LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Popular LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" gives members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints the opportunity to share their stories of inspiration and hope to other members throughout the world. Stories that members share on Latter-Day Lights are very entertaining, and cover a wide range of topics, from tragedy, loss, and overcoming difficult challenges, to miracles, humor, and uplifting conversion experiences! If you have an inspirational story that you'd like to share, hosts Scott and Darla Brandley would love to hear from you! Visit LatterDayLights.com to share your story and be on the show.
LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories
Faith, Family & Battling Multiple Sclerosis: Stephanie & Niels Poulsen’s Story - Latter-Day Lights
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In this episode, Stephanie and Niels Poulsen share their incredible story of faith and trusting in the Lord while weathering challenging storms in their lives, including Stephanie's diagnosis and difficult battle with Multiple Sclerosis.
Throughout their story, Stephanie and Niels reveal the divine guidance that has led them both before and during their marriage, and how their faith in God has played a monumental role in their life together.
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To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/jvvmKrmbY0U
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Also, if you have a faith-promoting or inspiring story, or know someone who does, please let us know by going to https://www.latterdaylights.com and reaching out to us.
A Woman's Journey With Multiple Sclerosis
Scott BrandleyHi everyone , I'm Scott Branley .
Alisha CoakleyAnd I'm Alicia Coakley . Every member of the church has a story to share , one that can instill faith , invite growth and inspire others .
Scott BrandleyOn today's episode , we're going to hear how one woman , faced with the choice to live or die , learned just how loved she is by God . Welcome to Latter-day Lights . Hey everyone , welcome to another episode of Latter-day Lights . We're so glad that you're here with us today And we're really excited to introduce our guests , Stephanie and Niels Poulsen . Stephanie and Niels , how are you guys doing today ?
Stephanie PoulsenDoing fantastic . Doing awesome Yeah , great .
Niels PoulsenVery cool .
Alisha CoakleyWell , i know it's a little nerve-wracking getting on here and sharing your story . Have you guys shared your story before on anything like this ? or is this your first podcast ? Oh well , get ready . I have a feeling that you'll probably be invited to share in some other you know podcast , but everyone needs to remember that it was ours first , right ? So how did you guys come across Latter-day Lights ?
Stephanie PoulsenSo I can't read very much right now with my eyes the way they are , and when I was in the hospital , one of the times I was in there I would listen to , i would watch or I would have movies playing and listen to things , and I just thought I need to find something a little more uplifting . And I hunted for a church something and your guys' podcast came up .
Alisha CoakleyOh , perfect , well , that's exciting . We always like to ask , just because we , you know . We don't know if it's like a referral thing or if you just want to , but a lot of people seem to just be finding it through random searches , like how you were saying . So that's really , really exciting . Oh goodness , well , we're happy to have you guys on . Why don't you guys tell us a little bit about yourselves ?
Stephanie PoulsenWell , Niels and I have been married just for almost two years , which you'll hear about in our story , and I have three of my own kids and Niels has four of his own kids . So we are the pretty bunch . Yeah , his oldest and my youngest are the same age , and so we're trying to make it work and blend everybody , and that's I . Don't really work , right now but before . I used to work with families And a lot of them had children with a disability or a learning disability of some kind And Niels works at a .
Stephanie Poulsenwhat are you and what is that called ? I work at a factory , now Factory .
Niels PoulsenYeah , so I run this side of a plant where we do milk and condensed milk and powdered milk .
Scott BrandleyOkay , So what are the range ? what's the age range of your kids combined ?
Stephanie PoulsenMy oldest is 23 .
Niels PoulsenAnd my youngest is eight .
Alisha CoakleyOkay , So you have probably a few of them that are still staying with you , at least , right . Yeah , they're off in honor or whatever , okay .
Stephanie PoulsenYeah .
Alisha CoakleyWow , that's crazy . I know I only have three kids , but at one point when I was living in Ogden , i remember I went downstairs and Scott's kids are partly culprits to this too There were like 14 children in my basement . I'm like who are you ? Yeah , i couldn't imagine having that kind of you know . You had half of that you know on a regular basis or whatever . That's a lot . So kudos to you guys . Automatic entry to heaven , that's what I think . If you're like a straight boy mom or you have , like you know , more than three or four kids like you , just get a pass . You don't even have to try .
Scott BrandleySo Yeah , I don't have a funny story Today . I came downstairs and there was this random girl in my kitchen making some pizza at the microwave , like hey , how's it going ? I walked into my bedroom . I'm like who the heck is in my kitchen Making pizza ? My daughter , she was around the corner but I couldn't see her . It was just . It was really awkward , but anyway .
Stephanie PoulsenWell , I hope pizza is for kids , for you , yeah , too funny .
Scott BrandleyI'm sure you have that if you got seven kids running around .
Stephanie PoulsenYeah .
Scott BrandleyFriends , friends and who knows cause . it's coming over right , Yeah , Yeah .
Niels PoulsenCool . Well , you know what's funny Scott is your , your daughter .
Alisha Coakleyshe was that random kid sometimes in my house . She would literally come over and my kids would be gone and she'd be like , hey , and I'm like , hi , grace , can I go do makeup in your room ? I'm like , oh , okay go ahead .
Scott BrandleySo you guys live in Logan , right ? Is that what you said ? Yeah , cool , how long have you lived there for ?
Stephanie PoulsenAlmost Well , i guess it's been well . you moved here in May of last year .
Niels PoulsenAnd then they followed up in June after school got out Yeah .
Alisha CoakleyGotcha Okay , a year , yeah , well , everything was new I was going to say sounds like you guys have a lot of new things happening , yeah , and I'm sure part of these new things are incorporated in your story , right ? Yeah , everything goes on and on . Well , we're excited to hear how that all came to be . So we're going to go ahead and give you both the floor . Why don't you guys share with us your , your story ?
Stephanie PoulsenOkay , i'll go first . Our story , i'll just tell you right away , is kind of a complex story with lots of little intricate parts , and while I'm telling it it might not seem like it all fits together or you might think what is she talking about ? But I promise you it all comes together and it will be nice story wrapped up with ribbons . But my story really begins 15 years ago when I was diagnosed with MS . I had just had my youngest son and a couple weeks after he was born I started getting really numb right here And then like half of my face .
Stephanie PoulsenIf you can imagine the mask that the Phantom of the Opera guy wears , that's where my face was numb . Just everything that was covered in his mask was numb on my face And I didn't know if that had anything to do with having a baby because it never happened before . So I called my mom and she said to go into the doctor and I didn't want to . But I did a couple , like two or three days later , and he did a couple of tests and he said I'm not really sure what is wrong , but it's either multiple sclerosis or a brain tumor . And I didn't know anything about multiple sclerosis but anything sounded a little bit better than a brain tumor . So I was just praying for that one to be the problem . And about a week and a half later I had tests during that week and a half and they did confirm that it was multiple sclerosis , or MS as it's called . So that was in 2008 . And I don't know , it just kind of lived with it , figured out how to live with it .
