We all have a story

We all have a story. Some are short and sweet, while others are long and complicated.  But whatever our story is, it is created in God's hands.

While I was at the ESA IC Convention the other week, I was thinking about this. I was thinking especially about how the clients of Easter Seals and the patients of St. Jude Children's Research Hospital all have a different story. Some endure more treatment than others.  Some survive the odds and beat childhood cancer, while others don't.

As I was thinking about this, I began to think about my own story. What makes my story unique? What makes me different from everybody else? What gifts and talents did God give me? What situations has God put me in that make me who I am today?

For me, I thought about how I was born with a VSD, or Ventricular Septal Defect. A VSD, simply put, is a hole in the wall(septum) that separates the two lower chambers(left and right ventricles) of the heart. I was tiny but mighty when I was born. My parents had to feed me every two hours when I was born.(And if you know me, I still eat almost every two hours!) Growing up, I saw my pediatrician along with a pediatric cardiologist who specialized in Congenital Heart Defects from OSF Hospital in Peoria. At OSF Peoria, through the Children's Hospital of Illinois, there is a Congenital Heart Center that treats both children and adults with CHDs.  CHDs are present at birth, and many require immediate attention and surgery.  According to the ACHA, heart defects are found in 1 in 100 babies.

I am very lucky that my VSD has not caused any issues, nor has it restricted me from doing anything I wish to do.  Many small VSDs close as the child grows-mine did not.  As I have gotten older, I now understand how lucky I am. Many children are born with multiple CHDs and require multiple surgeries with long hospital stays.  But yet here I am..I've never had heart surgery or long hospital stays. I know some will say I am lucky because I haven't had to do that....but some days when I hear the stories of other CHD survivors, I wonder why I am the lucky one. Why did God choose them and not me? While I will probably never know the answer to this question, some days I find myself asking it..I especially began thinking about this during my senior year of high school when a young woman in my community had her sixth open heart surgery.  All I could do was pray for her, because even though I have a CHD,I had no idea what she was going through.

At the beginning of this post, I talked about how we each have a different story, and how we are all created in God's hands. Whenever I question why I am the so called "lucky one", I remind myself that I was created in God's hands, just like everyone else. I remind myself that God doesn't put people in situations that they can't handle. We may not know if we can handle something when it first happens, but we must remember that God put us there, so He will help us through, as long as we trust in Him.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "Plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." ~Jeremiah 29:11~