Nearing the Peak

When I first began writing this blog, I titled it 'The Mountain' because my wife and I were faced with a journey that I can truly only liken to attempting to climb a mountain - or, at least, what I imagine it would be like. We weren't training for it, we weren't anticipating it; we were just walking along in our lives and all of a sudden, the ground dropped out from under us, and the only way out was a trek we never thought we would have to endure. Wonderfully, after so much hard work and steadfastness, we are starting to see the peak.

I love Jessica. One of the first things that attracted me to her was her attitude about life. She was a spitfire, and anything she set her mind to, come hell or high water, she would do it. This became apparent when she would talk about rafting, raising horses, karate, or even her temporary sales job. So a week after our wedding when a surprise brain tumor removal and more surprising stroke set us to endure the hardest challenge either of us had experienced thus far, I had a serenity about it. I knew, without even thinking about it, that she would not give up.

I'm writing this on my phone while Jessica is in her therapy. Watching her week after week, it's easy to be used to the things she is able to do, but we sat down with one of her therapists and compared what she can do today with what she was doing on her first day doing outpatient rehab, and I'm speechless. In a little over 3 months, she has gone from not speaking very well, not being able to focus her eyes, not being able to even walk with a walker, and a dozen other 'nots' that are now just everyday living for her. This girl is bad ass, and I love it. Naturally there is still a long road ahead of us, and we're far from the top, but it is appropriate to celebrate her success.

Hard things happen. Sometimes they happen to us without our consent and sometimes we do it to ourselves. Sometimes it is for our benefit, and sometimes to our detriment, but the fact remains that God never said life would be easy. At the end of the day, you will either look back and be proud of the ground you've covered, and celebrate, or you will see all the opportunities you passed up and have only to wonder where they'd have led you. This is the biggest thing I've learned from my amazing wife so far, and I hope some of this wisdom will pass on to others around us.