This isn't the first time I've talked about wanting to be healed of everything wrong with me. I've been pretty vocal about the fact there were things broken in me before my accident, and God is doing a mighty work to mend my heart through this healing process. Part of that is facing some emotional trauma from when I was in high school. Rather than writing here last week about my physical recovery, I chose to sit down and write a verbal acknowledgement of some of the hurtful things in my past that both I did and were done to me. I hit 10,000 words in four days. I slowed down a little after that, but I'm at 13,000 and still going strong. [...]

The Swiss are hard to impress. Thursday I went to REHAB Basel for my annual checkup - jahreskontrolle. I was so excited to show the staff who helped me recover for five months what progress I've made over the past year. I decided to leave my wheelchair behind for the day long appointment, and I started the morning with lots of medical tests. As I watched the PA go from the fourth to the fifth vial of blood draining from my arm, I began to second guess the decision to leave the wheelchair behind at hour one of six. I spent an hour and a half doing blood tests, lung tests, heart tests, and answering lots of medical questions. [...]

I love my job. I love it so much. I get to teach students about the Bible and how to read well. I have the privilege of doing this every school day. Last year I was able to teach two class periods a day; this year based on my improvements and the school's needs, I'll be teaching a third class period each day. I'm honored with the responsibility of teaching the Old Testament class to the incoming freshman class.[...]

I've had almost two weeks back home now, and I'm almost settled into a routine - just in time for school to start and change my schedule. I'm so ready for it though; I miss my kids.[...]

There are four things that I'm exceptionally passionate about: literature, the Bible, my students, and Jesus. I light up when I get to talk about them. Conversely, I'm visibly disheartened by the idea of swimming, the Bronte sisters, spiders, and traveling. That made the prospect of last Tuesday both wonderful and dreadful. Wonderful because I was headed back to Germany that much closer to returning to my incredible job where I get to talk about literature, the Bible and Jesus all day to my students; dreadful because it meant over twenty-four hours of travel from start to finish.[...]

Kandice and I talked early in our week at the start of this month about me having an extra session with her to check in with my progress before I went back to Germany. Today I went in for my final appointment prepared to get my butt kicked; I was not disappointed. Kandice had a whole new routine that involves a lot of standing exercises which require my butt to be fully engaged. It's a weak muscle, and I have a lot of work to do, but I'm excited for the potential locked in my glutes. Over the last three weeks, I've been really intentional about engaging my glutes each step I take. The muscle was practically non-existent before one of my German therapists focused on it for weeks, and it was still incredibly weak when Kandice met me at the start of this month. I have a long, long way to go to get my butt into high gear, but it's going to happen someday. [...]

One of my students told me she was twitter famous because she had a really high number of followers. When I told her how many blog hits I had, she told me that was a lot. I've discovered I'm sort of internet famous. It's a weird feeling. I don't feel like I should be famous, but people recognize me on the streets of my tiny German town. I've had the odd experience of people coming up to me in the States and knowing a lot about me through my parents or from reading my blog.[...]

Trauma is a difficult thing. It affects everyone differently. I’ve tried very hard to be open about my experience, but I need to reiterate that my fall was a traumatic experience. It was traumatic for me, for my friends who witnessed it, and for those who are closest to me. We are all still processing that in different ways. I’ve been incredibly open about my experience, but there are details I’ve chosen to withhold from the internet.[...]

My body has been through a lot in the last five days, and it's been an incredible experience. Kandice and I worked through a lot of different exercises and practiced getting on and off the floor as well as some crawling on my hands and knees. She also put me back in the big walker, and we practiced more steps without using my hands for support. I let go and took three controlled steps on my own. We were hoping I could make it up to six to top Tuesday, but my record today was four - for good reason. Kandice emphasized that my steps today were controlled and much, much better than when I sortof toppled along Tuesday. [...]

I'm so grateful for the physical therapy care I've been provided over the last year and a half. From Saskia at the hospital the first week after my accident to Alex and Andy at REHAB Basel to the staff at Physio Neubert to Kandice and her colleagues at ADAPT. Because of the quality care I've received, I am more advanced for my injury than anyone expected. I thank God for the miraculous advancements as well as for providing me with the best care all over the world across three countries and two continents.[...]