Kari Herbener:
CLASS OF 1973
Lowell High SchoolClass of 1973
Whittier, CA
Kari's Story
From a very young age, I was aware of God, praying to Him, asking for things like a TV or a horse, the things a child asks for. I'm sure it made Him smile. I was raised Catholic, baptized, confirmed, and went to confession and church regularly. At age 15, I was invited to a church concert with a good friend, and there I met and accepted Christ, during the Jesus Movement of the late 70's. I began to serve the LORD through music, playing my guitar and writing songs for Him, singing at the popular Christian coffee houses of those days, in and around Los Angeles and Orange County. But after getting involved in a very unhealthy relationship, I walked away from Christ for 11 years. Drinking, drugs, and partying it up ate up many years of my youth. At age 18, I was nearly kidnapped at knife point, but the LORD intervened by distracting the man, and I ran away from him screaming. You would think that would've turned me back to Christ, but it didn't. I married at age 20, divorced at age 23 and became an unwed mother at the age of 24, giving birth to my only child, a daughter who I named Carissa. Although I had a pretty good job at the time that supported us, our life was not stable, as I was still drinking, partying and living an ungodly life. It took its toll on my daughter and me emotionally, and in the midst of another horrible relationship with a man from work that I was involved in, I heard God call out my name once more. I had had enough of the pain. His voice broke my heart, and I left that relationship and moved to another town about 8 miles away. There, the LORD began His faithful repair of my life with my daughter, and prospered me with a new job. I met a wonderful Christian woman who became my daughter's babysitter for many years, and her faithful walk with Christ encouraged my daughter to accept Him as her Savior at age 8. For 6 wonderful years, my daughter and I experienced Christ¿s healing power, restoring all the troubling things that happened while I was backslidden, using me in the music ministry again, both of us surrounded by loving Christians that meant so much to us. Then, when my daughter was 14 years old, she began having terrible headaches. One day she returned from school, unable to write with her hand, her foot dragging a little, and very frightened. A doctor's exam and an MRI confirmed that she had a tumor in the middle of her brain stem, inoperable, inaccessible, and definitely growing. Within a week of discovering the tumor, my daughter began to slip into a coma, and she was rushed to a hospital that specialized in pediatric neurosurgery. There is too much to try to condense into this short testimony all that God did on our behalf during that hospital stay, and even though they were n...Expand for more
ot able to operate on her, she ended up walking out of the hospital 8 weeks later, a total miracle since the doctors gave her less than a 20 percent chance of living, and less than a 7 percent chance of ever being able to walk, or talk, again. We were elated, and she had many friends that visited and kept her company. She bravely returned to school, even though her face had changed a little because of the radiation therapy performed in the hospital, and was partially compromised on her left side. But she was glad to be alive. On her 15th birthday, we held a sleepover, and in the morning I heard her crying softly - she had lost control of her bladder. This was the first of many regressions that began to manifest themselves over the next few weeks, and after another MRI, it was discovered that the outsides of the tumor were again moving on their destructive path. We went to the University of San Francisco to the leading neurosurgeon of those days with new MRI films, after looking at them, the doctor told me there was nothing more that could be done but to take her home and love her to death. And that is what I did. It was the most painful experience I have ever endured. The helplessness of watching my precious child slowly die, the fear in her face, the absence of friends and loved ones who stayed away because they could not cope with the reality of it all, was excruciating. If the LORD had not spoken directly to my heart and mind during that time, and had not sent an incredible Christian woman to help us through it, I do not know if I would be alive today. She passed away on March 7, 1995, after developing pneumonia. The LORD gave me the strength to speak at her eulogy, giving Him praise for what He had done for us through this fire. She is with her LORD now in glory, fully healed, never to have cancer again.
It has taken many years for me to walk through the tragedy and grief of her death, and arrive at a place of contentment in my heart with my LORD and King again. He has never let go of me, never cast me away, never given up on me, through all the hard years. He remains loving, faithful, kind, understanding, and comforts my every cry. He personally knows the depths of my sorrow; He can relate to the pain I have experienced. He showed me that even though my daughter died, she was tenderly cared for and went into His loving arms as her last breath ebbed away. But the LORD had to give His Son into the hands of torturers, turning away as His heart broke. He too, knows how it feels to lose an only child. Considering that He gave His Son as a ransom for me, when I wanted nothing to do with Him, I could not ask for a greater mercy than what He has extended to me. I am exceedingly joyful that He is my God.
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