My name is Scott Watkins, and I’m married to an incredible wife, Johanna. Johanna has a severe, debilitating form of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS). We met in 2011 at Hope Academy, an inner-city private Christian school where we both worked. We married two years later, and Johanna’s health gradually, then rapidly, declined during our first two years of marriage. Eventually, she was diagnosed with a severe case of MCAS, a complex and poorly understood illness. In 2016, with the help of hundreds of people, I remodeled a special, one-of-a-kind home suitable to the extreme needs of my wife’s disease. In December 2017, I left my job teaching to become a full-time caregiver to my wife, who is severely disabled by her chronic illness.
Although care-giving is a big part of my life, it is not the biggest. First and foremost to my identity is my belief and discipleship in Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I believe that God himself, incarnated as a 1st century Jew, lived a life worth emulating, died a real death on a Roman cross, and rose a real resurrection from a tomb, showing himself to be the lamb of God which took away the sins of the world.
Other parts of my life merit mentioning, too. I love learning and teaching. When I was able to work as a teacher, I had the privilege of teaching second graders – a dream job in my opinion! I really enjoy listening to audiobooks, reading, and playing a small number of mostly older video games (not sure this is worth mentioning). I’ve recently read, and am currently reading, a smattering of medical and science related books, but do venture out every so often for some good fiction.
There’s more to me as a person, of course, and I suspect the you’ll learn more about me as I post on my blog. Glad you came by!