Recently we lost a courageous truth warrior, Melanie Hamilton Baldwin. While I never met her personally, I was blessed by reading about her story in her chapter of The Thinking Moms Revolution, Autism Beyond the Spectrum: Inspiring True Stories from Parents Fighting to Rescue their Children. For anyone who has not read this compelling collection of writing by 23 moms and one dad, it is ESSENTIAL reading, but it is also inspiring and challenging.

Melanie’s chapter, “B.K. Lets Go of the Controls and Holds Tight to Faith,” provides powerful inspiration to anyone no matter what the nature of struggle you are going through. She was a brave warrior whose life was cut short, yet she leaves a legacy for all of us.

Melanie experienced many challenges. She did not allow her challenges to make her callous or bitter, but responded with an impossible level of grace and even thankfulness for them.

She describes her journey of motherhood and discovering the tragic facts of vaccine injury firsthand. She rigidly followed her doctor’s advice regarding vaccination – she was never one of those “crazy, dangerous, anti-vaxxers” – she was a 100% compliant mom who never missed a well baby checkup and EVERY shot recommended.

Even when her son had obvious lack of speech and other “quirky” symptoms, she dismissed them,

“Locked in my denial, I continued to be a good mommy and followed the doctor’s orders. I continued vaccinating and never considered that to be a problem.

“That all changed shortly after his fifth birthday.”

Lacking an understanding of what was causing her son’s various symptoms, his doctor prescribed a series of antibiotics, which became the tipping point. Out of extreme pain, he began head banging and self-injurious behaviors. This obvious signal of extreme distress drove Mel to explore the role of diet, detox and traditional medical treatments with an entirely new perspective. Driven to understand that her son’s chronic pain was actually the result of all the vaccines and antibiotics, she began new therapies that started to yield small glimpses of improvement. Then, in the midst of this re-education process regarding, health, autism, and ways to bring relief to her son, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and had another battle to fight.

She was not despondent or overwhelmed, and had an amazing response. I have included quite a long quote because I believe Mel’s words speak far more eloquently than anything I can say.

Before you begin feeling sorry for me, let me just say this: This was one of the most blessed periods of my entire life…When I was diagnosed with cancer everything changed. I knew I didn’t have the strength for this, and I learned that God could use this experience for good. Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.” To gather God’s strength, I dug deep into His word, and my relationship with Him flourished. It was through this experience that I learned the most valuable lessons of my whole life, and I have watched in amazement how He has worked.

…When we surrender control to God, He takes our lives and makes them what He intended them to be. It might appear you are losing control, but it actually sets you free.

I believe many times God uses trials to draw us closer to Him. It’s an amazing thing! People tend to look at me like I am crazy when I say that having breast cancer has been a blessing, but that’s truly what it has been. I‘ve fallen in love with Jesus. I’ve learned to trust that whatever God has in store for me is truly His best, even if I don’t understand it. I’m learning to give each decision that I have to make, including the small ones, to Him before I act. It’s kept me from making some very bad mistakes, and all the while He is showing me His work in my life. It’s awesome to see! God never promises in His Word that life will be easy for His people. In fact, it’s quite the contrary. He promises that we will endure trials and hardships. It’s how you deal with these trials that helps you grow the most as a follower of Christ.

But I believe God has a plan and His plan is better than any plan of my own. No, He didn’t give my son autism. My son was born healthy. The world gave my son autism. But somehow God can use it. None of it makes sense to me right now, but I do believe that one day it will. I just have to hold on tight to my faith and to my Lord and take life as it comes, one day at a time.

Another passion Mel had and I share, was for churches full of Christians “blinded to the dangers of vaccines and holding great trust in anyone with an MD degree.” Yet she was able to forgive and to pray, “I can forgive them because if it hadn’t happened to us, I wouldn’t understand it myself. All I can do is keep praying for the Lord to remove their blinders. I pray for that all of the time.”

From an earthly here and now perspective, we could look at Mel’s life and consider it a great tragedy, but I think Mel wants more from us. Her life can compel us to discover the faith that kept her strong, vibrant and thankful till the end of her short time. Even though I didn’t know Mel, I feel great confidence that Mel’s greatest desire for all who read about her life and her son’s tragic decent into autism through our medical system, would be for them to turn to Jesus and find the same hope and comfort that she experienced through every challenge she faced.

Mel’s strong enduring faith lives on and continues to impact lives through the words in the book and blogs she left us. She was loved and treasured by many and I pray many more will be inspired by her courageous faith and that her words and legacy will compel us to seek Jesus as she did, and to become Truth Warriors, as she was, actively seeking to expose dangerous medical routines and protect children from vaccine injury.

The TMR team continues their special collection to help provide care for Melanie’s autistic son. Please join me in donating to honor this brave Truth Warrior.

30 ways in 30 Days, Exploring Vaccines: Day 25

• Day 24: Healthy Toddlers DON’T JUST DEVELOP AUTISM
• Day 23: Navigating the Information
• Day 22: How Many More Must Die?
• Day 21: Where are the WARNINGS?
• Day 20: What about School?
• Day 19: Can babies die from a vaccine?
• Day 18: What do I say to my doctor?
• Day 17: Healthy Babies Don’t Just Die part 2
• Day 16: Sincere, but Sincerely WRONG
• Day 15: Thinking About Babies?
• Day 14: Is our Hope in Congress?
• Day 13: Worse than death?
• Day 12: Healthy Babies Don’t Just Die
• Day 11: Flu Shots in Pregnancy?
• Day 10: In a Nutshell
• Day 9: Tetanus Links
• Day 8: Number of Vaccines
• Day 7: Calling All Christians
• Day 6: Choosing Wisely
• Day 5: Our Microbiome
• Day 4: Voices of Reason
• Day 3: It’s not just Autism
• Day 2: Can good people confidently give bad advice?
• Day 1: Who do you trust?