The summer after Katie’s sophomore year of high school, we noticed that she was withdrawing from us. She would go to her room and would lock the door. Sometimes she wouldn’t even say hi to us. She was starting to listen to dark music and had taken down many of her Christian posters. She was not the same person we had known.
While on vacation to Wisconsin Dells that summer 2003, Katie did not want to participate in all the fun things she used to love (the huge water slides and wave pool). She was quiet and withdrawn.
In October of that year, we discovered a suicide note, in clear view, that was a good-bye letter to all of us, saying she didn’t want us to feel guilty of what she was about to do. Jerry and I were devastated to read this and went straight to her high school to talk to her. We were shaking inside and filled with such fear of what could have happened.
We immediately prayed with her that day and made an appointment with a Christian counselor. It was truly God-ordained as just the right counselor was placed into her life. Katie needed to get on medication and shortly we saw positive changes. Slowly her countenance changed and she worked on many issues with the counselor, one being accepting herself and God’s grace.
The biggest turning point was a missions trip with her youth group to Portugal that summer. She was truly transformed and she saw firsthand that God is at work everywhere. She told us that through everyone’s prayers, God had pulled her from the pit of depression. Katie found her first love again!
Katie felt she no longer needed the medication for depression and was gradually weaned from it by December 2004.
