2017 in Photos

The year started with a goodbye to my dear Romney Branch. I felt welcome and accepted there from day one, and my testimony of the Savior grew SO MUCH from fellowshipping with these people. Attending that branch taught me that I don't have to have anything in common with someone to consider them a friend, but it's also easier to find things in common with people than you'd think. 

My reason for leaving Romney was to serve as an AmeriCorps VISTA in my very favorite place. Being a VISTA has been the most rewarding, frustrating, and fun labor of my life so far. I love the other VISTAs and the staff at my site - there's nothing like being surrounded by people who've chosen to serve. I'm soooo excited to have the opportunity to serve as a VISTA Leader later this year. I've also been able to volunteer in my "free time" as an advocate for children in foster care, which is my lifelong passion.

Speaking of cool people who've chosen to spend 24/7 serving, I've been fortunate enough to continue convincing missionaries to call me their friend. 

Aarin & Chatlen were the best dang counselors a Young Womens' President could ever need. ;) Before I left Romney, they gave me a priesthood blessing that has carried me through some really challenging moments.

Weekly visits with Patty and the missionaries were one of my favorite things about this year! It was sad to watch Patty's health decline, but it's been amazing to see how much a simple visit and receiving the sacrament can brighten her day.

Adam and Koby made being in Morgantown again "okay" until it became "great." (Morgantown is my favorite place, but transitioning to life there as not-a-student with not-my-old-callings was lonely.) I'll always be grateful for their friendship & the fact that Adam only judged me a little for calling him a badass son of God.

Austin, Elder Sandlin, and Krugs (center below) helped me SO MUCH with one of the hardest ongoing trials of my life. I honestly expected to be judged when I opened up to them about it all, but all three of them were nothing but loving. They also helped me rediscover my love for Indian food. (: 

I'll also choose this random space to give a shout-out to Elders Howe and Kent, two Motown ZLs who made my days brighter but haven't yet coughed up any of our photos.

Elder Cornwall and Elder Estes are two of the most compassionate, caring, and crazy missionaries I've ever met. I thoroughly enjoy the spiritual and emotional boost I get every time I spend time with them & appreciate their choice to befriend a weird old lady like me. ;) 

As I've grown to love Morgantown again, I've had the tremendous blessing of reconnecting and becoming closer with both my old friends from church and some new ones too. The Morgantown University Ward members are my people. (Especially the Relief Society! Never thought I'd say that...) When I was first called to the Relief Society Presidency my instinct was like "???" but my heart leapt for joy, and that's pretty much how it's gone.

These particular old-and-new-again friends deserve a special shout-out... 

One of the very best parts of 2017 was that one of my all-time favorite missionaries came back to visit for a day! He also got married this year, which is cool for him but a little bit lame. (*cough*marriedpeopleareboring*cough*) It was fantastic to hang out with one of my very best friends for a day. 

Note to any other RMs reading this: VISIT!!!! 

Last and most importantly, please enjoy some literal family photos. I love my family. (: 

50(ish) Things I'm Thankful For

A couple of days late, but after a year without blogging I think a couple of days late is better than nothing.

• Friendships with people who support me in being the best and most authentic version of myself 
• My patriarchal blessing and the dozens of priesthood blessings I've received



• Being able to spend holidays visiting my parents and grandmother 
• 21 years of holiday memories with both of my grandmothers together (in-law unity) 
• Rest areas with wheelchair accessible bathrooms 
• Serving with a Relief Society president who's taken the time to learn what foods don't make me sick 

• AmeriCorps VISTA 
• Coworkers who become friends, even temporarily 
• The ability to use my time in mortality to love and help others, especially as a CASA and LWB volunteer 
• Parents who taught me how to serve 
• My home hospital bed, RoboChair, Rikki Bobbi, and other tech that gives me freedom 

• Every person who treats me like a "normal" person from the first time they meet me 
• Friends and family who listen when I need to vent about the people who don't treat me like a "normal" person (especially those who get angry about it with me) 
• Forgiveness 
• Years of therapy 
• Chocolate
• The Atonement of Jesus Christ 
• Knowing (having a unique and precious testimony of) our Heavenly Father's plan for us 
• Getting to chill with the Holy Ghost (almost) every day 
• Every young adult who chooses to serve as an LDS missionary 
• Being loved enough by the missionaries that I get to stay friends with so many of them years after they've gone home

