Samaritan family rallies 'round baby recovering from eye problems; mom learns 'just to trust God'

Livia Schmoyer was born to Samaritan Ministries members Dana and Timothy Schmoyer in December 2018 with cataracts in her left eye, leading to surgery to remove the lens at 4 weeks old. That surgery caused glaucoma and the need for another surgery a couple months ago. That surgery left blood in the eye, but it looks like it’s going away.

So now 6-month-old Livia has a contact lens in her left eye, wears a patch over her right eye five hours a day to brain-train the left eye, and also wears glasses to keep her from messing with the contact.

As Dana said, “Things are looking up.”

The Schmoyers, who are avid YouTubers (their channel is called “Schmovies”), are also Samaritan Ministries members who faced bills for Livia’s care adding up so far to $48,000. Making sure to explain that they were cash-pay, the Schmoyers received a 48 percent discount from the hospital that treated Livia. The family is on a payment plan as member Shares come in.

The mother of six other children, including 2-year-old twins, says the Lord has taught her “a lot” through the ordeals with Livia.

“At the beginning, I was so fearful of the unknown,” Dana said. “Every single appointment we were going to, we didn’t know if it was going to be good or bad news. We were just really stressed about that in the beginning.”

Finally, Dana said, she realized that “I can’t control any of this.”

“You created her, and she’s fearfully and wonderfully made, and You have a purpose for this,” she prayed.

“My frame of mind shifted to, ‘What can I learn from this and what can I get from this, because we’re going to go through this no matter what, and it’d be really sad to not learn from this,’” she said. “What I’ve learned is just to trust God. It’s in His hands. He knows what’s going to happen. He created her, and I have to trust Him with that. And He loves her more than I do, and I just have to lean into that.”

Meanwhile, Livia is thriving like any other healthy baby, and getting lots of love from her parents and siblings, as can be witnessed on their Schmovies channel.

After you praise God for Livia’s progress, take some time to watch and share the following videos:

• They share a bit about their experience with Samaritan Ministries in this one.
• Here’s an episode with Livia in her glasses.
• The whole family put on eyepatches to understand what Livia experiences.