Stephanie PoulsenI didn't have any pain or really any flare ups . The only thing that was kind of a little different was my vision was coming and going , but it always came back . Nothing ever hurt anything like that . So I was put on a medicine and it didn't work right away . So I don't know , maybe a month or two after I started it they put me on a different one , which was amazing , and it worked for well up until last year .
Stephanie PoulsenSo it worked for a long time . So anyway , come 2013 , I was married to my kids' dad and Niels was married to his kids' mom . And in 2013 , I divorced my husband at the time , and one of the things that they say with MS is that stress and high levels of stress can kind of get those flares going . And I didn't have that . Divorced was stressful , but I didn't have it . And after I got divorced , i needed to get a job , i needed to get a house , i had my kids and I needed to be there long And I wasn't really stressed out about that .
Stephanie PoulsenI eventually found an apartment . I lived with my best friend for probably maybe a year and a half her and her family , And so that probably helped alleviate some of the stress . And during that time , i found two or three jobs that I held at the same time just to make the income be what it needed to be , and so I knew I had to get a better job . In order to do that , i had to go back to school . So I went back and did my master's degree . I got everything up to my master's degree . It was all online , so I was able to work and be a mom and still go to school , and I got my master's degree in special education .
Niels PoulsenAnd there's something she doesn't like to share , this . But while she did that , she held a 4.0 all the way through her master's program . Good girl , as a single mom . Wow , see , i told you automatic entrance to heaven .
Alisha CoakleyYou got it , you're good , Niels and I had not met yet . We met in 2017 .
Stephanie PoulsenSo I had already graduated , or I was close to graduating , by the time we met .
Stephanie PoulsenYou graduated just the year after we met And I started working at a middle school in the . I don't even know what they call it life skills is what they called it over there but it's with the children who have some kind of learning delay or a physical delay and they can't really function as well as the teachers would like them to in a normal class . So I worked with them and we did a lot of behavior and just figuring out how to be a student . Really , again , no stress , there was . No , I was not having any flares or anything . Again , we met in 2017 , in December of 2017 , and in March we got engaged . So really really quick engagement . But as soon as we got engaged , I think we both felt like , oh , that's too soon , it's too fast , so we kind of held off on getting married .
Niels PoulsenWell , both of us felt strongly that we were to be married , but then , after we were engaged , it came to us of hold off , not yet . Yes , but not yet .
Stephanie PoulsenWe didn't know what that meant .
Niels PoulsenWe really didn't . But we also knew during that time that if we were dating , if we were , if we put that title of we're together , we're dating , we're doing this , things would be really difficult . And since we got the answer of not yet , it became . We became best friends And you know , we spent so much time together but it was different because we had to put a different role in it . We had to . It had to be different because the Lord said not yet .
Niels PoulsenAnd we couldn't understand why . But but you know I had had when I had been married , and I didn't listen to that prompting . It affected my life for a long time And so it was a prompting that I had learned to listen to When the Lord said not yet , or yes , you hold back or you go Right something that both of us were okay .
Alisha Coakleywhen it's time , So is that something you guys ? I mean ? like how did that ? because that seems like a tough conversation to have . like we're engaged And then , yeah , but hold on , I'm not going to marry you just yet . Like how did that ? how did that come to be where you both were on the same page , you know ? was it a discussion ? Did he pray about it separately ?
Stephanie PoulsenKind of like what he just said . We actually it was on a phone call .
Stephanie PoulsenI was visiting my parents and we were starting to plan a wedding and we both just kind of felt like it's just not time . Plus , our oldest kids needed a little bit more time to get used to me and to him . I think my younger two , their boys , and when I asked them what they would like for me to find in a man , they said they wanted someone tall and bald . So I knew they were okay with everything , but my daughter , i kind of felt like needed a little bit more time And I think , and my son , my oldest son .
Niels Poulsenhe ended Gotcha .
Stephanie PoulsenSo then that is a good segue , because then in 2000 and 22 , 2022 , my daughter , you know , she came home from her mission and she met somebody at college and they decided to get married
Moving to Logan, Trusting Divine Guidance
Stephanie Poulsen. And so in 2022 , they did get married , and maybe less than a month before they got married , and so Niels' son kind of gave him the okay and my daughter gave me the okay . We're happy if you marry Niels .
Niels PoulsenAnd it was a little bit blue . We weren't asking . They came to us individually and said so for my son , ian , he said you know , i know Stephanie's thing and I really like her . I feel okay with you marrying her . And for him to say that it was a lot . There was a lot of unsteadyness going on in my kid's life , a lot of up and down . He knew that this was something that was going to stay . Stephanie was going to be staying in their lives And I think it was a okay . Yes , we know she's not going anywhere . Okay , this is good .
Stephanie PoulsenSo my daughter gets married in August of 2022 . And we go to the wedding or 2021 , i think and we go to the wedding and it's in Portland And Niels is kind of the taxi driver for everybody . He's driving people from place to place And I'm just sitting there at this wedding thinking I want to be married to him . Is it time ? is it time right now ? So they get married , and later that night Niels is in my hotel room and they're watching TV and or my other kids are watching TV and Niels and I are just talking in this little hallway And I just get this impression that it's time . But it wasn't like it's time . It was . You need to get married right now And that's scary . Yeah , that's scary Because I really have trust issues because of previous relationships and I wanted to make sure that Niels was not going to hurt me or leave me And then I was worried that he wouldn't like me because I had a mess and that Heavenly Father was like you need to get married right now .
Stephanie PoulsenSo we talked about it that night And on the way home from Portland it was a couple hours drive and we talked about it And by the time we got home we knew that was what we needed to do . So in the next couple of days we were able to call our bishop , get married or get a life . So we got married a week after my daughter , like we were one She moves at the same time and it was really crazy , but that's kind of how we did it And it was neat .
Niels PoulsenSo we got married in September And then , we were able to get the letters into the first presidency to be able to get sealed , and we were able to be sealed in . January 15th , my dad's birthday turned out to be So .
Stephanie Poulsenour wedding was on my daughter's birthday , and our second wedding was on his dad's .
Alisha CoakleyOur ceiling was on his dad's birthday .
Niels PoulsenSo we get married and I don't know .
Stephanie PoulsenLife was pretty normal for the first five months , i think . And one day I woke up and I just had the word Logan in my head , like really strong Logan , and I didn't know what that meant . I didn't know anybody named Logan , i didn't know , so I kind of ignored it . And then a couple days later I went to my son's youth activity and they were at a escape room . I don't know if you guys know what escape room is .
