Shelley Todorovitch
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My husband was diagnosed with diabetes at the age of three years old. At the age of thirty-two, he was diagnosed with kidney failure. The major trials had just begun; our life was being squeezed. We then took a two-year journey that I will never forget. This book takes you on the two-year journey, the journey including closing our business down temporarily for two years, selling our home and moving, two transplant surgeries, including pancreas and kidney; (I was the kidney donor), a near organ rejection after surgeries, about twenty to twenty-four eye surgeries, including a retina detachment, the death of two family members. In the physical, it seemed that there was no hope, but I soon learned that pain produces purpose, and how God engineered and orchestrated every step we needed to take. God opened doors that man said could not be opened. Against all odds, I have a miraculous testimony that I would love to share with you, a message of hope, that if we endure, hold on, and not waver in our faith, with God all things are possible to those who believe. We are in desperate need of life-changing values; our value system can get overthrown by the world’s system, and everybody needs a high-quality checkup once in a while by means of the great physician.
My name is Shelley Todorovitch. My husband’s name is Jim Todorovitch. We’ve been married for fourteen years. We have two growing boys, ages twelve and nine. I am a stay-at-home mom. Well, I guess you can call it that. I’m never at home (just kidding). I’m a student of the Bible and beginning to lead a women’s ministry in our church body. I must say, the woman I am now is definitely not the same woman I was before the journey began. God has taken me and refashioned me in many different ways, and caused me to grow and mature in His ways and word and nature. I am now able to minister and encourage in different ways that I never could before. Through these last few years, He has revealed Himself to me in ways never dreamed of. My heart’s desire is to be God’s hands, feet, and mouthpiece to a hungry and hurting world. I am now able to step out of my comfort zone and go after dreams and visions God set in my heart. My desire is to one day own a Christian bookstore with a café attached to it, and my friend also wants to attach a Christian-based exercise program along with it. I also want to host a Christian talk show on television for women. What a mighty God we serve, that He is able to take a mundane, average, ordinary woman and place His gifts and vision and change her life forever.
FOREWORD – “We Did It!”
Jim and Shelley Todorovitch entered my life in the late ‘90s, at a distance at first and with some hesitation. But over the years, our lives have become entwined in the way that family and close friends grow together. I number them among my dearest friends.
It was several years into our friendship before I discovered the severity of Jim’s struggle with diabetes. The Todorovitches were reticent to share the darkest part of their struggle, limiting the “hard” news to immediate family. As we moved into the inner circle of their lives, however, the bleak prospects for Jim’s future became more apparent. The harsh truth was that Jim, barely in his thirties, was living under a medical death sentence. Still, Jim and Shelley carried this burden with inspiring faith and dignity. It wasn’t that they were in denial of the prognosis of Jim’s condition; it was that they quietly, confidently walked the journey set before them. Their deepest desire through the ordeal was to walk faithfully and to bring God glory.
For me, the great message of Jim and Shelley’s journey has not been the fact that God miraculously provided a perfect kidney match for Jim (through Shelley), or that He supplied Jim with a pancreas. Those are great stories, and I rejoice in God’s mercy toward the Todorovitches (and all of us who love them). For me, the real story of triumphant faith has been to see them put into flesh and blood the word of God through the Apostle Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” (2 Cor. 12:9 – NIV)
It is my sincere prayer that, as you read this powerful testimony, your faith will be added to and your hope renewed.
Grace and Peace,
Brad Edgbert – Senior Pastor, Hillside Church
