<\/p>\n
Camey Joy\u2019s story of resilience, overcoming the odds, and persevering began with a miracle.<\/p>\n
Joy, author of \u201cBeautifully Scarred: Conquering Clefts, Receiving Adoption, and Embracing Scars,\u201d told CBN News she believes everyone carries emotional, spiritual, and sometimes physical scars. Her own story includes all of these elements.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want for people to know that your scars are worthy of the Lord\u2019s grace,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Joy\u2019s life began with intense difficulty. Born in the mountains of Guatemala with a severe bilateral cleft lip and cleft palate, her parents struggled to sustain her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was unable to eat and unable to nurse, and so my biological parents, Rita and Jesus, they tried desperately for three days to keep me alive,\u201d she said. \u201cThey would take breast milk, put it on rags, and just squeeze it, drip it into my mouth, but with no success.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her father wrapped her in a blanket, went down the mountain to a hospital in Guatemala City, and doctors said the family simply didn\u2019t have enough money to treat her, nor did medical professions know how to surgically treat Joy\u2019s needs.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The doctor] basically kicked him out and said, \u2018She\u2019s gonna die,’\u201d she said, noting her father walked out and started crying over his baby daughter\u2019s life.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s when the miracle unfolded.<\/p>\n
\u201cTwo men\u00a0\u2014 seemingly out of nowhere \u2014\u00a0came up and just said, \u2018Excuse me, sir. Why are you crying?’\u201d Joy said. \u201cAnd the two men said, \u2018There is hope.\u2019 And the two men led Jesus and I to an orphanage. And along the way, the two men gave Jesus some money and clothing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The orphanage\u2019s owner let Joy in, but when Jesus turned back to thank the men, they were gone. The owner then told Jesus no one was with him and Joy when they arrived on site.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that that was a divine intervention over my life,\u201d she said, noting she believes the men were angels. \u201cI was there at the orphanage for two months and there they were able to keep me alive, but I had an opportunity from there to go to Spokane, Washington, to live with the foster family.\u201d<\/p>\n
Joy was able to receive much-needed surgeries, and the plan was to return to Guatemala, but she ended up staying in the U.S., as she needed consecutive surgeries.<\/p>\n
Listen to the latest\u00a0episode\u00a0of \u201cQuick Start\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Her foster family soon fell in love with her and asked Rita and Jesus if they could adopt. Along the way, she experienced physical and spiritual healings. Faith sustained and guided Joy\u2019s path, with the Lord healing her along the way.<\/p>\n Growing up with medical issues was sometimes difficult, with adults often being harsher than the kids.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was the wounds of my heart that were the ones that often took longer to heal,\u201d Joy said. \u201cI\u2019m so thankful that God was with me each step of that journey.\u201d<\/p>\n In the end, she learned to trust the Lord and move forward.<\/p>\n \u201cI took Jesus back into the wounds that we\u2019re still healing, and it was there that I was able to see healing in his hands,\u201d she said. \u201cHe has the scars to show me \u2014 the beautiful scars that really were the healing in my journey.\u201d<\/p>\n Joy continued, \u201cI want for people to know that a scar, it\u2019s an indication that healing actually took place.\u201d<\/p>\n She is hopeful people will see the Lord through her story. Find out more about Joy\u2019s story in \u201cBeautifully Scarred: Conquering Clefts, Receiving Adoption, and Embracing Scars.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Camey Joy\u2019s story of resilience, overcoming the odds, and persevering began with a miracle. Joy, author of \u201cBeautifully Scarred: Conquering Clefts, Receiving Adoption, and Embracing Scars,\u201d told CBN News she believes everyone carries emotional, spiritual, and sometimes physical scars. Her own story includes all of these elements. \u201cI want for people to know that your<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17169,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[61,5409,3773,5410,331,405,2192,2066,2277,660],"class_list":["post-17168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-angels","tag-camey","tag-incredible","tag-joys","tag-life","tag-miracle","tag-odds","tag-overcoming","tag-save","tag-story"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17168","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17168"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17168\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}