Purposeful: True-Life Story of a Two-Year-Old Girl

By Etse E Oriakhi

Life is a journey of winding turns - full of good times and bad times. Everyone experiences challenges and life's troubles. We often run away from pain and suffering and wish they were never a part of our lives. The author of this book, however, believes that there is a purpose for every p

• Language: English
• Publisher: URLink Print & Media, LLC
• Release date: Sep 19, 2022
• ISBN: 9781684862559

Etse E Oriakhi

Etse Elizabeth Oriakhi lovingly embraces her role as a mother to Micah and Ziggy. She is a Certified Fraud Examiner and holds an Executive MBA degree from Suffolk University. Born and raised in Nigeria, she migrated to the United States in 1995. She enjoys traveling, listening to music and learning about diverse cultures. She resides in the state of Massachusetts, USA.

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PURPOSEFUL

True-Life Story of a Two-Year-Old Girl

ETSE E. ORIAKHI

Purposeful

Copyright © 2022 by Etse E. Oriakhi. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any way by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise without the prior permission of the author except as provided by USA copyright law.

The opinions expressed by the author are not necessarily those of URLink Print and Media.

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Book design copyright © 2022 by URLink Print and Media. All rights reserved.

Published in the United States of America

Library of Congress Control Number: 2022916616

ISBN 978-1-68486-254-2 (Paperback)

ISBN 978-1-68486-255-9 (Digital)

19.08.22

This book is dedicated to my daughter, Isabella-Rose Ziggy Oriakhi, whose resilience and tenacity has been encouraging and her exuberance leading her on a path to fulfill purpose.

To my son, Micah, and husband, Francis, who experienced the journey with me and for their love that continues to brighten our day.

Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Journey of Life

The Future Foretold

The Uncertainties of Life

Nuggets 1

Chapter 2: The Purpose of Pain

Nothing Just Happens

Your Pain Has Come to Help You

Nuggets 2

Chapter 3: The Trial of Your Faith

We All Go through Trials

Emerging Stronger through the Fire

Nuggets 3

Chapter 4: He Rules in the Affairs of Men

God Sees and He Knows

When Men Fail, God Intervenes

Nuggets 4

Chapter 5: Praise You in the Storm

Though the Fig Tree May Not Blossom

Praising in Good and Bad Times

Nuggets 5

Chapter 6: Alone in Gethsemane

When Our Backs Were against the Wall

God Said, Not Yet

Nuggets 6

Chapter 7: Even if He Slays Me

Trusting God through the Process

It Is Just a Process

There Is Hope for a Tree

Nuggets 7

Chapter 8: My Faith versus the Facts

Whose Report Will You Believe?

Seasons Change, This Too Will Pass

Picture the End Result

Nuggets 8

Chapter 9: Weeping Endures for a Night

Morning Will Always Come

Joy Comes When Purpose Is Revealed

Nuggets 9

Chapter 10: Living above Limitations

Don’t Allow Your Circumstances to Limit You

You are Greater than Your Past

Words of Testimony

Nuggets 10

Reference

Tribute

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to God, the father of our Lord Jesus Christ for His goodness, mercies, and unending love which He demonstrated toward me and is evidenced as we watch Ziggy recuperate, blossom, and grow. This book was written to document your grace and mercies and to establish that You are still God, all by yourself and You rule and reign in the affairs of men.

Thanks also to my family, especially my husband and son whose support, love, and care through our trials and walk through the valley of the shadow of death, remained steadfast.

A big thank you to those who supported us throughout the journey. To the medical team in Nigeria where Ziggy was first attended to and in the United States where she continues to be seen by diverse medical specialist. I want to acknowledge also, with gratitude in our hearts, our friends and church family who rallied to provide financial, emotional, and physical assistance and whose actions were a reflection of God’s love.

I have been deeply influenced by numerous people in my walk with God and in life. In particular, Dr. Sunday Adelaja has not only inspired and awakened the consciousness in me to write a book but steer me in the direction of discovering self and purpose to serve humanity.

To the many who are eager to read the content of the book, I thank you and pray that as you read, your faith will grow, and you will begin to formulate a relationship with the spirit of truth who will comfort you and guide you through your garden of Gethsemane.

Introduction

If we knew all the events that would take place in our lives, life would lose its adventures and have perhaps, very little meaning.

Life is full of ups and downs, laughter and sadness, tears and smiles, the good, bad, and the ugly circumstances. Much more than these, life also brings us pain. Yes! Pain! We all go through some amount of pain and difficulties in life. Yet life itself also presents an escape, and we emerge out of the ashes of our pains, challenges, and difficult circumstances.

While most people may not want to experience pain and shrink from whatever they perceive as painful, I have come to realize that our life’s purpose is often buried in our pain.

