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Blindsighted isn’t just a podcast—it’s a lifeline for those walking through the darkest valleys. Hosted by Karen and Todd Hornsby, this raw and unfiltered series invites you into a story marked by unimaginable pain, loss, and suffering.
But this isn’t just about our story. It’s about YOUR story, too.
We’re not here to sugarcoat suffering or offer feel-good inspiration that fades by morning. We’re here to validate the ache, the confusion, and the questions that come when life doesn’t make sense—and when God feels far away.
The name Blindsighted is rooted in the phenomenon of “blindsight”—where people without sight are still drawn to light they cannot see. That’s what faith feels like sometimes. And in our journey, we’ve learned:
- Faith doesn’t make life easy—it makes it possible.
- Trusting God’s plan doesn’t mean understanding it.
- Victory doesn’t mean escaping suffering—it means enduring with strength, honesty, and hope.
Each episode of Blindsighted peels back the layers of our journey through our daughter’s cancer battle, a near-fatal car accident, health diagnoses, and more. We speak candidly about the moments that broke us—and the God who met us there.
If you’re walking through something that feels impossible, we want you to know: you're not alone. There’s light—even if you can’t see it yet.
Join us. Let’s find victory in the midst of suffering, together.
I was just scared to death she wasn't even gonna latch on to this this bottle. It's not what she was used to. But she did like a little champ, like she always did. She drank the sugar water. And then at that moment, that tech looked over at me and said, ma'am, I'm not supposed to do this.
Speaker 1:But I'm sitting in a sterile exam room, clutching my newborn, the sonogram technician looking at the screen, then back at me, and saying, ma'am, I'm not supposed to tell you this, but in that instant, time stood still. I did not know whether his next words would break me or bring relief. But what I do know is that the very breath I had been holding for days finally returned. The weight that had pressed so heavily on my chest lifted, and I started breathing again. In today's episode, I'll share what the scan revealed and how that moment became a turning point, not just in our daughter's story, but in ours.
Speaker 1:Because life hasn't turned out the way we had planned. Not even close. But as we've looked back on our journey, our battles, our brokenness, our miracles, we can see how God was preparing us all along. Yes, God was developing our character to catch up to our calling. Every scar had purpose.
Speaker 1:Every detour had direction. And every past trial had been equipping us for one we were facing now. This is a story of healing, of perspective, and of a God who never wastes the pain. I can tell you off this sonogram, your baby does not have pyloric stenosis. The weight of the world that was on my shoulders, Just oh my god.
Speaker 1:You didn't know you weren't breathing. And then all of a sudden you're like, oh, you take a breath. It's just the craziest thing to explain. And I told him I I so appreciated it, him sharing that with me. Because normally, you're not supposed to share those things, you know, except for the radiologist to kinda share those things.
Speaker 1:But get back to the room, doctors come in, you know, we're not really sure what happened. We're not sure if it's just because of nursing or, you know, if it was just a fluke. We don't know. All we know is is that now after this last test, she does not have pyloric stenosis like it showed when she was back home.
Speaker 2:So to recap, number one, you got this miracle child that was not supposed to have been brought into this world.
Speaker 1:Correct.
Speaker 2:By what the doctor said. Report the doctors gave were like, you're never going to have a child. If you do get pregnant, the child is not going to be healthy. You'll be doing it a mercy to end the pregnancy. And then now two weeks later, she has this medical emergency.
Speaker 2:So you take her to the first emergency room and they run their tests and they tell you they give you a diagnosis. So from there, you go two hours to a bigger hospital that can do the procedure that they're saying needs to be done and they run their test. So during that time period, from one hospital to the next, she's healed. Yeah. So two miracles have taken place.
Speaker 2:It's just they're just they're just stacking up on top of each other. So it's so interesting how thank God for our doctors. And they're amazing. And we'll talk about them much more in the future. But they do practice medicine.
Speaker 2:Yep. They practice medicine. And we've got a great physician that is always on time and always has an accurate diagnosis. And God just showed up and showed out in this instance.