Alisha CoakleyYeah .
Stephanie PoulsenOkay , so every clue . we had two rooms in our in our escape room . The first room had all the clues and the second room was where the person we had to save was in .
Niels PoulsenAnd granted , this is in central Oregon .
Stephanie PoulsenYeah , we're in Oregon at the time .
Niels PoulsenOkay .
Stephanie PoulsenOkay . And so I walk into the first room and all of our clues are on these license plates from Utah . Every single one was a license plate And I'm thinking Logan , utah . There's the Logan Utah , but I didn't know why . I was in my head because I'd only been to Utah maybe two or three times before that And I never really thought about living there . So I , we escaped the first room and get into the second room . And when we walk into the second room , on the wall right ahead of me , in red spray paint , is the word Logan and it's huge like big Wow , and I , I , I about faint . How am I going to tell him and how am I going to make it sound like I'm not crazy ? Then on Sunday we go to church and the opening song was come to Zion .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd I'm just thinking , okay , you really let me know very well what I need . And it doesn't end there . I go to my first class after sacrament and we're all asked to read the scripture . And my scripture comes from Abraham , and it was Abraham one one . And in that scripture it says I , Abraham , saw that it was needful for me to obtain another place of residence . I about lose it , wow . But then I thought , okay , that's , that's what . Three times I . I needed it to be three times . So I talked to Niels about it And he was actually okay , like yeah , okay , that sounds cool .
Niels PoulsenSo well I had , I had lived here as a kid and Smithville , which is next to Logan , And out of 10 , I'm the ninth of 10 kids and only two of us were born in Utah , the rest were from California And then , when I was 13 , my family moved back to California And Logan had always been this in my head this . I had the most amazing child that I always be that as , and I always wanted to come back , but life never brought me back here . So to me , logan had a lot of appeal for kids and for coming back to you Right .
Stephanie PoulsenSo we did . We decided to move . We were able to work it out with our previous spouses what our plan was And I thought that was going to be so hard And it was hard , there was some issues , but it worked . I mean , it worked out and I felt Heavenly Father kind of guiding the whole thing . And so we decided to move And I immediately started looking for a job and I got one right away and they held it for me until June when we got here . So that was one part of the story . Part two is my dad had been sick for 20 something plus years And I was really sad and it was going to be hard to move away from where my parents were , but we knew that it was the right thing for our family And my dad had a lot of side effects of . He had pancreatitis and he had a lot of side effects of it And dialysis was one of those and he had been on dialysis for years .
Stephanie PoulsenAbout 18 years , yeah , so many Wow .
Scott BrandleyThat's so hard .
Stephanie PoulsenYes , And just watching him kind of lose his ability to see or to walk or to he had neuropathy , so he didn't feel a lot of things And you know that made it hard to move . But I again feel like , oh , this is the right move , this is the right thing . So that was part two . So now back to part one .
Stephanie PoulsenBefore we move , we went to go visit my dad and my mom one last time before we moved And we're there maybe a day maybe , and my dad stands up and when he stands up his bone goes through his leg skin . Oh no , and Niels previously had gotten a job and he started his own caregiving business . So the fact that we were there at that time , I think I think it brought a lot of calmness , but I think because we were able to help him get to the hospital and whatnot . And so my dad was in the hospital pretty much from then until we moved here . He , i don't think , came home very much . He was always pretty sick after that And it was still really hard knowing . Okay , now we're going to leave him as sick as he is .
Stephanie PoulsenBut we knew that moving was the right choice . And again , no stress . I didn't , I haven't had any stress yet . So in May Niels goes to work here in Logan , he moves here and I'm back in Oregon packing and kind of wanting to be stressed but I'm not feeling . Not feeling any stress And no flares are coming . So we decide to move here to Logan in June on the last day of school for my youngest . So we pick him up after his last day of school and we are driving here and we're all kind of feeling a little . We're all starting to feel sort of throat something and it turns out that we all got COVID .
Stephanie PoulsenAll three of us Day , but .
Niels PoulsenI only got here to Utah , we were just all so sick . So we get here and I think , and we can't ask people to come help us move .
Stephanie PoulsenWe're sick .
Niels PoulsenSo we're unloading the truck and just none of us had COVID up to that point , so as our first get COVID and it was so exhausted Moving everything in and our her oldest , our daughter Belle , and her husband came and helped us . They got COVID too , so just a whole group of us with COVID at the house .
Stephanie PoulsenI mean , it was like it was such a mess . But that's what happened . And so we get unpacked and we both can't go to work right away because you have to wait a certain amount of days . But along with that , I couldn't get my MS medicine , my infusion , because of that . And so now I'm missing . I'm missing like two months of getting my infusion .
Medical Crisis and MS Diagnosis
Stephanie PoulsenOh , so a few weeks after we got healed .
Stephanie PoulsenOur grandson was born And we went to Idaho to be with them and to help her my daughter and to kind of just love being a grandparent . And while I was there , i started getting really dizzy and just like vertigo is what it felt like , and so they ended up helping me more than I helped them , i feel like . And I had been calling my doctor and saying I don't know what this is , what is this ? And he was like well , you can just come see me when you get back to Utah . And that's what we did . We got back and went and saw him And this was like my second visit with him .
Stephanie PoulsenSo he really didn't know me or my illness very well And he put me on a whole bunch of steroids . I really long rounded steroids And for a little bit it did kind of . They thought maybe it was belt palsy And she had .
Niels PoulsenShe got that after COVID too .
Alisha CoakleyWow .
Stephanie PoulsenSo it did help a little bit And it just like fluctuated , sometimes I was sick , sometimes I wasn't , for no reason really . Anyway . So we get back and we go to the doctor And then let's see , he puts me on the steroid and meanwhile my dad , his health is declining really , really fast And I'm getting back dizzy again . I'm still getting dizzy and I'm getting phone calls from my mom and my brothers , you know , do you want to come see dad before he passes ? They think he's going to pass And I wasn't sure how I was going to make that drive , because being in a car that was shaky was not a good thing . Yeah , but he ends up passing and we go down two or three days later and we get there for the funeral , which I spoke at his funeral and I was so grateful that I could do that . Me and my dad have a really good relationship .
Niels PoulsenAnd by this point , she can't walk without a walker and someone right there with her helping her .
Stephanie PoulsenYeah .
Niels PoulsenAnd I was so dizzy that the vertigo was just bad . And at this point her eye , she had double vision and her right eye And I wasn't eating because I couldn't hold anything down .
Stephanie PoulsenSo it was just like what's the thing going wrong with my body at one time ?
