A woman recounts surviving severe childhood abuse and 42 surgeries, describing how faith and healing transformed her pain into gratitude. She refuses to say she'd choose that suffering again, but insists the hardships were balanced by joy, adventure, and spiritual growth that now let her encourage others.
Chapters
Amanda, we've talked about that. You know, you can come at my life from so many different angles. You know, you have the horror story of child abuse. You have 42 surgeries as an adult. Each one of those is like its own category. But no matter where you come from, the final word on it is God's redemption. He redeems that. He brings it to a level of healing, a level of joy, a lightness that is like amazing. That is, you know, this great God that we have, that he can do that and that it brings it to the point that it's like, wow, that's a story people need to hear. And that I've been through it. Sometimes I'm like, it seems like a different person. I mean, when I think of some of the things I've been through, I would not want to sign up for that. I wouldn't want to say, gee, I'll take that in the future because it sounds difficult. It sounds— and yet I know I've had a great life. I mean, I look back on it and I don't immediately grasp on to, God, this has been hard. Yeah, it has. It's been tough, you know. And if I focus on those things, they're very tough. But I always think I've had a lot of fun. I've met a lot of crazy people. I've done a lot of crazy things. And it's that same, like, standard that takes you to the point of experiencing those kind of really hard things and God walking you through those and getting you past them and compensating for some of that, that brings you to other things that are the opposite end of it.
