Kelly, Matthew Stafford expecting 4th child less than year after her brain surgery

Eleven months ago, Kelly Stafford, the wife of Detroit Lions quarterback Matthew Stafford, asked for prayers as she prepared to undergo brain surgery to remove a tumor.

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“Things to pray for,” she posted on Instagram, “-calmness in these next 2 weeks as I know anxiety will run high in myself & my whole family leading up to the day of surgery. -that God be in the room with the surgeons & give them all the guidance, steadiness, & confidence they need. -my safety during and after surgery. -please pray for matthew as I know his nerves will be high during this surgery.”

Prayers flooded her social media pages (Sports Spectrum’s as well). And almost three weeks later, Kelly posted another message: “I wanna take a second to thank all of you for all the prayers. They have worked. I know they have. When they opened me up, I had an abnormal vein… maybe abnormal for other neurosurgeons, but not the one We chose. He had seen it before and written a paper on it. That’s truly God’s work.”

On Sunday, Kelly had another announcement — that she and Matthew are expecting their fourth child this summer (well before training camp, she made sure to note).

In a separate post, Kelly said that she found out she was pregnant on the “same day Matthew found out he had broken his back” in a Nov. 3 game, ending his 2019 season. “With that news, I decided I would keep the pregnancy to myself because for so long we had been so worried about my brain and my recovery, I didn’t want him to have to think about me continuing to recover while growing a baby. I wanted him to have a clear mind so that he could have a quick, successful recovery himself. That lasted 3 days.”

Matthew could tell something was different about his wife and asked if she was pregnant, to which she said yes.

Kelly went on to say this pregnancy was her toughest yet, as she was often sick and worried something else was wrong. “Then there was my incredible husband trying to keep it together while dealing with his own health issue,” she wrote. All that was on top of their three girls getting extremely sick too.

But early in 2020, the girls regained their strength and health, Matthew received word that his back had completely healed, and Kelly got an MRI on her brain, which showed everything looked normal.

“The past 15 months have really taken a toll on me and my family,” Kelly wrote. “Next month will mark a year from my brain surgery. It is a year that has helped my family grow in numbers and in strength, but it is a year that I never want to revisit. #StaffordStrong”

“[Y]ou know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.” — James 1:3-4

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