Speaker 1:He really did. I really wish I could articulate, especially for people who have been listening to us for a while now that because we've got several episodes now where we talk about miracles have taken place in our life.
Speaker 2:So true.
Speaker 1:There's a lot. And Absolutely. Enough that you're like, could they be making this up? I mean, it would be accurate. I don't blame them for questioning or wondering that.
Speaker 1:But that's the reason why we're doing this podcast is because there's been so many miracles and God's not a respecter person. What He can do for us, He can do for the person listening to this episode right now. But you're right. Another miracle occurred. They could not explain why in Panama City she had peloric stenosis, meaning that they could see that her pelorus was very narrow.
Speaker 1:Get to Pensacola. That Polaris is not narrow anymore. I mean, maybe there's a medical explanation for that. Don't know. But I'll tell you, don't care.
Speaker 1:All I know is my baby was healed. And she didn't have to be cut open at two weeks old. Thank God he didn't allow that to happen. I'm very thankful that God did not allow that to happen. And so the next thing, because they didn't know what it was, they wanted to check one more box.
Speaker 1:Because, again, this is very abnormal, what happened.
Speaker 2:Sure. There's blood all over the place.
Speaker 1:All over the place. Towels. I mean, it was everywhere. They were like, we need to do an endoscopy before we let you take her home. Just let us just look at everything before you go home.
Speaker 1:And so I go back to the waiting area before they take her back. And the doctor looked at me and he said, I promise you I'll treat her like she's mine. Yeah. He said he said, I promise that I would treat her like she's mine. And to let her go and not know what was gonna happen to her back there at that moment truly was the hardest thing that I had ever done.
Speaker 1:And I'm pretty sure that was the moment that I collapsed into my brother's arms. My brother was there with us and holding me up because I was getting pretty weak at that moment because it was it was rough. It was an emotional roller coaster on so many levels because you weren't there. And I all you can do is pray.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:All you can do. All you can do is pray. And finally, they came back out and said, miss Hornsby, she's a perfectly healthy little girl. You can take her home. I know that you were made aware of it while you were in Iraq.
Speaker 1:And I know that it was hard for you because they wouldn't let you come home even after you had heard the news that your child was sick.
Speaker 2:It was an emotional roller coaster. They told me, hey, you've got a Red Cross message, which means, you know, go to this location and we're going to get you a phone call with your family member. And we did and you shared with me, hey, this happened and everything you said, but she's okay now. Because that happened real quickly. So I was made aware of it.
Speaker 2:And also, well, you know, we're getting a good report now, which was amazing. That was a lot though and I'm like, wow, I'm supposed to be home for that. As you said, it's a roller coaster ride of emotion and I'm super happy and thanking God that she's fine. But I'm like, man, I just really want to get home. Want I want to be there for everybody.
Speaker 2:I just want to and honestly, I just want to have a little control of this just to be transparent. Like Of course. Because as parents, we want to be in control for our kids. They can avoid everything and we can not allow them to go through anything. Thankfully, thankfully.
Speaker 2:How old was she when I was told that I would be able to come home on furlough?
Speaker 1:Four months.
Speaker 2:Four months old.
Speaker 1:She was four months.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So finally they figured some stuff out.
Speaker 1:Yeah,
Speaker 2:we were a few a few more months into our deployment. And they started allowing people to come home on leave for two weeks. So it was a plane full of us guys. A lot of it were guys that their wives, girlfriends, whatever had just had children. So we were we flew in and I had like one layover on the side, I went to a couple different airports, you know, traveling from halfway around the world.
Speaker 2:And it was a commercial airliner. Thankfully, we didn't have to hijack a plane like I thought I was going to have to do when I thought I might get to come home for the berth. So we fly in and man, Karen, walking through that airport that during that season, we were rock stars. Were coming up to us wanting to give us a hug. Old ladies wanting to give us a kiss on the cheek.
Speaker 2:It was just, mean, we felt so appreciated.
Speaker 1:It's great.
