Born prematurely at two pounds six ounces, Chris and Tisha Stroud’s newborn son, Tyler, was diagnosed with a brain bleed on his left side and cerebral palsy on his right side.

“The doctors told me that he would never talk, that he would never walk, that he would never do anything but be a ‘vegetable’,” said Tisha, in an interview with The Christian View. “But only God knows what is going to happen with my child.”

Tyler was also diagnosed with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a name which means ‘bone that is imperfectly made from the beginning of life.’ OI is a genetic disorder commonly called ‘brittle bone disease.’ Those diagnosed with OI have a faulty gene that causes their body to make too little of type 1 collagen or a poor quality of type 1 collagen, so their bones easily break.

Eleven-year-old Tyler has broken more than 100 bones, including ribs, legs, arms, fingers, and micro fractures in his spine. He cannot stand or walk, but is expecting surgery to install steel rods in his legs, from the knees down, to straighten his bowed legs, and to assist him with standing and walking.

Tyler doesn’t want anyone to feel sorry for him. “God made me this way for a reason,” he says.

Tyler spoke of the love he has for his parents. “I think they’re great,” he said. “They take care of me. We don’t have much, but we have God, and that’s what matters.”

“The first year of his life was touch and go,” said his mother. “We’re human, and we thought, ‘Why my son?’ But he’s my child, and God gave him to me for a reason, and I’m going to take care of him. When he was born, the doctors said he wouldn’t talk and would be a ‘vegetable.’ I’d like to ask, ‘Do you want to see him today? Because you were very wrong.’ Only God knows what’s going to happen.”

Tyler’s teacher, Dianne Wilson, has come to his home each afternoon during the school year for his lessons. “I love school, but I’m glad when I get out for the summer,” said Tyler. “I think all kids are.”

“He makes straight A’s,” said Tisha. “He’s a Beta Club member. He’s smart, and he knows it.”

“I’m smarter than ‘the average bear’,” said Tyler, with a smile, and quoting the cartoon character Yogi Bear. “All I know are 100’s,” he added.

Math is his favorite subject.

And he loves reading, although he is legally blind in one eye and can read only bold print. His mother reads other books to him. “I read the Children’s Bible to him, and we talk about what we read,” said Tisha. “I try to instill the values of God in him.”

Favorite stories from the Bible include the stories of David and Goliath, Jonah and the whale, and Moses and the parting of the Red Sea.

Tyler’s favorite verse of scripture is John 3:16: For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

“I think God is great,” said Tyler. “I love God about 200%.”

His favorite song is "Amazing Grace." “I sang it to him while he was in the neonatal intensive care unit, and I always sang it to him while he was a baby,” said Tisha.

Tyler loves spending time with his extended family, including his grandparents, Jill Burnette and Judy and Calvin Stroud, and his great grandmother, Louise Lindsey.

He meets new friends when he and his mother go out. “He’s such a people person,” she said. “When we go to the store, several people will stop and talk with him.”

He loves his two dogs, Precious and Hunter. Precious, who had been abused in a previous home, will cuddle up with Tyler on the couch.

Tyler loves to watch Disney videos, use the computer with his mother’s help, play football, baseball, and golf on his video games, and watch football and baseball on television.

“I like wrestling,” he added. Through the Make-a-Wish Foundation, Tyler was able to fly to Kansas City with his mother to meet 10 wrestlers. On another trip, to Charlotte, he was able to meet his favorite wrestler.

Tyler has also been a guest several times on Anderson, South Carolina’s WRIX radio, on Ron Scarborough’s Evening Sports Page and Jason Vaughn’s Christian Talk, by telephone and also in the studio. During his trips to the studio, Tyler has been inundated with gifts, including sports memorabilia signed for him by various sports figures. Tyler is a Gamecock fan, because his father’s family graduated from USC, but Tyler delighted in talking with Clemson Tigers Head Football Coach Tommy Bowden by phone during a show in late May. Former Major League Baseball player and manager Alvin Dark also called in; Tyler had called to talk with him when Dark was an in-studio guest on Scarborough’s show in late April. On a later show, callers to Tyler included former Major League Baseball players Bob Bolin and Bobby Richardson. “I’m ‘Mr. Hollywood’,” said Tyler.

Tyler loves to get mail, and, each time he has been on the radio, Scarborough and Vaughn have shared with listeners Tyler’s address, 154 Burmaster Street, Inman, SC  29349-9703. “I love it,” Tyler said of receiving cards and letters in the mail. “Every day, I wait on the mail to come, and, every time I get a card, I say, ‘Hey! I got a card!’” He has kept all of his cards in albums.

