Subscribe to our Mailing List

Get the news right in your inbox!

The Princess and The Prosthetic

The Thief of Joy

October 7, 2019 in Family, Lifestyle, Sentiments - No Comments

I used to compare our lives to others.

In an age where everything can be seen, shared, and reviewed in a matter of seconds, it was extremely easy to compare our lives to the seemingly “perfect” lives of everyone else.

I would look at the beautiful maternity photos.

The videos of baby’s first steps.

Perfect newborn photo shoots.

First bike rides.

Swimming lessons in the pool.

The pictures of other peoples kids…..kiddos without a massive scar on their chest.

Kids that didn’t have the same look that Callie has in her eyes.  The look that says she understands far more than what she should…..simply because of the battles that she’s had to face.

Kids that didn’t grow up in the hospital. Kids that didn’t have the challenges Callie has.

I would look at the other parents and not see that anxious look that tended to live around my eyes.  I would see how relaxed and carefree they seemed.  Not worried that their baby would die in her sleep.  Not worried about overwhelming hospital bills. Not stressed about juggling full time jobs, chronic disease management, and a special needs child.

And it would eat me up inside.

Jealousy……comparison. Whatever you wanted to call it. I was mentally tallying up the differences between our family and others.  As if life was some sort of big accounting game, and I felt like our family was in the red.

Until I realized that the jealousy I was feeling was caused by counting other people’s blessings instead of my OWN.

I literally was too busy peeking in the window of other peoples lives to even notice all the amazing doors that had been opened for us.  The doors that opened to blessings, to opportunities, to happiness, and to becoming a better person.  Every minute that I spent wishing I had someone else’s life…..was a minute I spent wasting my own. How could I measure the success of our life with someone else’s ruler?

IMG_1585

So I stopped.

I started to own those differences.

Our talents.

Our scars.

Our experiences.

Our strengths.

Our successes.

Our uniqueness.

Our light.

And I realize how many people’s lives we could make a difference in when we truly stopped comparing ourselves to them and embraced all that we were made to be.

I started to think about all that we were….instead of all that we weren’t.

 A flower does not think of competing with the flower next to it…..it just blooms.

And that’s what we did.

We were never going to be like “them”…..and thank goodness for that because then the world would miss out on US.

The perfectly imperfect us.

The quirky us.

The strong us.

The beautiful us.

The funny us.

The nerdy us.

The athletic us.

The inspirational us.

The warrior us.

The fighter us.

And I figured out that learning not to envy someone else’s blessings is what grace looks like…….

IMG_1572

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jaime

Hi everyone! Thanks so much for stopping by! My name is Jaime! Wife to my better half, James, who is my moon and all of my stars. We are parents to our little warrior princess, Callie Grace. We started this blog to share our journey as we navigate through our crazy beautiful life. Callie is a lower limb amputee and I am a Type One Diabetic. We are hoping to change the face of beauty one step at a time! We hope by sharing our story, you leave with a little bit more inspiration and hope! Thank you so much for stopping by and joining our tribe!

All posts

No Comments

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

About Me

About Me

Jaime

Hi Y'all! I’m Jaime, a proud working mama, author, girl boss and wifey to an ultra-adorable husband. I am a huge book nerd, I drink coffee like my life depends on it, and run on dry shampoo and Amazon Prime. Leopard print is my favorite color. I am a story teller at heart and this blog is a virtual scrapbook of our crazy beautiful life. I'm a Type One Diabetic and our little warrior princess Callie is a lower limb amputee. By sharing how we’ve chosen to flourish in the garden we’ve been planted in, we hope you can take some small nuggets of hope, inspiration, and laughter. We are so grateful that you’ve found us—welcome to the fam. We embrace our perfectly imperfect lives and don’t let the doctor’s appointments, spreadsheets, speaking engagements, 10th birthday parties to plan, housework or date nights overwhelm us. Those things are just the beautiful reminders of all the blessings in our lives. Read More

Jaime

Archives

Let’s Hang Out

Subscribe to our Mailing List

Get the news right in your inbox!

The Princess and The Prosthetic

Popular topics

Latest Posts

×
%d bloggers like this: