Multiple Sclerosis Awareness Week

Have you ever noticed when something difficult happens in your life, somehow, something prepared you for it?

During the months when I experienced those first symptoms of multiple sclerosis we had a friend visit from Sweden. On his way across the US, he purchased a copy of a newly released autobiography called Joni. It was about a young woman the same age as me, who became a quadraplegic during the summer after high school graduation. It was during the same time as my very own high school friend became a paraplegic due to a car accident. While I attended the University of Colorado with the help of a voice scholarship, I visited my friend. I lay under her stryker frame on the floor to chat and bring laughter into her life. I tried to do wheelies in her wheelchair and told her about college life, and singing in the band in night clubs and sleezy bars...

Klas gave me Joni after reading it that summer, and while the MS symptoms mounted, creating havoc in my life, I read about Joni's life as a Christian while being paralyzed. I read about her struggle to find a reason and finally accepting God loved her and had a plan for her as she was now.

I had no idea as I read that book that it would prepare me for my diagnosis of multiple sclerosis within a few months, but it did. I wanted to have a faith that could withstand anything like Joni's. As I lay in the hospital bed that's what I told God.

Can you look back on a difficult time and see how God prepared you with some thought, book, friend's words, a prayer...? Can you see right now that God is helping you be prepared for something...and it may be an adventure!

I can honestly say living with MS since 1977 has been an adventure--but I've also had many adventures that didn't involve living with disease, or how to have fun in the midst of it...

More tomorrow... Have a great day!
Jo