Unexpected Blessings

Once upon a time, long ago...I was a teenager, wrapped up in my own little world, which was ALL ABOUT ME !
I was having "fun" and doing everything I was big enough to do and then some.
Then I found out Momma was dying of Cancer.
I prayed to God to PLEASE not let her die...and, that if he would do that, I would never do drugs again.
Well, she died...and I was SO angry at God, but I still didn't do drugs again.
God didn't really have anything to do with that though (or, so I thought, then)
Nope... (corny as it may sound) I knew Momma could now see everything I was doing !
So, I didn't do anything that I thought she'd whup my butt for after that...but, I know now, that had she lived...I honestly might not have...because I was right there, before she got sick....right about ready for a needle in my arm, or something equally as deadly.


Flash forward a few years... I had been married about seven months... had found myself out of a job, when my Boss closed the daycare she owned, after the loss of her son, Deputy David Beck, who along with his partner, Deputy Frank Stoltz, were ambushed and killed, while trying to apprehend the two criminal's who killed them.
We found out about it through the New's media.
It was devestating for all of those who knew and loved them.

I was given the choice to draw unemployment or go to school.
Well, my Momma didn't raise no fool...I jumped at school !
I could become a Cosmetoligist, which, as you can plainly see, wasn't for me...I can't even SPELL it ...and besides...one of the hardest whuppin's I ever GOT in my life, was after I'd put a bowl over my little sister's head, and proceded to whakk her hair all to pieces !
NO WAY, I was EVER going to put another pair of sissors to someone's hair again !

or

I could become a Nurse...a Licensed Practical Nurse, to be specific.
Humm, I thought.....JOB SECURITY !
I mean, people are always going to be sick, right ?
and...even though I did have this habit of fainting at the sight of blood, I still thought I could do it.
I did...and, found my niche.
Finished LPN school and went right on back to school to get my degree in Nursing.
RN...Real Nurse, they called it...but, the truth is...any nurse is a REAL NURSE !

Because, two good men gave their lives to protect and serve people, such as I...I found the Blessing of Nursing.

Along about that same time, I met Clara...the BEST friend anyone could ever ask for.
For ten years, she was my friend, my mentor, my sister...
Clara was diagnosed with breast cancer the year I met her, and fought it harder than anyone I have ever known ...and BEAT it for a few years too.
It came back as Bone cancer a few years later, and she could not win that fight.
Losing Clara was almost as hard for me, as losing my Mom some seventeen years earlier, with the exception of the fact that, with Clara, I was actually able to do something useful...help her...give her shots for nausea, after she had chemo, answer questions, LISTEN and CARE...not just as a Nurse, but as someone who loved her very much.
I was able to understand, probably better than most other's around at the time, what Clara's kid's were going through, since I'd been there too, not so long ago.
I like to think that, because of that I was able to be of some help to them.
I hope so.
I remember something Clara told me, not too long before she died...something Vicka (one of the visionaries in Medjugorie, Yugoslavia) had told her, when she'd asked her if it were wrong to ask for the miracle of a healing.
Vicka had told her, that "Sometimes the miracle is not in the healing, but in the journey."
When she told me that, it occurred to me, that Clara (although she had no idea of it) was a miracle in my journey...
Knowing her, loving her, being able to help her through her own journey, that was way too short, was in a way, healing for me....you see, because of Clara, I stopped hating God for taking Momma.
Clara gave me back the Blessing of Faith.

Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis.
I can honestly say, I didn't get mad...no, by then I was just grateful for all the stuff that was happening to me, to have a real name to it...I mean, something other than CRAZY !
No, I didn't get mad....I got determined....probably more determined, than I'd ever been in my life...NOT to let MS control me.
I found a strength inside myself, I didn't know I had.
I'm still fighting that fight, and winning more days than not....and, even though it did, finally cause me to have to stop Nursing...that is just a bump in the road... I am still determined, and I have FAITH that God will continue to Bless me with the strength to fight.

This morning, I thought about an old saying I've alway's heard..."God doesn't close one door, that he doesn't open another."

It's definately true in my life...what about yours ?