Rosenberger: No, but we took our oldest son with us last year who was 18 at the time and we sent him to North Africa to scope out some things there in the spring. This time we are taking Grayson with us for two reasons. One is because we want our children to be exposed to mission opportunities and what we are doing overseas. The other thing is what he has done with his bubble wrap invention, which has basically gotten him worldwide attention.
CP: What did you emphasize to your children while raising them with their mother always in the hospital and undergoing surgeries?
Rosenberger: Well, we pointed them back to the Lord and I remembered Parker, our oldest son, asking me one time, ’Why should I believe that God cares about me when I see what He allows mom to go through?’ Well, that is a pretty tough question to hear from a nine-year-old. You are like ‘oh my goodness how am I going to answer this?’ But the Lord had worked in my life enough that I was able to communicate to him that ‘look, I don’t know how all this works out with your mom but I know that God loves us enough to send His son to die for us on the cross because we cannot go to heaven on our own. If He loves us that much then I’m going to trust Him in this area and that He is faithful.’
We also taught them that people are more than their disabilities; the limitations are in the heart and everything else is adaptive equipment.
CP: Why do you think people find your message so inspiring?
Rosenberger: Sometimes individuals go through such levels of trauma in their life that it immediately gives them credibility in other’s eyes. In Gracie’s case, people respect the level of trauma that she experienced in her life – 70 surgeries, both legs amputated – these are high level trauma events. And yet she is able to press on and not just survive but to thrive and be effective.
So if people who are Christians look at that, it challenges their faith. ‘Wow, what does this say about my faith in God?’ We have a lot of Christians who don’t understand; ‘if God is so great, why didn’t He heal her?’ And those are the kind of questions that it raises, and it challenges Christians.
Non-Christians they look at her and they say what does she know that keeps her alive in this situation? Inspiring? I think what is eye-catching is people see here’s a situation that is so traumatic and yet obviously something is so incredible is happening through this and it has to be real. If it is real to her, it has to be.
I think people are looking for a credible hope to their own situation.
CP: If another Christian is going through difficult times right now, what piece of advice would you give them?
Rosenberger: First off, we are always going to go through difficult times and we were promised that in Scripture which says until we take our last breath on this earth we are going to be face with challenges.
