Andy's Impact - How Blessed I Am

I am a caretaker of my Grandmother who is almost 94 years old. Last mother's day I awoke to a perfectly horrible day. Grandma and I had just spent a week sick in bed with the flu. It was so hard taking care of her while I was sick myself. An agency here in town was supposed to come build something in our front yard that would make it easier to take grandma down the steep steps to the Doctor's office or wherever I needed to. My two grown children would not be coming into the flu infested house for a visit on that day, and my husband was going to his mother's house with my youngest son. Grandma was still in bed. I was just starting to get around. The sky was gray and it was raining. The house was a mess from me being sick and unable to clean it. There had been pounding and electric saws for the past two days in the front yard, and I was unable to see what was going on from my bed. Only the added pounding in my head made me aware of what was going on outside. For the first time in days I was up and suddenly aware of the mess around me. I was crying. Not feeling up to cleaning, but well enough to stress the mess. I went out to stand on the covered porch to see what was going on in the yard. I could not believe my eyes. There was 16 little platforms (3' X 4') weaving back and forth across my whole yard! We called them Miyagi steps. UGH!!! That was their idea of making it easier for grandma... she can barely walk a few steps on level ground! They called them walker steps. I just cried. I knew that my- house prison had just sentenced me to so much more time in it, and more loneliness than I thought I could bear. I cried all day. I went back to bed. My husband came home to find me crying. I was in a desperate place, it didn't even seem like God was listening to my prayers. I didn't think I would come out of this depression. I didn't see any light at the end of the tunnel, I didn't know how I could face another day. My husband bought me Andy's book "The Noticer" for Mother's Day. He cleaned up the house, and my oldest son and his wife came over too. The next day I started reading The Noticer, it brought me right out of the pit. I started keeping a Blessings journal in which I would write down all the blessings from that day. I started writting thoughts that blessed me as well. I filled up that journal faster than any other I've ever had. It was amazing to find that I was so blessed. I was able to transfer some of that positive attitude in my care for my grandmother and my family. Come to think of it, it's time to read that book again. I have some of his other books, but that one really met a need. Thank you.

P.S. Thanks to an intervention by another agency the "walker steps" were changed into a ramp. Now we can wheel grammy right out. Although we did spend countless hours taking her up and down those steps before they fixed it.

Jerrilyn