Niels PoulsenI had done an MRI and they didn't see anything on the brain at this point .
Stephanie PoulsenRight . So right after the funeral we leave the next day And that's kind of all I really remember about being sick . I remember driving home but Neil took me straight to the hospital . He said take it away now .
Niels PoulsenSo just a little bit of backstory on my part . Leading up to this , and one of the reasons why I think Heavenly Father had us hold off to get married , was I worked at a pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Central Oregon And I felt strongly that I needed to change jobs . I didn't know why I'd work manufacturing . Most of my career had been in manufacturing And so Stephanie had done caregiving before And I thought you know I'd love to try that And I started doing caregiving and I loved it .
Niels PoulsenI instantly loved it . I loved working with seniors with dementia mainly dementia , lewd bodies , dementia and being able to go in their homes and help them find hope And help them find a family . There's so much overwhelming things happening in the home of someone with dementia And I just loved it And I loved I learned how to fight for that patient , how to help the doctors learn what they needed to about the patient to be able to best help that patient .
Niels PoulsenAnd I started out my own caregiving business And I thought this is it , this is my career , I love this , it was wonderful . And so when we went to go move , so once that business was fully up and going , this one's when we got married . But leading up to that , when I first went into caregiving , I dropped my income all the way down the minimum wage . Something I never would have done or been willing to do had I been supporting the whole family .
Niels PoulsenAnd I think Heavenly Father knew that I needed to do that And he was preparing me . So when we moved here I thought , okay , am I going to start up a company there And Logan ? and the answer was no . So I was applying for jobs , wasn't hearing anything back for a couple months And then one night Heavenly Father told me to put into my application tonight . So I did . I put in five applications that night . I heard back from all five . I came up for the interviews . All five of them offered me job And two months leading up to that I've been turning in application after application . I had had one interview and nothing for anything .
Niels PoulsenAnd so I come here , and out of those five , the job that my last interview was the one I was actually hoping to skip , because I wanted one of these others so badly , and I went to it and after I left , it was this is the job , this is where you're supposed to be , and so that happened and that led up to that . So we're in Utah And we have to go for the funeral You can cut back soon too , and when we get back from the funeral .
Niels PoulsenShe was just so sick I didn't really have any other options . I didn't know what else to do . I took her to the hospital and they did an MRI And they found that there was active lesions on the brain caused by MS And so they started on a daily dose of solid medulla , which is very high dose steroid , through an infusion for over the next five days . So I would bring her in each day to the hospital to get an infusion and we go home . On the fourth day we went to meet with a neurologist and we get into his office and we start talking to him and he just stops .
Niels PoulsenHe said you know what ? This solid medulla should have been kicking in by now . Something's wrong . We don't have the expertise here in Logan . We need to send you up to Murray , to the hospital there in the neuro center there .
Niels PoulsenSo we stop , We get in the car , We grab a couple of bags from home and we go up to Murray And right off the bat they start running some tests and they think it's something called PML , which is a rare brain disease caused by . Well , there's a couple causes , but in essence her infusion she was getting a pysabary for her MS they thought was the cause of it , And so a team of neurologists there and the infectious disease team for all of this hospital system .
Niels PoulsenThey all got together and diagnosed it as PML . And basically the diagnosis of PML is there's nothing your body can do . Your body has to fight it .
Alisha CoakleyThere's no medicine for it .
Niels PoulsenThere's nothing that can be done . All that they could do was they did , over a 10 day period , plex , what they call it , which is they remove all the plasma and exchange it , plasma exchange , and what that did is take all the drug , the pysabary , out of her system fully . So then her body one of two things were going to happen The PML , your immune system , has to fight . So they were giving her immune system back , because the drug was just a press immune system . So by giving her immune system back they were hoping we'd fight the PML that they thought she had . But then that also leaves the MS , which your immune system is , what attacks the brain and MS . So it kind of catch 22 and the chance of survival is very slim , really . So we were there .
Alisha CoakleyDid you know this at the time , like when they were explained ? like , did you both know , or they didn't tell you or anything ?
Stephanie PoulsenI didn't know what was wrong . I didn't know that I was this sick . I saw Niels crying And during the day when the doctors would come in I could see their faces . They never really said negative things with me in the room , but Niels would go out in the hallway and I could look through the window and their faces just look devastated . I kind of put the piece together that something was wrong , but I didn't know what . And no one ever tells you how to tell your body and your brain to fight Like with a cold . Get some rest and vitamin C .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd with this . there was no manual for this one , But that was scary because I didn't know anything that was going on , but I knew Niels was crying and that scared me .
Niels PoulsenAnd I didn't know she had seen that , i didn't know .
Alisha CoakleyWow . So you're there in the hospital . You have this horrible double-edged sword weighing down on you at this point . You're not aware of what's going on . And , Niels , they've told you how much . Did they tell you a chance of survival or anything ? Or did they just ?
Niels Poulsenkind of lead you to believe that this is tricky . It's so rare that a lot of times it's caused by a weakened immune system , which is what the Tysabri the drug did is the suppressed immune system . Most people that get it have pigs , and so it's very rare for someone to get it from something different . And there wasn't enough data . The only data that showed was that if those that survived the first year their chances of surviving after that went up to about 80% , but that's if they made it through the first year .
Niels PoulsenOkay , so that's the only data they really had .
Alisha CoakleyOkay , and you guys had been , so like how long had you guys been together versus how long you'd been married at this point ?
Stephanie PoulsenSix years versus one year .
Alisha CoakleyOkay .
Niels PoulsenOr something like that It was about four years .
Alisha CoakleyWow Four years . Okay , yeah .
Scott BrandleySo , Stephanie , were you in and out of consciousness ? How aware were you of the situation ?
Stephanie PoulsenI was always awake and I could , I was alert , I could see and I could hear everything , but my brain didn't compute Like it didn't . Nothing made sense to my brain . They would come in and want to do a reading test with me And I was just at La La Land . Or they would ask me math questions and like one plus one , the simple math questions , and I have no idea . I really don't know .
Alisha CoakleyWow .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd I couldn't . They wanted me to do physical therapy And so I could do that with a walker , and I remember learning how to take a shower . But it all left me like it doesn't stay in my brain And so I felt like what am I even doing here ? Nothing's getting better . But I also didn't know what they were saying to meals . I just knew everyone's face was so heartbroken And my mom came to visit .
MS Diagnosis and Treatment Challenges
Niels PoulsenShe came twice and she came during that hospital stay And her mom and dad are . They're one of those couples that they were married for almost 50 years And anyone that met them always knew that you could just tell they absolutely love each other , adore each other . They lived for each other And for her coming .
