I’m Anna, a farm wife and mother of 4, who went to dinner on my 42nd birthday and didn’t come home for two months. After a scary snowmobile accident that evening, I was left with a spinal cord injury and unable to walk.
Uncertain about what the life I had yesterday would look like now, I was determined to find a way to walk again and get home to my family. In doing so, I found Grace.
Things out of our control
Many of you know my story and have followed my journey for the past 4.5 years. After I came home from the hospital, friends made it possible for me to share my recovery story publicly. Then Covid came, and many things changed medically for me, too. I want to continue to share my resilience journey with others, but my body no longer has the physical strength for large events. Over the past few months, I have felt bummed that public speaking is yet another thing being taken away from me.
When God nudges you
About a month ago, I started feeling this deep feeling inside of me to start praying more. So I started looking into “prayer journals” and created one! As I started writing out my prayers weekly, thanking God for things and asking for others, watching my prayers begin to get answered and checking them off was amazing. One thing I wrote about in my journal was missing sharing my journey, and here is how God answered me.
I was feeling sorry for myself and my circumstances this week. I tried not to let this happen because it only leads to bad things. But there I was, mad that another spinal cord injury person, I don’t even know, doesn’t have pain (yet they were a wheelchair user)! It took a wise spouse in my house to give me perspective, saying, “Anna, maybe you should be happy for the person that they don’t have to live with pain like you do.” My heart sank. Not even an hour later, I listened to a podcast while she celebrated four years of podcasting. She shared that it all started when she was a stay-at-home mom. She wanted to make a difference, so she started blogging…. Mic drop, “Anna, here’s your sign.”
Thank you, God, for answering my prayer and giving me Grace once again.
Welcome to Finding Grace, a blog where I will share how I find grace in all things in life, try to give myself grace, and do my best to offer it to others. We will also discuss spinal cord injuries, chronic pain, and life. I hope you enjoy it.
Anna
