It has been almost two years ago that my family and I went skiing in Angel Fire, New Mexico for Spring Break. I had finally defeated the forces of gravity and was conquering the greens with little to no struggle and I wanted more!  I wanted to be at the level of skiing that my husband and children were. I wanted to connect with my kids on something they each enjoyed doing and graduate from the “boring mom” bunny slopes and be deemed “Awesome Mom” of the blue and green trails! It was the last run of the last day skiing and it was just my husband and I enjoying some time together while my sister stayed with the kids. I suggested to my husband that I wanted to try to ski the slopes of a blue run. My confidence exploded when my husband agreed I was ready to take the plunge.

We skied up to the edge of a blue run off the Going Home green run and my husband looked at me and said, “Now watch me first so you see how I do it and then you can go.”  What he didn’t realize is that the slope down was so steep, I lost sight of him not even 2 seconds from him leaving my side. As I peeked over the edge to see him down at the bottom, fear in check, I proceeded down the slope. I fell a few times and successfully got back up to start down again, only the next fall was my last. I lost control, my legs simply gave out and I fell hard complete with a loud snap. The scream that followed came from so deep within me it echoed as it bounced in the stillness of the trees and snow.  I couldn’t move and I just sat there crying. My husband, unable to do anything, looked up from the bottom of the hill, helplessly, at me.

A few minutes went by and a group of skiers came, several to let my husband call ski patrol with their phones and a kind lady to help me. She took my skis down to my husband and encouraged me to slide down the hill to him.  Upon getting to my husband, he helped me get up so we could get out-of-the-way of the other skiers. I took one step, heard and felt another snap in my leg and down I went.  Needless to say, I was at the mercy of the ski patrol to get down the mountain and would need not only surgery to reconstruct my ACL but a lot of mercy and grace for the next year or so during the rehabilitation of my knee.

During the next few weeks, I want to take some time to share lessons God gave me during my healing, lessons I like to call, Lessons Learned in Bob Bender, aka, knee bending machine.  So come back and visit as I share what God has shown me during healing.  I hope the blessing that has come to me in these lessons will also be a blessing to you.