Sept. 20, 2003

6 years ago...

* I remember the 1st 3 weeks of college and having my discipleship leader pray this verse over me: "For my grace is sufficient for you, Ang. For my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast more gladly about my weaknesses, for when I am weak then I am strong." God had begun to prepare my heart already.......

* I remember the exact motion in the air and bailing out of a double flip and landing flat on my back.

*I remember trying to get up my body wasn't responding and I remember seeing my legs turned out

*I remember looking up at one of the coaches and telling him that I new I was paralyzed.

*I remember telling the paramedics to take off my tramp shoes, but they told me they already were, I just couldn't feel my legs.

*I remember leaving the gym in stretcher and looking up to see the parents all leaning over the balcony to wave goodbye to me.

* I remember the ride in the ambulance with my coach. The lights were turned on and we were moving fast. I talked with the paramedic about life at Taylor (clearly trying to distract my thoughts).

* I remember being taken to ER only to find out that the Dr. on duty was a church friend (God's reminder that he was with me)

* I remember my mom causally walking in with her diet coke (she had no idea the severity yet) and having not cried up to this point I completely lost it like a baby when I saw her.

* I remember them taking a needle and poking me and asking me if I could feel anything. To which I said no.

* I remember starting to have a bit of anxiety in the MRI machine, only to have them take me out and tell me that I had a small piece of medal in my pony tail holder and they had to redo it.

*I remember the neurosurgeon coming in and showing me the xray and seeing the broken bones and the spinal cord that had been partially severed

*I remember the neurosurgeon pulling on my big toe (this is about 2 hours after accident) and I shouted "I can feel that!" I remember her smiling and saying that's good news.

*I remember the other neurosurgeon coming in and saying that I would need surgery to have a bone fusion and screws/rods put in to stabilize my back.

*I remember the first question my mom asked the neurosurgeon "Will she still be able to try out for the National Team in a few months?" (denial still) To which the neurosurgeon looked at her and said, "She will never do gymnastics again. She only has maybe a 30% chance of walking again and that's with assistive devices."

*I remember calling my college hours after it happened, only to find out that the news had spread so fast that they already knew about it and were in the process of praying right there for me.

*I remember my brother taking the Peoria Charter bus home just to get to me.

*I remember having 4 pastors (high school, college, grade school pastor, and hospital) all pray over me.

*I remember my entire college wing come visit me the day after it happened (I had only known them for 3 weeks)

* I remember the hundreds of visitors I had come see me.

*I remember over 30 flower arrangements coming to my hospital room within hours.

*I remember my mom giving up her job to spend months helping me rehab.

*I remember rolling down the long hall and turning the corner and waving bye to mom and dad before surgery.

* I remember the Rehab. Institute of Chicago and all wonderful therapist. I remember going to bed every night looking up at the Hancock building

*I remember trying to use a wheelchair and how hard it was

* I remember the first day my big toe moved and was actually a movement I was controlling and not a spasm.

*I remember.....................

I could go over forever with this list, but 6 years later this is what I remember the most......

*GOD IS, WAS, AND WILL ALWAYS BE A FAITHFUL GOD

I've lived through much and have had ups and downs in 6 years, but at the end of the day I have to believe that I worship and love a God who has complete control of my life and who did not take away my ability to walk, but rather gave me a new sense of who He is and who I need to model my life after.

"Now, unto Him who is able to immeasurably more than I ask or imagine, be the glory for ever and ever."

Homework Assignment

So this past weekend was opening weekend of NFL. I like many people cannot wait for this weekend! So I made an extra credit assignment for my kids at school. They had to look up the scores of different games and then find the difference between the two scores (math activity). Then at the bottom I made a word problem. It said "If a team scored 28 points and they can score a touchdown=7pts, a field goal=3 pts, or a safety=2pts, then how many combinations of scores could they have made to equal 28points. Of course the boys loved it. My favorite part was a little boy wrote me this note on the back of his paper and it made my day!!!!!!

It says, "Miss Boline, next time you do this could you please make 2 point conversions so that I can come up with more combinations? Thanks, Go Bears!

Labor Day

This past weekend I got to go up to Chicago to see my wonderful friend Laura. Let me just say, that it was exactly what I needed. I got to go to church with her (and actually sit by people I know), we went to Panara and graded papers together, and then later we went to a cookout and socialized with some great people that I had never met before.

As I was driving home, I couldn't help but think and be reminded of how life was created for us to live like that. To live in community with others. It wasn't the most adventerous or event filled day, but it was a day that I got to spend with others (oh and did I mentioned I got to travel to Chicago?) :) After working so hard for two weeks, yesterday reminded me that you can throw your life into something and work so hard at it, but at the end of the day it's not about how hard you worked at something....it's about the time you spent with others that really matters.

Sweet Treats

"Therefore encourage one another and build each other up."

Well, my friends sure are good at doing just that....encouraging and building me up. :) Sometimes all you need is a verbal encouragment, but other times it may be a sweet treat that will encourage others and that's exactly what I got this week!

This week I got two great packages in the mail from friends! The first package was box of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. The next day I got another package from another friend and she mailed me an entire cookie cake. Boy do my friends know me well. Nothing like some sweet treats to make a long week go faster! :)

1st Week of Teaching

Well, the first week of teaching went pretty well. I haven't gone crazy yet. :) Kids were good. We will see how it lasts! Their teacher on the other hand is extremely tired. I am an early to bed and early to rise person, but this week the earliest I have gone to bed is 11pm....and I still got up at the normal time (4:55am). Hopefully, routine will set in soon and it will get easier. The classroom does look cute though!

A Picture of my Current Life

A picture's worth 1000 words right? Instead of me telling you about my life at this moment, let me just show you this picture. No, I'm not preparing for the next Y2K. If you know me, you know that I never sit down to eat. I'm always on the go and usually I will take something off the shelf to eat in the car on the way to my next thing. Usually dinner will consist of cereal, but if that's not feasible then I usually grab a box of Cheeze-It's and peanut butter. So basically, considering I'm starting teaching this week, I will have no life and I'm stocked up on quick dinners for the next few month (ok, ok....we all know I don't eat "normal" meals.) Welcome to the world of teaching Ang.....


Oh, and yes there are 20 boxes there.....really, I got 20 boxes because they were on sale for 50 cents each....what a deal.

Boating

You wish you could do that too! :)

This weekend we finally got to take the boat out! Been such a busy summer that we haven't used it much. It was a great end to summer though!