Speaker 2:They wanted to buy us food. They want us to buy us drinks. I mean, it was just like, wow, you felt so proud because they just, they just welcomed us in. So I'm going along and finally I get to my last destination, little Panama City, Florida, little airport. And I'm super excited.
Speaker 2:And I've still got my military fatigues on. And I walked through the terminal and there's a crowd of people there and I didn't know what all was going to be going on. Can probably share some of the things that what all happened. But I see you and I see you're holding Gabby first time. And this is like one of these Hallmark movie kind of moments.
Speaker 2:The soldier gets to come home and see his kid for the first time. And you have this humong and I found out later it was a big bow. You put a big bow on the child's head. And just being able to hold her for the first time. And her just kind of looking at me like she knew me.
Speaker 2:Yep. Just really that a bond was like immediate.
Speaker 1:That was oh, it was remarkable. Which, of course, I talked about you a lot. It showed her, you know, pictures, whether she knew what it was. I don't know. But why not?
Speaker 1:Why not show her pictures? The news was there. Of course, the news is gonna try not
Speaker 2:to The news media was there with their cameras.
Speaker 1:There, you know, trying to capture this sweet moment of, you know, Soldier getting to come home and see his newborn child for the first time. And I remember watching you feed her for the first time, which was so adorable. So it was a precious moment. I think though, Todd, for this particular episode, I would like to point out that all of us have plans. Right?
Speaker 1:All of us have visions and dreams of how we want life to go, especially with Instagram now. Facebook, Tube, TikTok, whatever, all these lovely social media platforms that we have. And we all want and I don't blame them. I don't blame them at all. I'd be the same way.
Speaker 1:We want these picture perfect moments. We want to capture these moments that mean so much to us. We have parties for them. We hire photographers for them. And unfortunately, the plans don't always unfold.
Speaker 1:Right? As we had hoped and as we had wanted. At this moment, we had a choice. And I remember this was the first time I'd ever had this thought when I had was interviewed while I was pregnant with Gabby. One of the local news stations wanted to to conduct an interview with me of what it was like being pregnant with you being gone.
Speaker 1:And they just asked, like, how do you handle this? And it's just as it's a simple question. And, of course, when they ask those kind of questions, you're like, well, I know you probably want this long, very deep, thoughtful, C. S. Lewis worthy explanation here, but I didn't have that.
Speaker 1:But I I just said, well, you have two choices. You run harder to God or you run away. That's it. It's the only choice you've got. And here we were.
Speaker 1:Well, all this stuff coming against us, all the reports that we were being told, we could we could have hung our head down in defeat. Easily could have hung our head down in defeat because we didn't get to have all those moments. We could have been bitter. We could have been upset at God and saying, well, why would I ever wanna serve you for all this stuff that's coming against me? And all the plans that I had made, all the plans you had made, they didn't come to pass.
Speaker 1:They didn't happen for us. We could be so bitter. We could get on that island and say, the world's against me. God hates me. He doesn't want anything to work out for us.
Speaker 1:We didn't get to post the perfect picture on Instagram. We didn't get to set up this perfect moment of getting to share what it was like when Gabby came into this world and get the picture of me and Todd and the baby. We didn't get to share all these special moments that you typically would get to share after her birth. So we could really get on Soapbox. A soapbox.
Speaker 1:Yeah. We could really get on a soapbox and go whatever direction we would want to with that and it wouldn't be to God. It could be so much easier to just get mad and bitter. And, Todd, I do wanna say I'm very glad that we chose to not allow that to dictate our life and for us to get bitter and upset and just shake a fist at God and say, I don't wanna serve you anymore. This is too hard.
Speaker 1:And the plans that we had had didn't work out. Because, Todd, do you believe in and maybe I'm wrong about this. Maybe I'm wrong. I don't think I am, but maybe I'm wrong about this. I get concerned what society would be like and what reactions would be nowadays if we didn't get the perfect Instagram photo for a moment we wanted to capture.