It is a known fact that most people often search for their life’s purpose and meaning in their financial capacity, their job, their cars or their marriage, and the ability to bear children. The truth however, is that our greatest treasure in life, which I consider to be our purpose, is not found in any of the above-mentioned stuff. This is true because the narrative is always different when you choose to look beyond the surface. Our treasures are often in our untold stories and not in the four wheels that lay in the garage or the numbers rolling into our bank accounts.

Life is full of exciting opportunities wrapped up in sometimes not too fancy gift wraps. What then should we do when pain and difficulties decide to be part of our life’s journey? Frown at life? Not at all! Life is to be fully embraced even when it presents with unpredictable and daring adventures. Life is to be taken by the bull horn, and as we walk through the painful road to destiny, we must find out our purpose within our pain.

I had my share of pain, embraced life nonetheless, and found my purpose within my pain. Yes! That is my story.

Upon reflection, I realized the importance of telling my story and to encourage anyone who is going through pain to hold on and not give up on life. Pain and difficult times do not last forever; they are only processes that come and go.

In this book, you will find that processes birth miracles, and miracles are often preceded by tough moments. These moments in life may strike at the core of our being—test our belief system and life principles. If we do not give up on life, we would see God stepping in and turning things around for our good. That was exactly what God did for my family and me. This book is a true story that demonstrates the unending love and amazing grace of a loving father and the importance of a right relationship with him. It is a story of love, hope, faith, perseverance, patience, and undeniable victory.

I invite you into an unforgettable season of my life that will without a doubt leave an impressionable feeling, a feeling of hope and encouragement on you.

Chapter 1

THE JOURNEY OF LIFE

The journey of life is full of ups and downs—high mountains and low valleys. One day, we are up; the next day, we are down. Some days we are sad, and on other days, we are happy. We cannot precisely predict the future. Although we may have beautiful plans for our life’s journey, yet these plans do not always materialize as we envisage. The reason for this is that on our way to destiny, we often encounter high mountains or low valleys that try to derail us from our path. Although we make plans, we do not always see the hurdles that lie in wait for us as we journey toward destiny.

You never know these days. Uninvited guests may force you to take an unplanned trip to an unknown destination; doesn’t hurt to be in your Sunday clothes. (Anurag Shourie, Half A Shadow)

Many a man has planned a future that was never realized. All over the world, people tell stories of how unexpected events occurred in their lives that turned their lives around either for good or for bad. There are people today doing businesses they never envisaged or living in cities or countries they never imagined. There are people who are currently experiencing circumstances that are the direct opposite of what they had planned for their lives either in their health, finances, or relationships. There is perhaps not one person who has precisely predicted every aspect of his future and experienced a hundred percent precision. There are often areas of life where uncertainties set in and that is true for everyone. Nobody knows exactly what will happen the next minute.

You perhaps have heard that life is predictable if we plan well and that if we fail to plan, we plan to fail. As a family, my husband and I had plans. We had plans and envisioned the successes of each child and how beautiful their lives would be. We had hopes and visualized a bright future that led us to an expected beautiful end. However, all of those plans were interrupted by the uncertainties and unexpected circumstances of life. In the following pages, you will walk with me through the events, emotions, realities, and challenges that suddenly changed our world. My husband, our six-year-old son, and I watched in horror as the health of our two-year-old daughter took a nosedive into the ocean of uncertainty. Yes, we painted and mapped out our wonderful family life, but before those plans could materialize, we were interrupted, and a major detour rerouted our course. We no longer were going on a life trip to a preferred destination but found ourselves on a journey to a destination yet unknown. I couldn’t have known what was ahead; I would have buckled my seat belt.

As I earlier stated, life is not a seamless path. In life, things do not sometimes turn out as we plan them. The journey of life is full of hurdles. Sometimes, we meet high mountains and at other times, low valleys. Life is full of uncertainties.

How then do we know what the future holds? How do we live a life of certainty? Well, that is perhaps an impossible thing to achieve by any human. Even seers and fortune tellers are not able to tell with absolute precision what the future holds. They, just like everyone else, guess and predict the future. The only one who knows the future is God, the creator of heaven and earth. He alone is the one who knows the end from the beginning. Unless he shows us the future, we will live in absolute oblivion. Only God can truly reveal our future.

When people consult me, it’s not that I’m reading the future; I am guessing at the future. The future belongs to God, and it is only he who reveals it, under extraordinary circumstances. How do I guess at the future? Based on the omens of the present. The secret is here in the present. If you pay attention to the present, you can improve upon it. (gypsy, Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist)

The Future Foretold

Although life is full of uncertainties, God sometimes shows us a glimpse of our future so as to prepare us for what is ahead. Just like the biblical Joseph who dreamt about his future, God used a series of dreams I had prior to the conception of my second child as a means of giving us foreknowledge of our future.

It was September 2013.

That