Tyler first met Scarborough at the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas in December, 2006, explained Tisha. “Ron said that, when he looked over and saw Tyler with that great big smile, God laid it on his heart to come over and speak to him.” He has been like a member of the family ever since, she said.

Tyler has been a patient at Shriner’s Hospital since the age of four. “I could not find another orthopedic doctor who would see him,” said his mother. “Anytime he has a break, we go to Greenville.

“Tyler tells me, ‘I wish I could run and play like other kids.’ He does have his good days and bad days.”

She hopes that the surgery to install the rods will work for Tyler. “With some kids, they do, and with some, they don’t,” she said.

“It has been hard to make the decision, because we don’t want to do anything that will hurt him more, but we want him to have that chance that maybe it will work.

“He has never walked, so he’s scared about it. I told him, ‘The physical therapy will help you. You do the best you can. Only God knows if you’re going to walk or not.’ They told me the rods need to be put in, because his legs are breaking so often.”

Once, Tyler had five cracked ribs, a broken leg, and a broken arm at the same time. “He doesn’t complain,” said his mother. “He said that God was helping him with the pain.”

But Tyler admitted that the first time he had a complete break, the pain was almost unbearable. “I was shaking. I couldn’t go to sleep, because it was hurting so bad,” he said.

He has multiple skeletal disorders, his mother said. “One of the characteristics of OI is a barrel-shaped chest. They’re worried about his lungs growing and Tyler not having enough room. He does take treatments for his lungs, but, down the road, as he grows, there is a possibility of opening him up and putting in plates, so that he will be able to breathe right.

“They told us that his most pivotal years are between ages 12 and 14,” she added.

Tyler will turn 12 on October 7.

“We live day to day,” said Tisha. “I try to make each day the best he’s got, because we never know when God is going to call any of us home.”

Tyler’s mother stays with him at home. Because of his condition, she said, no daycare facility will want to care for him except for one, and the cost would be too expensive.

“We’ve had to make a lot of sacrifices, because my husband is the only one who works,” she said. “But I feel better that I’m at home. I know how to take care of him, and I know when to get him to his doctor when he needs it. We don’t have much materialistically, but we don’t need much.”

Tisha experienced two miscarriages before her pregnancy with Tyler, so she was careful during her third pregnancy.

“I did everything the doctors told me to do,” she said. “But he was bound and determined to come out early. He was born at 29 weeks.

“He had a rough time to begin with. He had a lung disease and turned jaundice. A lot of things happened while he was in the NIC unit.

“I used to pray, every time I went in there, ‘God, please let my child live. I don’t care what kind of shape he’s in. I’m going to love him, no matter what.’ And God answered my prayer.

“My heart is too big to say, ‘I don’t want you.’ We sacrifice just to make him happy. That’s all we want, for him to be happy.

“I didn’t know how to touch him at first. But, then, I thought, He’s a child; love him.

“My husband has stood by us and said, ‘Whatever we have to do, we’re going to stick together, as a family, because God gave us this child to take care of, and that’s what we’re going to do.

“The first year of his life was very hard. After that first year, I prayed to God all of the time, ‘You gave me this child for a reason. Give me the strength and the guidance that I need to make him be godly.’ And God has blessed us.”

Tyler wants to share his story at churches, to tell how God has been good to him.

“I want to get his story out,” said Tisha. “That way, if people get to know him, if anything ever did happen, they won’t forget him.

“I really believe that God does have a plan for this child.

“I believe that, if he told his story to other children, even adults for that matter, people will accept him for his big heart and who he is, not for his physical disability.

“But I just wish people would overlook the things that they can see and see the things that they can’t see. He has been an inspiration to me. He has taught me patience. He has taught me happiness. He has taught me a lot of things to grow with God.

“He loves to laugh. His smile and laugh – I know that’s God’s work, that he is as happy as possible.”

Tyler’s advice for other children who may have this or any other disease? “They just need to realize that God made them that way for a reason,” he said.

Tyler said that he loves God and is thankful for the way he is. “I hope that the people who read this will do the same,” he added.

“We say our prayers every night and thank God for what we do have,” said Tisha. “He has blessed us in so many ways. If it weren’t for Him, we wouldn’t have the strength to keep on going.”

Tyler wants everyone to know God in the way that he does. “God loves everybody,” he said. “He loves everybody. If you do anything wrong, He’ll forgive you.”

“I think God has big plans for you,” his mother told him. “You never know. God might call you to be a preacher, to see people saved.”

      “I would like that a lot,” said Tyler.