Speaker 2:That's the world we live in now. And just to go ahead and reiterate, you're not wrong, baby. You're never wrong. So I'm always going to say you're right. But yes, it would be easy to get upset.
Speaker 2:But we realize too that our life is not our own. We know we've been paid for with a price and that is so hard because we want to be individuals and we want things a certain way.
Speaker 1:And we like to be in control.
Speaker 2:We do love to be in control. And this event and many more to come let us realize as much as we did not like it, that you're not always going to be in control. Honestly, you're never in control.
Speaker 1:That's the good point. Yes.
Speaker 2:So we had an understanding that we were serving God. And we knew that He was working things out for our good as difficult as things were. We knew that, know, as I say, it's it's not Todd's way, it's God's way and not Todd's time, but God's time. And so there again, just one more moment where God was developing our character to catch up to our calling.
Speaker 1:It's so funny. You've quoted that more than me.
Speaker 2:Just because it is so powerful.
Speaker 1:That's true. Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's just it just runs through my head all the time. That that is one one thread throughout all. I mean, God is the thread, but all throughout this, God is not saying, I put you in this hail, so to speak, because I want you to suffer. I love you, child. But I've got to grow you up.
Speaker 2:I've got to strengthen you. I've got plans for you. I've got a calling and a mission for you that only you can accomplish. I've got to allow you, as much as it breaks my heart, to let you go and to do these things. I've I'm working things out.
Speaker 1:Always working things out for our good. Today, I would really want to encourage anyone that's listening to to know that it's not bad to make plans. It's not bad to wanna set up that perfect Instagram moment.
Speaker 2:Absolutely.
Speaker 1:You should want to. It's not bad to want to have that Instagram moment and be be able to enjoy it and remember forever and ever. It's not bad. But what I do hope and pray, that is when life doesn't turn out like you had planned and like you had wanted, what is your first reaction when it doesn't? Is your reaction that, man, life sucks.
Speaker 1:This is terrible. I can't serve Jesus and this be what life is gonna be like.
Speaker 2:I deserve better than this.
Speaker 1:I deserve better than this. Or is your reaction like, God, this really sucks. This is awful. But God, I know I know you're in control of this. And I know this is me upset because it didn't turn out the way I wanted it to turn out.
Speaker 1:And God, I'm gonna do my best right now to exercise my faith. And knowing that you see me and you see where we are and that your heart aches with me and that although I didn't get this moment, I know you're setting me up for something greater. This wasn't the life I had planned. I didn't picture giving birth alone. I didn't imagine rushing my newborn to the hospital, terrified of what the scans might reveal.
Speaker 1:I didn't expect to carry the weight of motherhood and fear, while the one person I needed most was a world away fighting a war. But this was the life I was given. And somewhere in the midst of the shattered plans and sleepless nights, God was there, steadier than my fear, closer than the silence, kinder than I ever imagined. And maybe that's the deeper question we all have to ask. What happens when your story doesn't unfold like the one you dreamed of sharing?
Speaker 1:What if the Instagram moment never comes? What if instead, life hands you a heartbreak? Because maybe your greatest impact won't come from the moment you planned to share, but from the ones you never would have chosen. You see, there's nothing wrong with sharing the beautiful things. We should celebrate the joy.
Speaker 1:But we cannot forget that God is just as present in the moments we never post, the ones that crush us, the ones that change us, the ones that no filter could ever fix. As we close this season of Blindsighted, I want to say thank you. Thank you for listening, for walking with us through the fire, for allowing our story to stir something deeper in your own. I pray this season has caused you to reflect, to pause, to look for Jesus, not just in the miraculous, but in the mess. Not just in the light, but in the dark corners you thought he'd forgotten.
Speaker 1:And our story isn't over. Because next season, we'll pick up where this one leaves off. With Todd's return from Iraq, and just when we thought the storm had passed, another one arrived. One that comes from the most unexpected place. So until then, keep watching for Jesus.
Speaker 1:Even when the picture isn't perfect, even when the story takes a turn, even when the miracle hasn't yet arrived. Because He's there, always.