January 28, 2013- What an Amazing Day!!

People often ask me, "How do you do it?" I reply with "What?" And usually I get, "Continue to stay so happy?" Or "Still have a smile to wear?" Well let me explain why.

God never promised us an easy road. I've read the bible three times cover to cover and let me tell you it's not in there. What is in there are the numerous stories of those who walked in faith and came out victorious. Think of Job, think of Joseph, both of them had so much sorrow and disappointment thrown at them and yet they never gave up. My husband is a present day example that parallels to Job and Joseph and I am so honored to be walking along this journey with him.

When I saw Chaz for the first time after his injury, we didn't say anything at first. I smiled and he smiled. There were no tears. He asked me, "Are you ok?" And my reply was, "It's just legs," then he grab my hand and before we knew it we were surrounded by doctors explaining what all was going on and what was going to happen. Chaz later told a reporter my three words were all he needed to know it would be ok. Chaz tells me all the time that I have enough faith for all four of us. I guess that's a wife and mother's job?

Flat out the past two years have sucked. Sorry, but if you can come up with a better word for all of this than I am all for it. Unfortunately I can only come up with colorful language to add to that word. Do you know what has made these past two years tolerable? The people entering our lives all along the way are what has made this journey more that tolerable. Yesterday was another one of the days along this journey where at the end of it I sit back and just marvel at how incredibly great God can be. Faith is one of those things that is so easy to give up on and so easy to lose. We have survived the past two years because together we have walked in faith knowing God will see us through the storm. We knew He would reward us for our suffering and sacrifice. We have been so blessed and the blessings keep on coming. God has put so many amazing people into our lives and I just can't say thank you enough.


Yesterday was exactly what we needed. We needed another day filled with smiles and laughs. Our friend and fellow wounded warrior Scott was there. We've known his family since we arrived at WRAMC. Scott and Chaz have almost identical injuries. Chaz's medic was there. He's the reason we still have Chaz with us. CSM St Louis was there. St Louis represented the 101st Association and has been very supportive of all our 101st soldiers. These three guys made us feel like the 101st was with us for this new exciting chapter of our journey.

Yesterday, way more people came to attend our ground breaking then we ever thought would. We met (I believe) all of our new neighbors. I got to have a mini high school reunion. We got to meet some truly great people who just wanted to thank Chaz for his service and meet our family. My 3rd grade teacher and my 3/4th grade music teacher were there. The people there yesterday just made the day as perfect as it could be without all of our family and close friends being there. The day would have only have been better if we could have had all of our family and all of our friends there.

We are just so thankful for such a great day yesterday. We are thankful for Helping A Hero entering our lives and helping us move forward. We are thankful for old friends and new friends who have joined us on this journey. Yesterday was just one of those amazing days where you just could explode from all the reasons you have to be thankful. I just feel so blessed that our family is able to have such amazing days like yesterday.