Thanks, Stephanie.

From my journal today, Sunday, 11:40 a.m.

Feeling sorry for myself a little.  Goldie has a bad cold & needed to stay home from church.  Jazz's calling in the nursery needs him there for 2 hours, so I was elected to stay home.  After sacrament meeting Jazz brought Tootie home 'cause he won't go to Primary by himself yet (tough transition from nursery), and plus, he has a cold too.  I was really bummed about missing church--I always look forward to it so much.

So at home I sought to find something inspirational on the internet, and I came upon a beautiful gem that I believe will enrich me for a long time.  The story of Stephanie & Christian Nielson.  They're an LDS couple who, when parents of 4 children, were in a terrible plane crash--and they survived.  He, with burns on 40% of his body, and she, with burns on over 80% of her body.  Now she is back to mothering full-time, after recovering from her 3-month long coma while they repaired her body.  Now she is a stronger person--yet still the same person--yet a new person with a new life with so many new struggles and limitations.

She said in the "Conversations" interview on LDSradio.org that sometimes she wishes she could shake [people like me] and tell us to be grateful and not take the ease of life for granted.  --What a blessed, lucky, rich life I live.

She has a new life, and she is happy.  She remembers that while she was in her coma she was given the choice (!!) to either stay on earth and live through the challenges, or to stay in heaven where she could also be happy and have lots of important work to do.  She thought of her husband and children, and said the choice to stay with them was so easy.

And now she continues to inspire millions of people through her upbeat blog about her life as a wife and mother (for which she had a couple hundred thousand followers before the accident, but now it reaches a worldwide audience).

Two things that she said particularly struck me are:
"To me, beauty and motherhood are one.  They are the same thing."
and,
"I am Stephanie Nielson.  I am not my body."

Thanks, Stephanie.  I am excited to start following your blog.

A few more thoughts:
-Every morning she wakes up and stretches, and showers, and scrubs her new scarred skin.  It's painful, and it takes about 2 hours.  I can pull it off in 5 minutes if I have to.  Something else not to take for granted.
-At first her children had a hard time looking at her.  It took months for them to do that.  :(
-There are so many things she can't do now that I can do every day.  HOLD HER CHILDREN. Wash her children in  a hot/warm bath.  Open ziplock bags easily.  Wear skirts without tights.  Little things!!  I'm so grateful!

Visit Stephanie Nielson's blog


Hear Stephanie Share Her Story on Mormon Messages