Good Afternoon Everyone! Hope you're all having a great day. I am here having a great day in spite of the ups and downs of our service provider. I am not complaining by any means. This has been going on since yesterday and fourteen of us are being affected. There have been several trucks and technicians up and down our street and cross streets trying to resolve the issues we've all been experiencing.
The first time this question was posed to me "How do you do it?" "How do you handle it all?" These are the two that have really been the top of the list of the many questions from friends, family, followers, study group friends and more. I had thought about what was said. I thought about how it was said. I thought about the way each of you looked when you asked me these questions. The concern on your faces when you'd be before me, the concern I heard over the phone when speaking with you. I really care about each of you. I appreciate that you're all concerned for me as well. Know that I am concerned for each of you and the challenges each of you face. No matter what they are. I think of each of you.
Those of you who are unaware of why I am bringing this question to light if you will. Please bear with me, but the reason for this question is because of the many surgical and other procedures I've had since the end of June this year. My elbow being number seven. The surgery on my elbow was to re-release the ulnar nerve as it was being compressed. We had tried therapy, but that was not relieving the compression. The surgeon stated that if it was not done soon I would eventually lose function of my hand. This I was not going to stand by and allow to happen. I thought about the surgery and what he told me needed to be done (yuck!), but that all aside. I knew that I would be much better in the end and able to do more. This is where my focus was; it was not on the surgery, the recovery or will I need therapy after this? None of that crossed my mind. What did cross my mind is how much better my hand would be after this is done. I should say hands because this same surgery needs to be performed on my right hand as well. I am thinking how much better I will be after everything is done.
I am already feeling great even with all the events, surgeries and things I have had to deal with this summer. I know I'm much better going forward now than if I hadn't gone through these things. I'm not saying that in order for me to feel great I had to go through them that's far from the truth. I have been blessed that God brought me through each one of them and showed me much needed things and things that He just decided to show me. Some things He's shown me I shared with some of you because it was something that you needed. I thanked God for allowing the opportunity.
When I spoke to each of you that came to me. I remember sitting with you or talking with you on the phone and saying "God, gives me the strength. He lets me know He's there. He has me where He means for me to be." Some of you gave me a funny look or asked: "how can you say that?" I can because I am more concerned for God's glory than for my relief. What I mean is that by my attitude, what God does in me means more than my relief does to me. How I handle, walk through, endure, face whatever word you want to use here for a challenge, situation, circumstance etc. I started thinking how can God be glorified in this situation. When I changed from that perspective my perspective on my current circumstance changed. Not that I was thinking negatively, because I wasn't. I was focusing on the early part of things like how will it be when I get home, can I do, will I be able to. I began to focus on how much better will I be after this? When you change your approach to things that come before you, your perspective is much different.
I found that in these challenges, things that I faced that God has a way of turning things into praise. I had a mass removed earlier this summer. This mass could have been something that could have consequences, but God changed that. This mass was not a small one by any means it was 3"x3"x 3/4" while the size caught both my husband and me off guard. We waited for that phone call and were given news that it was benign. This was turned to praise!! All the other things that were done also were turned to praise. All that said God leaves behind blessings and all the other things melt away kind of like wax in a candle if you look at it that way. Things are before us and when you light a candle the wax melts to a liquid and some evaporate away with the heat of the flame.
Some may say that I'm broken because of my Osteogenesis, but I say that I am not because God made me beautiful. You could say that I am beautifully broken. God allows Himself to shine through me with all that talk to me. I will not tell you that I have Osteogenesis when you talk to me. That is a speck of me, yes, it is part of who I am, but it doesn't identify me in any aspect. I will say one thing that seems to stand out about it is the whites of my eyes are a shade of blue. This seems to be the talk of ones that meet me or when I go to a doctor's office for an appointment. I have experienced in one visit literally 23 medical staff
that came into the room I was in and said the same thing in different ways just to catch a glimpse of my eyes. While I had fun making them dance around with their words to see my eyes I on the inside was laughing a bit it was almost like a game to me. Each one that came in had questions for me of their own, but then when I gave them questions some didn't know how to answer, but it allowed me the opportunity to talk about God to them.
I just love when God opens those doors. Some you see coming and others are just so unexpected and by the time you realize it you're in and enjoying what the Lord is leading you to do. Onward to my next adventure. Thanks for stopping by!!
Grace & Peace,
