Smells Like a Miracle

At first sight, one would think Olivia is just your normal teen who loves her dog. But there’s an exception.  See, for most of her life she hasn’t been able to smell or taste…anything.

“I didn’t really realize that I couldn’t smell or taste, just because that was just how things were for me.

People would always say, ‘Oh, wow, this smells so good,’ or ‘Oh, this smells really bad.’ And I would kind of never know what that was like,” says Olivia.

Olivia also had asthma. Her parents, Will and Ailie were so focused on managing those symptoms, they had no idea their daughter could not smell or taste until she was about five.

“We would start talking about, ‘Can you smell that, can you taste that?’ She’s like, ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t smell anything.’ When you’ve never smelled anything, you don’t know you’re not smelling anything. And we didn’t realize at first how much she didn’t taste. And so, all she would eat was Mac and Cheese,” Will says.

Olivia says, “I just really liked the texture. And that was kind of my only critique about food was… texture. Just give me my Mac and Cheese.”

Then, one of the several specialists they had gone to, discovered that olivia’s olfactory nerve was not connected to her brain, and there was nothing the doctors could do to fix it. But the family focused their prayers elsewhere.

“And you realize wow, she can’t smell or taste, but I was not praying for healing for that…still praying for the healing for the asthma and thinking I know that God can heal this because I’ve seen it in my own life and I know that He will heal it,” says Ailie.

That’s because Ailie was healed of terrible migraines in 2004 through a word of knowledge while watching the 700 Club.

Gordon says, “God is healing that headache now, it’s being lifted off of you now, in the name of Jesus it’s not ever going to come back.”

Olivia knew this, which made her believe all the more she could be healed too. “When I was younger, I would look up the segment that she was in to watch it because I just thought it was so interesting and so astonishing that God could do that,” she says.

Although asthma and olfactory issues kept Olivia playing certain sports, they didn’t keep her from being extraordinary. Ailie says, “Olivia has always been using those things to push her forward and to push her to do other things, specifically writing. God has really gifted her with a true gift.”

“I guess I was just really sympathetic for other people’s struggles and I wanted to convey those feelings in fiction. So, I started writing stories and I really loved it,” Olivia says.

The years went by, more mac and cheese was consumed. Then in 2017, the day after Thanksgiving, will and Ailie were watching the 700 club, as they did so many times before.

Will recalls, “It was the Thanksgiving Day show, and I had recorded it, and was watching it and all the sudden Terry said, ‘Well, somebody’s olfactory nerve is being healed…’”

Terry says, “Someone else, I don’t understand this, but you have some kind of an olfactory nerve damage. You can’t smell so you can’t taste your food well. But God is restoring that joy to you again, just receive it in Jesus name.”

Will says, “And I was like… ‘Huh…’”

“And I was like, ‘Oh my goodness, that is amazing!’” Ailie says.

“So, I called Olivia and said, ‘Hey Olivia come here for a second.’ And she came in and goes, ‘What?’ And I said, ‘Watch this.’ So, we watched it again and she goes, ‘Huh…’  And then just walked out. Didn’t say anything, nothing happened,” says Will.

Olivia says, “And as I was leaving I was like, ‘What if that was for me, what if that wasn’t just for some other person…’ And so my dog happened to be right there and I remembered my mom was always complaining about his stench, and so I smelled him and I was like, ‘Oh yeah, he stinks.’ And then it kind of hit me, ‘Oh wait! I can smell!’”

With new found senses, Olivia went on to explore the wonder of smell and taste.

Olivia says, “I would smell a lot of things and ate a lot of leftovers from the day before. And found that the food I that I hadn’t liked, just the day before, that I actually really enjoyed now.”

“We were just so excited; I mean it was such a super joyous occasion and the Lord just really reminded me how thankful we need to be in every instance of our lives. He saw us and He saw something we didn’t even think needed healed and He healed it,” Ailie says.

Since then, a new medication came out that successfully treated Olivia’s specific type of asthma.

With a grateful heart, Olivia expresses the joy of one who has truly tasted and seen that God is good.

Ailie says, “After the healing she just had a confidence; she had a confidence in the Lord, a confidence in what He had done for her, a confidence in sharing things with her friends, and a lighter countenance.”

“Experiencing that for myself, it really just strengthened what I know about Jesus’s healing; that He really does, and that He can really do it for anyone,” says Olivia.