I love NieNie

As part of our birthday months, I convinced Kevin to drive me to that school down south to hear NieNie speak. I was thrilled.

We arrived almost a half hour early, thanks to leaving early and some pretty fast driving by Kevin. What we didn't expect was an already filled auditorium. We couldn't find a seat anywhere and didn't know where to grab one (both of us have never spent much time in Provo). We ended up camping out by a post and stood for almost the whole talk (Kevin stood the whole time, I almost made it). We were just glad not to be in the very back. It was a pretty good view of the overcrowded room.

You can see Kevin's blue shirt by the post on the left. I'm right next to him.

Photo by the amazing Justin Hackworth

I was amazed at how brave Stephanie was and how she just stood right up without any hesitation to so many people. She told her story of her plane crash, I hadn't heard all the details before and can't even begin to imagine how hard it truly was to live through it all.

NieNie's Mormon Messages Video, just in case you haven't seen it.

I love it. It's my favorite one by far. It has given me hope during the hard times and strength to continue down this road we call life.

A few things that were hard for me to hear:

-Stephanie explained how she never got to see her Arizona home again. Her house was sold and Stephanie's sister prepared a new home for her family in Provo while Stephanie was in a coma. She explained that it was the house that they worked so hard to have; painting and decorating every nook and cranny.

-Once Stephanie woke up after being three months in a coma, still not being able to see her children. I can't imagine how difficult that was not to see your kids and miss out on all the wonderful things kids do for that long.

-When she did finally see her kids, Jane (her daughter) wouldn't look at Stephanie for the longest time. Stephanie said that it wasn't until she was home and had started taking care of the kids again when Jane could look at her. She said that she had to sneak up on Jane while she was in the bathtub and no where to run. Jane finally had to look at her mom again. Stephanie said she screamed, "We're doing this!" and a smile came from Jane.

-Stephanie shared of when she looked at herself in the mirror the first time. I didn't like hearing about how hard it was for her and how the moment built up. It would have been a hundred if not a thousand times harder for me. The doctor who was taking care of her in the burn unit had suggested having her look into a mirror. She didn't right then (I wouldn't have), she took more time and some encouragement from her husband before she really took a long look at herself in the mirror.

What I loved most:

-Hearing Stephanie say that she overcame it all.

-How she encouraged everyone to ask Heavenly Father to confirm that they're beautiful.

-Seeing all her family there to support her (and seeing all the people there to support her).

-Listening to one of my favorite people in the world be so amazing in a simple way.

I hope NieNie inspires you too, the way she does for me. The last thing that touched me the most is that when she came home from the burn unit, she started trying to doing things that she did before the accident. Such as putting on eye makeup and wearing earrings. I used to do all of that too and rarely do now, my energy is just gone for something like that. She said that her kids would remark that she was bringing herself home when she did those things. I am learning too, how to bring myself back from being so sick and taking it a day at a time. I'm trying hard to do those things again. It wasn't that long ago.

While it's terribly hard for me to say I'm beautiful, know that you are. I look at everyone and I can tell everyone that they're beautiful, without a doubt.