Blessings

I was working on my lesson for church tonight and one of the optional activities was to "borrow" disability related items like wheelchairs, splints, crutches, etc. to help the kids experience life with a disability.  We are learning about Jesus' healing ministry tonight.  Well, what other teacher is just going to have that stuff laying around the house.  Not every teacher can discuss healings not always being completely noticeable to the human eye and not always what we as humans are expecting.  I realized what a blessing it is to be able to teach this lesson and what a blessing to have props so readily available.  So, I decided to make a list of some of the other blessings in my life because of my disability.

• the ability to take naps everyday and everyone expects me to :)
• the chance to meet wonderful, exciting people that may not have entered my life otherwise (Ms. Wheelchair, doctors, therapists, SKIL, Working Healthy, Voc Rehab, PCAs, etc)
• being forced to handle life at a much slower pace
• decreasing my shoe shopping budget (they have to fit with my brace)
• taking better care of ALL my medical needs
• the kiddos learning more responsibility for helping with things I cannot do for them
• showing people I meet what I AM capable of even with disabilities
• being able to empathize with piano students who have difficulty making their hands work the way they want and being able to find solutions
• needing to read and re-read something to remember it (makes me diligent about spending more time doing devotions)
• clothes shopping time is much quicker (and tall pants can be ordered from Christopher & Banks and sent directly to my house)
• must make shopping lists to remember what I need which makes shopping quicker and cuts down on impulse buys
• must meal plan in advance which creates time to make healthier meals and have ingredients on hand
• Meals on Wheels 
• Researching, finding, and "needing" new technology
• Rock Star Parking
• Rock Star treatment at places like Disney
• No holding grudges because I forget why I was mad in the first place

This is not all inclusive, of course, I can't think of everything at once.  Please feel free to comment and add blessings that you think of.