Niels PoulsenThat's probably the most difficult thing she could have done at that time leaving the home that they where she felt closest to him after having just lost him in October , and this is December , or now this is October , this is end of October , and so she comes , and that plays into it , because part of what we're talking about is knowing that she's loved , and she knew then just how much her mom loved her and her and her mom needed that .
Stephanie PoulsenMy mom always loved me , but you know , when you're a teenager you don't see it . That way You see it differently , and I was not a very friendly teenager , and so for my mom to do that , especially after my dad had died , was a huge , a huge deal , right , but that was hospital visit number one , and I still had go ahead . I had .
Niels PoulsenI know I had more . So at the end of 14 days she had started doing a lot better . During that 14 days at the hospital They did speech therapy , occupational therapy and physical therapy every day And so we go home and she still has those three things set up here in Logan to do And she starts doing a little bit better gradually .
Niels PoulsenEvery day is a little bit better , to where she gets , to the point where she can walk . Look out the walker . Her eyes haven't changed . During the surrises filled the double vision in the right eye . They're doing weekly MRIs at this point and the age MRI showing a little bit better , a little bit better .
Niels PoulsenThe lesions are going down And so we're thinking , okay , the immune system is fighting it , it's fighting what we thought was PML , but we're still waiting for that bucket to drop and then mass was going to pick up And then figure out , try to figure out where to go from there . And during this time they sent us a referral to a doctor and it's all like who is a ?
Niels Poulsenneuro immunologist And it's all specific for MS , things like that , Whereas at the hospital they're all neurologists and the main people that they work with are stroke patients .
Niels PoulsenSo during this time if we go to meet with this neurologist and the first thing he says is well , it's not PML , we need to get you back on tic-sabery . And I think in this drug , tic-sabery we had just been told that this is PML this whole time And it's diagnosed by this whole group . And then we go to this doctor who said and this is before you even looked at any of the MRIs or any of that He's like we're going to run some tests . But he tried pulling up the MRIs and couldn't figure it out on the computer . But he told us okay , we're going to put you right back on tic-sabery . And I just had this feeling of no , this isn't right .
Niels PoulsenAnd when all of this started I had received a priesthood blessing from my elder's farm president And in that blessing it said that I would be blessed with the ability to know what questions to ask , which doctors to seek out , and that I would be able to fight for her health and fight for her life . And that was one of those times where it was no , this isn't the answer yet . So she starts getting a little worse Now . She starts getting a little worse And they finished doing the weekly MRIs And I bring her in and the MRI still shows no , it's not getting worse yet , not getting worse yet , but she physically is getting worse And we're being told there's nothing we can
Niels Poulsendo ? There's nothing we can do . So I asked for a referral to the University of Utah . No referrals coming through , Nothing's coming through . And finally she got . She got . she was just reaching a point where I knew I had to take her in , And so I took her to the emergency room at the University of Utah And they , they do an MRI and sure enough , it's worse , It's way worse . Her brain is just completely covered in lesion . And so they call in a neuro immunologist who is a professor there at the University of Utah , come in and kind of come up with a game plan And because the PLETS had been the plasma exchange had been successful before and helping , it some .
Niels PoulsenThey decided to try that And they wanted to get her on a immunosuppressant called Cochrovis And they also ran some additional testing . They did rule out PML , but with ruling out PML it was left at okay . Ms has fully taken over , to the extent that they'd only ever seen one other patient . Wasn't that bad ? And they weren't sure what , what all that , they would be able to do , and they thought this might be her new normal . And at this point she couldn't walk at all . She was in a wheelchair fully , could barely see anything . She didn't know . She didn't recognize her home . She recognized us , but everything else in her life was scary .
Alisha CoakleyNothing made sense nothing .
Niels PoulsenShe didn't recognize anything and would be . She was just scared whenever I wasn't around . If I had a bit of work , it was really scary for her . It was almost like she was in , like being left alone and having no idea what's happening around you .
Alisha CoakleyRight . Do you remember , stephanie , what that was like for you Like ?
Stephanie Poulsenyeah , i remember . So we had changed where our bed goes in our bedroom so that it was closer to the bathroom , and we're talking like four steps to the bathroom And I remember that I couldn't do it . I couldn't walk four steps . So I really needed somebody with me to take me , get me out of bed , take me to the bathroom . And when he was at work , that's when I would listen to this podcast or the scriptures or something . I just needed something that was to me familiar , calming , and the scriptures and church was familiar . And I do know that when he was gone , I didn't know if he was coming back . I just thought he was leaving .
Niels PoulsenAnd there was nothing I could do to help her understand or see what was happening , because immediately her brain would forget . And she kept asking me during these months am I dying ? Am I going to die ? What is happening ? And she couldn't remember . So we're at the hospital , so we're there for 10 days . They do high dose steroids and plasma exchange during this time .
Alisha CoakleyShe's not really getting any better .
Niels PoulsenBut they needed her immune system to have her body to have its best chance . So they came back home And she continued to get worse and they told us that if she got worse I needed to bring her back because she would have there was a different treatment they could do . But they don't like to do it because it has a lot of side effects And it's a very rare occasion that they do it . And during this time we were talking up at the bedroom and Ben was there and she , ben , thought it was funny .
Stephanie PoulsenBen's , my youngest .
Niels PoulsenOkay . He scared me , but she was telling Ben that she was in an apple And she wanted us to replace the carpet with 162 stickers , and he really stopped And I don't remember that , but it's all on video , so Oh man .
Niels PoulsenAt this point , my kids so my kids have moved here with their mom And she's somewhere she had wanted to live , and so this is somewhere where we had agreed and had a written agreement and I have joined custody , and so when we moved here , they were here for about two months during the summer And then their mom decided she wanted to move back to Oregon . And what I didn't realize and found out during this process was that the court system in Oregon we would have had to have been here six months before the kid would be able to stay . So she chose to move back and I could have done the same . Either one of us could have moved back and taken the kids with them .
Niels PoulsenSo my kids at this point my four kids are back in Oregon . The courts allowed them to go there , and so this is coming into the week of Christmas . At that point where we're home in between that university of Utah the first university of Utah hospital stay , my kids are arriving , my parents she's so sick . My parents are driving them from Oregon to bring them here for Christmas , because we got them for Christmas this last year . And I know I have to take her back to the hospital And I'm just not sure how I'm going to do it how we're going to do it .
Niels PoulsenShe doesn't want to go . She's scared , not wanting to go , begging me to keep her home because life is really scary for her during this time . She's right , and When we first went to the hot first hospital , the bishop The bishop had a prompting to do a board fast for us and And the whole entire ward and this is a brand new ward to us We didn't know them yet .
