Hey I'm Lindsey the owner of Ryan and Rose and I've gotten so many requests lately
to do my testimony when I was thinking about yeah I could totally do that I was
kind of overwhelmed I was like oh my gosh I have so much to say like I feel
like there's so many amazing thing that God has done in my life that it would be
hard to share it in one video so I thought I would kind of divide it in
different videos and so today we're going to talk about my childhood
God's good that's all I can say is God is so good so yeah I was born the
Virgo was born in September but I was born with a tumor in my spine I my mom
knew at a very young age that something was wrong and so of course that mother
instinct she went to the doctor and of course they found that I had a lipoma on
my spine and that led to a bunch of surgeries to date I've had 24 major
surgeries but I wouldn't change that because I really feel like that makes me
who I am that makes Lindsey Lindsey but yeah so I once let's back up so I
have parents of course it takes two to tango I have a dad Randy and my mom Pat
my parents got divorced really early and I kind of always joke I'm like yeah I'm
the reason they got divorced not really but I can only imagine the stress that
having a child with medical issues and all that financial stress that is put on
you cause I think about that now I'm like oh my gosh like what if Ryan or Charley
what if they had to go through that like I'm so grateful for my mom and how
strong she was and all that my parents did - yeah - to teach me that I'm awesome
I can keep going and I can do anything and don't let it stop me set
those goals high and that's what that's what I feel like I've done yeah I lived with my
mom we were big family people my grandparents my mom's parents were a
huge part of our lives my mom was a single mom working full time busting it
doing what she did she did she could to provide for me and my two sisters I have
an older sister Ashley and a younger sister Whitney both of which have worked
for Ryan and Rose Ashley is also she works at as a x-ray tech and then Whitney used
to be a nuclear medicine technologist and now works full-time for Ryan and Rose she
is our shipping manager and inventory manager and she's actually been with us
from the very beginning yeah I love my family we also spent a lot of time with
my aunt growing up that's who we used to travel with and that was with my first
job that is another day because that's a whole nother story
to talk about how God is awesome and how He's worked in my life but yeah
like I said I was born with a tumor on my spine I of course they went in and
had the lipoma removed I had a lot of scar tissue I don't even know if I'm saying
this right this is just like what I've heard through the years but so I had the surgery
and they went in did some damage and some nerve damage and then after that I
had of course I had a Neurogenic bladder what that means if I said I
can't use the restroom by myself and people always ask me when I talk about
in my stories because I'm very open I love to educate others so basically my
brain can't tell my bladder to open and close so I use a catheter tube to catheterize
and I wouldn't change that because that's just who I am I've always
catheterize and I'm used to it and that's just that's part of me that's
life so yeah so a lot of surgeries I was in kindergarten
probably the big moment was that was in kindergarten my dad thought my
grandparents catheterized me my grandparents thought my dad catheterized
me so nobody catheterized me and I went to school and my bladder ruptured and I
passed out on the playground took me to the hospital and they used my
bladder to rebuild no they used my bowels to rebuild my bladder
so yeah that's since then I've had feet surgery back surgery you can even see
like all the scars I have a scar here scar here even have a pin in my or a screw
in my toe I can't bend my toes I have a scar here scar here
so basically I also had Cavus feet and what that means is or "claw toes" and
then I had a Jones hip surgery you know that's a lot of jargon basically my toes
were like this so actually when I was working at White Station I broke my toe
and they couldn't fix it so they end up breaking all my toes and then putting
that together and put pins in them so that's one of the surgeries I did also
really not sure if you can see I have really high arches and then I used to
walk like this or like my legs were or my toes are pointed to the center and I
kind of kid because I had the Forest Gump braces
you know I embraced them the ones that wrapped around your your your waist and
went down the side of your legs I've actually still have a scar from my
leg braces as a kid
that's me that's Lindsey that's Who I am and I'm so grateful that my parents
my mom just you know let me do everything they let me play sports they
let me cheer they didn't let anything stop me and they also taught me how to
work hard and just to keep going and don't let anybody let you get down and
yeah so that's kind of my childhood we like I said we were really big with
our grandparents I might get emotional just talking about
my mama my grandaddy because they were such a big part of our life Joyce and
Ted yeah they're awesome I can't wait to see them again very very soon
yeah I'm grateful for my childhood I grew up in church and I know if you
follow my stories I kind of say I didn't really really become a mature Christian
until just a few years ago I'm grateful for growing up in the church we grew up
in a Baptist Church and but looking back like I felt like I knew what to say
I felt like I knew the actions and how you're supposed to act and that kind of
stuff I always felt like it was very judgmental and I know I said with my
girls I don't ever want them to go through that so yeah I would say the
the last few years I've really learned what it means to be a Christian to have
a relationship with the Lord to talk to Him have a conversation like it's not
about traditions and rituals and all that stuff it's it's about a
relationship and so I that's what I am modeling for my girls
we go to church we go to Fellowship Memphis and people always ask me they're
like so what you know what denomination are you I'm like I just love Jesus I'm a
Christian I don't need to put no label on it I just know that I need I need
Jesus in my life and I need that relationship and and in another video
I'll kind of talk about how I can look back and see how God everything that's
kind of happened has been for a reason and it's kind of cool to look back and
look at that big picture because I'm able to use my platform my Instagram
Ryan and Rose to share with other mommies that might have kids with medical issues
or disabilities to say hey look at me I'm just fine and treat your kids like
do what's best for them but let them shine let them you know encourage them
motivate them like let them know that they're awesome and that it doesn't
there's let them use those differences to make them stronger differences are
okay and it's just it's kind of cool to be able to use my platform for that
because it's so important it's so important to teach those little ones
like how important they are and how awesome and it's okay that you're
different because I'm definitely different yeah I'm not sure where I'm
going with this I could go on and on and on and on yeah God's been good I have a
lot to be thankful for I'll do a few more videos about my life and story and
work and interpreting and just how God's been there the
entire time and I'm grateful grateful for all of it so make sure you subscribe
to our YouTube channel that you can get our next videos because I'm gonna just
keep sharing my life and show you how God's worked in it and yeah make sure
you follow us @ryanandrose and you can go to our website ryanandrose.co
I actually have a testimony on there kind of talks about our life kind of in a
nutshell we actually need to update it because Charley is not really we don't
talk about Charley much but yeah that's another big God moment in our lives so
anyways that's it for today!