• Drunk texts from former missionaries #honored 
• Patty Friend 
• Doctors who laugh with me 
• All of the bishops, branch presidents, and institute teachers I've had and what I've learned from them 

• Accessible parking with adequate ramp space 
• Curb cuts that aren't sketch 
• Witnessing the miracle of others gaining testimonies of the things Heavenly Father wants them to know 
• Snapchat (it's a friendship strengthener) 
• Humility (even when it comes from the less pleasant part of "Be humble or be humbled") 
• Friends, family, and strangers who both literally and metaphorically pick me up when I'm down
• Friends who both literally and metaphorically sit on the floor with me when they can't pick me up

• Two Excedrin and a bottle of coke
• Having the body that my spirit needs 
• Being West Virginian 
• Sci-fi where the good guys always win 
• Leggings, maxi skirts, and all other manner of clothing that hides the fact that I only shave my legs twice a week in the winter #keepingitreal 
• The promise of summer 
• Every experience that helps me gain a testimony of the importance of families - not just my own

• Cats who decide I'm their person whether I like it or not 
• Old dogs 
• Seeing this tattoo every day and remembering why I got it 

Please disregard the fact that the only photo I have of it is actually a tan comparison.

• Having a symbol of my covenants with Heavenly Father that I can see every day 
• My running list of things I've done that I never thought I could do 
• Being born in the first time in history that I could get an education, live independently, drive a car, and do almost everything else that able-bodied people do
• Cinnamon hot chocolate 
• Zofran 
• The world's coolest baby sister

• The perspective to know that the preteen attitude isn't forever
• An extended family that defies the conventional definition of "family" in every way but love 
• Chick-fil-A

Faith Moves Me!

What an awesome weekend! 

Yesterday my friend Jordan and I went to the DC temple. The last time I saw Jordan was at her baptism in Charleston the day before I moved, so it was super cool to go to the temple with her! 

Early in the day, I noticed that my wheelchair battery seemed to be draining more quickly than usual, but I wasn't too concerned. RoboChair and I have gone 10+ miles together, so there's no way a day at the temple should be a problem. 

Right? 

Wrong. 

Juuuust about the time we got past the front desk of the temple, my wheelchair gave me the signal that it was about to die. Considering that I was parked all the way over at the visitors center and we were planning to be inside for at least three hours, that wasn't a good sign. 

By the time I got upstairs, well, "she's dead, Jim." 

Great. Here I am, half a mile from my car, with someone I haven't seen in over a year, and my transformer is giving me an attitude. 

I did the only thing a completely desperate Mormon girl can do: I knelt by the cot in the dressing room (the accessible dressing room is fancy) and said the most confident and faithful prayer of my entire life. 

Heavenly Father, I know you have the power to move my wheelchair. I just need to get through this temple session and back to my car, and then I'm good. I know you can do this and you want me to be here in the temple today, so please take care of this problem. 

Then I got up, finished getting ready, and went on with my day without worrying about it anymore. If I thought about it at all, I reminded myself, "God's got this."

Every time I turned on my wheelchair, the "no battery" signal flashed and the screen went dead, but it always kept moving. It didn't even give me any of the negative behaviors that indicate the battery is getting low. The warning beep never sounded, and the chair never stalled or slowed down like it usually does if the battery gets as low as even 30%. 

I got through that whole session, spent time in the lobby and outside talking with Jordan and Elder Blakley, made it back to my car, and went to dinner, all without a single problem from my dead-as-a-redshirt wheelchair. 

As soon as I was back in my house and within reach of my charger, RoboChair went completely dead. 

It was absolute proof to me that not only is Heavenly Father real, but He also knows and loves me. He understands the things I care about, and He cares about them too. 

If my chair hadn't miraculously kept going, nothing awful would have happened -- I could have borrowed a manual wheelchair while I was in the temple and gotten some of the missionaries there to push RoboChair and I back to my car. Not the end of the world, but it would have bothered me. Heavenly Father understood that, and even though it wasn't the most important thing anyone was praying for that day, He cares enough about me to answer the prayer I uttered with faith that He both could and would.

If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.