A Near-Death Experience and Finding Support
Niels PoulsenThis is back in October And you know we had just moved there during the summer and we had been gone for a funeral for 10 days . We've gone for our daughter having her first grand baby . I mean we had missed a lot , and So the whole ward is praying for us through all of this .
Niels PoulsenIt's like they They've taken Ben in our 15 year old and he just has so many friends , so many things going on , and The the ward is like , hey , we got this , you take her , we're gonna have people come there and be with your kids . And then Some members in the ward like , well , the kids should be there in Salt Lake with you , since you're taking her to the hospital during Christmas time they got a hotel for my parents and my kids , all our kids for America and there's something like that . It's in downtown Salt Lake , beautiful hotel with a really nice pool , and so We're doing .
Niels PoulsenChristmas week there , going back and forth between the hotel and the hospital , and They they decided that they've got to do an extremely strong dose of chemo to get her immune system to stop attacking the brain . They don't know what else to do . They did another MRI and it was far worse than the one before and We didn't know this at the time because our doctor was really good at it to very upbeat , but we only found out a couple months later that he really thought she wasn't gonna make it .
Niels PoulsenDuring that time He said that he never loses sleep over his patients , but he lost sleep over her . We're worrying about her and just not sure what else to do . Wow , but during one of her hospital stays Is when she had .
Stephanie PoulsenYeah , i don't remember what hospital stay it was , i just remember I'm laying in the bed and I'm the only one in the room , so meals had gone , come back home and I'm asleep . But then I kind of wake up . So I'm not sure if I'm awake or asleep at this point , but I'm Very coherent . I know exactly What's happening . I can hear people in the hallway , I can hear the machines , I can hear everything , and , and It was Right . But no , like there's a light on , just like it's just bright , and And I was told , Stephanie , we're so glad that you're here with us , but it's not your time , but you can choose to stay or to go back .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd It was just like this whirlwind in my mind because I thought , well , of course I want to go back to my new husband and my kids and my grandson they're , they're my life , and .
Stephanie PoulsenBut then , on the flip side , i Wanted to go back and see my dad , and I also have a Daughter who was still born and I would love to see her . And so I was kind of torn a little bit . But I remember , very quickly after that , deciding I Wanted to be with my family on earth , because I knew that I would get to be with them One day in heaven . I knew that and The feeling that came over me was so , so warm and It felt like a hug , but not the pressure , it just felt like I was wrapped up in something , something warm , and I felt free . I felt like I've Made a decision and now I'm just gonna go do it and I don't have to worry anymore . And I knew at that point that that Heavenly father was very aware , and he had always been very aware of what was going on with me a couple of when we had first moved to Utah .
Stephanie PoulsenWe did go to the temple and After our session we were in the celestial room and I got this . I Don't know if it was a prompting or when it was , but the thought that came to my head was Neil is going to step up and you are going to step down . And When I first thought that , I was like no way , I love being independent and I love being able to do what I do , but and so I kind of thought no , no way . But then it all made sense , because I would have to quit my job Because I now disabled , and Niels would have to step up Because he was not only taking care of me but he was taking care of my son and his kids and his job and the house and everything . And And so when we talk about seeing God's hand in everything , his hand was in it long before I even got sick . And When we had to wait to get married , his hand was in that because He knew Utah is where I needed to be , but I couldn't leave Oregon at that time , not for a couple of years . And and so when we got engaged and we waited a couple of years and Then it was time to get married and I think when he Let us know that we had to get married , right then His hand was in it because he knew You're gonna get sick and you need to be in Utah , where all of these doctors are who will know how to handle you .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd I also remember One night in my head seeing this picture . It was after we went to the temple , but I saw this picture many times in the hospital and it was me and my daughter and Neil and A boy who looked like he was about 18 or 19 , and I have always thought that that's my grandson and And it looks like we're in the temple , maybe he's getting ready for his mission or something . And in my head I Knew that if , if I was in that picture in my mind , then I have survived all of this , and It also meant that My own two boys Had also survived it with me and we were there , and So for many nights and many days in the hospital That's kind of what I held on to was that picture in my mind and the words that Neils would step up and I would step down , and I think that that is showing how many fathers hand in everything . Because I Don't know that I would have believed him if I didn't trust that Neil Loved me . But I now know That how many father gave me somebody Who is gonna love me even with all of this crazy , and He Wasn't gonna leave me . And I know that The only father has given me a mother Who loved me that much all through my life . But I needed to see it at this time And he provided a way for that to happen . He provided a way for My daughter . My daughter actually came here for I don't know , maybe a month with her baby and took care of everything here .
Strength and Support in Difficult Times
Stephanie PoulsenAnd my biggest fear , being gone , was my kids .
Stephanie PoulsenI knew my older two would be okay because they're older , but my youngest one , you know , he just started high school and I'm just worried about him so much . But knowing that my daughter was here , knowing that Neil was there , knowing that people in our ward they were offering for him to spend the night at their house or they would take him to school , take him to church , heavenly Father knew I needed to see that kind of love for me to believe it . And I really feel that And I know that when I'm in the hospital , you know when you're there you have to wear one of those blood pressure things on your arm pretty much the whole time . Right , and during a lot of those moments where I was scared that everything was unknown and I had no idea what was going on , that blood pressure thing would just kind of squeeze my arm And because my brain was so messed up , i thought it was my dad giving me a little hug And I would feel that all the time because that blood pressure thing goes all the time .
Scott BrandleyYeah .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd I think Heavenly Father knew I needed to feel that . I don't know there's just been so many little things . moving to Utah was not something I ever wanted to do , but I think I had to . Now I know why . I don't know .
Niels PoulsenAnd moving into the ward , we did just everything .
Niels PoulsenEverything plays a huge role in it And every step of the way the job I took were the plant manager sending me texts and telling me hey , you know you take care of your pride , we've got you . You just take care of your pride . Your job is safe , you're secure , you do what you need to for your family . And knowing being able to have a job where I could be there for her as much as I needed to , i can be there for our kids , for everyone .
Niels PoulsenEvery step of the way he has played a role in that And priesthood blessings have played a huge role on my side of things for giving me strength , giving me guidance , giving me direction When my kids , when I found out she had started having the dizziness , and that's also at the same time when I found out my kids were going back to Utah or back to Oregon and I couldn't stop it . The courts had said no , no , it falls under Oregon and the law says this . I got a priesthood blessing from that same Elder's Quorum president and in that blessing it said for me and my kids , during the time we're apart , when we would get back together , we'd feel like there was no time pass .
Niels PoulsenI needed that , that priesthood blessing has stayed with me And before this even happened a few years ago , i had a prompting out of nowhere that the kids wouldn't live with me and understand it , because I've always wanted them with me , i always want them with me and I've always fought for that , and we have Joan custody . But I just had that prompting that you need to learn to be in their lives even if they're not physically there . And when COVID hit and I worked with seniors during that time , they weren't social distancing . Covid was brand new . We didn't know anything about it , we didn't know how it worked , so I had to keep it distant because I was working with Elderly , and so we started playing games online .
Niels PoulsenAnd I'm not a , i don't play games . I didn't grow up with the Nintendo or anything like that . My dad didn't allow us to have anything like that . But my kids love to play Mario , they love to play different games , and so that's what we started doing . We started FaceTiming and playing games during that time that we were apart And it gave us a foundation for what we do now .
Niels PoulsenEven though they're in Oregon and I'm here , i still get to spend time with them And you know , through all of this , this time they've been apart of this . Even though we're separated , we're still together And through priesthood blessings , the guidance has come , the direction has come That has gotten us to where we are now , where her brain is healing . It's still not fully healed , to where it will be , that takes time , but her brain is healing .
Niels PoulsenThe doctor said that he , he , he's shocked how much progression she has made and how well she's doing . But I don't know . There's something there .
Stephanie PoulsenMy aunt when she was here , she taught me how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich because I needed to learn how to make food while everyone was gone . And that's what I learned how to make , and I'll tell you what peanut butter and jelly . It really gets the spot sometimes , but I feel like Heavenly Father just knows what you need And he will find a way to make it . So you understand that blessing Peanut butter and jelly I don't know if that would ever be your blessing , but it certainly was mine . And you know I have a long hallway upstairs and my grandson is crawling now and being able to like chase him And I'm super slow and he's super fast , but Heavenly Father knew that's what I would need to start learning how to walk again .
Stephanie PoulsenHeavenly Father knew that I don't feel like I have a purpose , but when I see my son and when he tells me about living in an apple , it makes me laugh and it makes me feel like , okay , happiness might just be my purpose right now .
Stephanie PoulsenBeing able to be with my kids is my purpose And I think testifying is . It kind of has a new meaning for me , because a lot of things don't matter like they used to , and really the only thing that I feel like matters is God and that we know him and that we know that he knows us , because I don't think I would have made it through this without him . I know that I wouldn't . I know that I wouldn't . He has given me every tool that I need to get better And Niels is a big tool And my family and my friends . I mean I can't even tell you all of the things that have happened , and everyone keeps saying that I'm the miracle , but I think what Heavenly Father has done with me is the miracle . I don't think it's me , i think it's him . It's always him .
Alisha CoakleyYou know , i just love that so much . You made me cry so much in your story And I had all of these thoughts , but one of the main ones that just keeps coming back to me is how I love how you were given that instruction that you know , for this time being , you're going to have to step down so that Niels can step up . You know , so that Niels can step up . Because I think that sometimes in life we are constantly thinking like I know , Scott and I especially , like we were always into that personal growth and development and we're always trying to be better and do more And Scott achieves way too much for a human to achieve . But you know , I think that sometimes , like , we get in that mindset of no , we're independent , we can do it , and we can . Just , you know , you were doing three jobs and you got a 4.0 , you know GPA when you're going through school as a single mom , and you know . And so sometimes Heavenly Father takes us and he says that's great , I'm so proud of you , but we're going to just let you be the thing now . You know the person now that has to receive right , you got to stop giving . It's time for you to receive . And then he puts that trust in other people to step up and to become more of the people that he needs them to be to , and so we're all interconnected And I think we all get to learn the lessons right .
Alisha CoakleyLike that's some of the hardest things I know for me I so I'm in remission right now for chronic myeloid leukemia And I was on chemo for seven years And it was , it was awful , like it was just terrible , and one of the things that I had to learn was to rest . Like I had to learn how to let other people help me , and I hated that . I hated it so much , but it's kind of taught me the beauty of balance in life , right , and the beauty of having control over my emotions . And I'm not perfect at it by any means , i still struggle asking for help , but but I struggle a little less than what I did Right , and so I just I think that that's it's beautiful to see that Heavenly Father He really can use us to like power through and to be these really hard working , dedicated , independent type of people . But He can also use us to be co-dependent , right , and and to be able to just sit and receive the blessings and the help , and we know that we're not the only ones that receive them . Right Like , by giving someone an opportunity to serve us , we're giving them an opportunity to to get whatever it is that Heavenly Father has for them .
Alisha CoakleyRight Like I say this all the time our God is is a God of order . He has universal laws in place and He's not just gonna you know , he's not just Oprah you get a blessing and you get a blessing . He's not going to do that with us . Right Like , there there's a procedure that needs to be followed , and sometimes He puts all of these things in place so that we have the opportunity to come and say Heavenly Father , can I have this blessing now ? Yeah , you know , like I was able to do this and now I get to reap that universal law of you know , reward and consequence type of thing , and and so I just I think it's amazing that He is able to use all of it for our good . Right , everything to our good .
Scott BrandleyAlthough it is hard to take the bad sometimes It is You wish you didn't have to take the bad , right Yeah ? So , um , cool , So you had this near-death experience . Um , you decided to come back . How like , can you kind of just give us a quick synopsis of the rest of the story from that point ?
Stephanie PoulsenYeah , i think , from that point on , that was when I made the decision to fight And , like I said , there isn't a manual on how to fight this , but really it comes down to sleep . That's ridiculous , but it does , and I don't like to sleep , I don't like to do that . And so I knew I wanted , I made the choice to come here . I knew that was my choice and I knew why I wanted to come here . But I knew I couldn't . I wouldn't stay here if I didn't fight for this . And a lot of days , you know , I would get up and do my thing but then I would fall back asleep or I would sleep late into the morning . But now I feel like I feel like I'm kind of getting to that point where it's a little bit more normal And , heavenly Father , I feel like is seeing , these are the things that are happening in the waiting time . You're waiting to get better , and so I'm going to just guide you through that by helping you with the sleep , helping you feel there's a purpose for you to be here , and there is . And I see that I know after I know the first few days that I was home , I have a rocking chair in my bedroom upstairs and that's where I would sit all day . Well , Niels was at work and I would just cry because I didn't know what am I doing here ? What ? what did I choose this for ? And once I decided , and once I got the picture in my head that no , you're . You made a choice to come back and now you gotta fight for it . What are you fighting for ?
Finding Peace and Purpose Through Faith
Stephanie PoulsenI knew what I was fighting for was my children , but I also knew that this was a really good chance for me to get to know Heavenly Father a little better , and so I would make a daily schedule and that would include listening to a conference talk and saying my prayers or there . Everything was kind of centered around the church because I had all this time . I have all this time and I don't drive anymore , so I'm not going anywhere . And I will say maybe I get mad at you , but I think I'm in a much better mood when the church is in my life . But also , Niels and I have been able to go to the temple every week and that has been amazing because there's this one . We do a lot of ceilings and there was this one time when they ran out of time and we decided we would go back the next day to finish our names And on the way home I said to Niels you know , we have to give these people their families .
