I love to look back over the last couple of months and evaluate what God has done in my life, what He continues to teach me and what I’m working through.

It’s still hard to believe where I’m at today and with the mobility I have. Just the other day Jared and I went on a date and it was so neat to walk through the mall together without crutches or being pushed in a wheelchair. We’ve also been working together on some painting at his parents’ house and I told him how great it was to be working alongside him and not having to sit and watch.  I’ve had the best summer ever!  We were able to enjoy three vacations and I got to participate and do what everyone else was doing. The day to day isn’t so hard to manage anymore and our stress level has gone way down!:)

Of course there are days when I get frustrated with the fit of my leg, or wonder how it would be to not have to take my leg on and off. When my leg is off in the evenings, I’m back to the wheelchair and hopping and I find myself getting easily frustrated doing stuff on one leg.  I have had to change up some things when it comes to shoes and outfits (which isn’t always the easiest). My style has become more casual since I walk best when I wear tennis shoes. The flexible sole of a tennis shoe works best because my prosthetic foot doesn’t bend and flex like a normal foot.  Some of the obstacles I’ve had to work through this summer was figuring out how to manage going swimming. I can swim great with only one leg but I have to take off my prosthetic and hop on one foot to the pool. Unless, Jared is with me then he just throws me over his shoulder and takes me to the water.  I feel the most vulnerable when my prosthetic is off and my little leg is just hanging there, with a scar and not so pretty shape. As a family we went to a water park and a lady told her children as they were watching me, “she has some confidence”. She loved that I was unashamed and  later shared that with me. You never know who’s watching and the encouragement you can be to someone.   I also struggle on occasions when my prosthetic is on and it looks so different since the shape of my legs don’t match. It is also different to look in the mirror and see a metal pole for one of my legs. It’s not that it doesn’t bother me at times to look different but I know it’s okay.  This is what God has for me and His plans for me are good!

 I wouldn’t trade what I have been through and even some of the challenges I face now because Christ has shown me in the sweetest of ways that He wants to be my everything, He is using this in my life and others. He is ALWAYS there and I can lean and depend on Him for any and everything. He is Faithful and Good!

Some of the biggest lessons I have learned through my trial is knowing what God calls me to do and allows in my life, He will be there to see me through.  The first step of faith is often the hardest, but as you move forward you see Him at work all around, even in the details. I have so many opportunities to talk with others (mainly at Walmart) and share that it’s only because of Christ and Him in me that I am where I am today. He is my strength, joy, and whom I lean on. The opportunities God gives me to talk to others is such a reminder to me that God is at work and uses the trials in our lives to draw us to Him, to bring glory to Him and to point others to Him.

Even when things are difficult and seem so heavy to bear, remember that God knows what is going on and He wants to use you and your story for His glory. Cling to the hope we have in Christ that cannot be taken away. He loves us so much He gave His only Son to die on the cross for our sin so that we can spend eternity with Him.

“For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”

2 Cor.4:17-18