you need is faith. If you are going through something that you think is impossible to fix then bring it to God and pray about it because I promise you, even when things seem bleak and dark, God will always be there for you no matter what. When medicine said that I would be paralyzed from the waist down, God said "No, I have bigger plans for your life." When medicine said that I would be completely dependent on others for the simplest things, God said "No, I have bigger plans for your life." When medicine said that I would never be able to have a normal life, God said "No, I have bigger plans for your life." When I look back at my story, I don't think about what could've happened to me. I thank God for what did happen to me. For anyone reading this I hope you have a great day and God bless you.