Stephanie PoulsenThey've been waiting forever to be a part of their family and we almost got ours changed so we can go back and we can give them that gift , and I think that's why we go . So I think , after feeling what I felt and experiencing and hearing what I heard , a lot of things don't matter to me anymore . Everything is really just about church , heavenly Father , jesus Christ , and how can I feel that more in my life ? but also , how can I help other people to feel that ? And I haven't figured that out yet , but I know it will come . I know it will come and it's just so important I don't know .
Stephanie PoulsenI don't know how to explain that , but it's so important and that might be my job now to help people feel his love . That might be .
Scott BrandleyIt feels like you're just starting to tell that part of your story , right .
Alisha CoakleyYeah , yeah .
Scott BrandleyThat's great Yeah .
Alisha CoakleyAbsolutely Well , and I think , as you're talking , maybe part of your purpose is to grow closer with Niels . You know , now , as you guys are sealed for time and all eternity and everything like that , you get this opportunity to grow really closely because you guys had a whole life experience without each other , right , right ? So it's almost like Heavenly Father is like hey , i'm just going to give you some extra time , i'm just going to force you to slow down , so you can have some extra time , because it's really what the whole gospel is about , right ?
Alisha CoakleyIt's building those eternal families and being able to , like , have that special oneness with each other and everything . So that could be part of your purpose . You're like oh , all right , heavenly Father , you want me to rest . I can just be here when Niels is home . Okay , we're just going to build our relationship .
Stephanie PoulsenWe have a lot of stuff together .
Niels PoulsenWe do .
Stephanie PoulsenAnd a lot of it is perky We love it .
Niels PoulsenYou know , heavenly Father came in and said I'm going to simplify your life .
Alisha CoakleyYeah .
Niels PoulsenI'm going to this is what's important . Here you go , and I'm going to make sure that you focus on that and everything else . This stuff's so important that everything else will just go away . Yeah , and that kind of what this has done for us is nothing else really matters . It's the simple things that are so important . And just when I see her be able to walk , when I see us being able to go to the temple together just simple things , being able to go for a walk together , and knowing how far we've come and how close we were to not having that anymore , it's just , it's a blessing , it's a tender mercy , it's one of those tender mercies that the Lord gives us , where we see those simple things are so important , those moments that we have together are so important And they're the ones that matter . Those are the moments that matter most , every single one of them .
Alisha CoakleyAnd you know it's not to say that at some point you know what , stephanie You might get back to feeling like your old self again , but you won't forget these lessons . I truly don't believe that you will . I don't think that anybody who goes through all of that can forget the most important things that they've learned . And so it may be that this is just a time for you and that you'll get to the point where you get to be independent again and you get to do all of these things that you were doing , or you get to try new things with you and Neils . that might be a lot more busy again , but in that busyness you can still have that peace and you can still have that balance . And I think that you know there is no finality to what the Lord can do for us , especially when we remember how much he loves us and we remember that he has a plan for all of us . We don't have to figure out that plan all the time . Sometimes we can just coast and trust . We're just going to do this .
Scott BrandleyTake it one day at a time right .
Alisha CoakleyYeah , yeah , exactly .
Alisha CoakleyYou know , like sometimes we're going to have to just sleep , and that may or may not be for the rest of this life , but I promise you that at some point you will be busy again and you will be wishing for a nap . It may be on the other side . you'll be like I'm a father . I'm not just like take a breather here , but I think that the lessons that you guys have learned and are learning , and the lessons that are being taught to other people through you and through your story , are honestly life changing and it's definitely lighting the world . You know , i me personally my heart is so full right now . I can feel that love that you guys have talked about . I can see it just in your interactions and it just makes me smile to the point where my cheeks are hurting . So I just I think that you guys have such an amazing story and we're so glad that you guys came on here today to share it with us .
Stephanie PoulsenMe too . Thank you for having us . I love you .
Scott BrandleySo , Stephanie and Niels , do you guys have any final thoughts that you'd like to share before we wrap things up ?
Stephanie PoulsenI think I'm good .
Niels PoulsenJust a heavenly father . He loves us . He's right there , ready to give us , so many blessings .
Niels PoulsenHe's ready to help us through the toughest times and through the good times , and all we have to do is ask , ask and then go and do . One of my favorite scriptures I don't even know if I call it scripture , but it's in the Bible dictionary It talks about prayer and about heavenly father , how we are his children and he's just ready to bless us and help us And these events that we have in our lives , when he's there with us . Through them they become manageable , they become attainable , they become special and memorable . And when we turn to him and we accept that and accept that help , there's a certain kind of peace that comes from no , that only heavenly father can give us . That's what's important in life . Having our family together means having heavenly father there , because he is our family , we are his family And it's important to include him in on everything . That's awesome .
Alisha CoakleyI love that .
Scott BrandleyHaving our family means having heavenly father there , that's .
Alisha CoakleyYeah .
Scott BrandleyI love that .
Alisha CoakleyYou should copyright it . That's such a good one . I love that so much . You guys have been incredible . I feel like we're family and you guys can just come down to Texas and visit me some more , and I'll go stay with you when I go to Utah .
Stephanie PoulsenWe love to .
Alisha CoakleyThat would be amazing .
Scott BrandleyOh man .
Alisha CoakleyWell to Stephanie and Niels . Again , thank you guys so much for being our guest . It has been such a beautiful , beautiful episode . We are so honored that you've chosen us to be the first podcast that you've shared this on , and we hope that you have many more requests in the future , because I definitely think that you guys have such beautiful , powerful messages in your story and we both wish you well on your continued journey to health and love and success and all of the things that Heavenly Father has in store for you guys .
Scott BrandleyThank you . Thank you , yes , definitely Cool . Thank you . Well , thank you everyone for listening to this podcast and being part of our family . Go and share this message . Hit that share button . Let's do our five-second missionary work and get that out there . Let's share some light today And if you have a story that you would like to share with us , go to LatterdayLightscom and let us know about it . I'd love to have you on the show .
Alisha CoakleyAnd , guys , be sure , if you heard this story today , that you comment , leave your favorite part of the episode . Let Stephanie and Niels know what it meant to you guys , what you took away from it . We would love to hear from you . And just be sure Blank Scott said to do that five-second missionary work and share away , because you never know who else needs the messages that were shared today . With that , i hope that everyone has a beautiful , beautiful week . Be sure to tune in next Sunday for another episode of Latterday Lights . We'll talk to you later .
Scott BrandleySee ya .
