Why the Song Shackles is my Jam

I am taking part in the #nablopomo18 writing party,

Back in 2014, I was going through my own personal hell. It all started one cold January day when I got a call that my daughter, Gracie had a seizure. The first of many I might add. This seizure set in motion a year filled with doctors appointments. From January to March, our days were spent traveling to and from doctor’s appointments. The news, in the beginning, was very optimistic. There was the talk of a possible brain tumor but in the end, the diagnosis came down, and it was epilepsy. We decided until we could get the seizures under control to let her go to school for half days. Unfortunately, the half days for her school didn’t align with the half days of mine. So I took a leave of absence to be home with her. Finally, around April, we saw the light at the end of the tunnel, and things were looking up. Gracie’s seizures were under control, and I was going to head back to work after Spring Break. 

Then came the accident and months of physical therapy, visits to the chiropractor, multiple trips to the doctor and months of pain ending in surgery for me. The accident, although it was a minor one, took a toll on my body. I wouldn’t return to work in April and in fact, spent most of the summer getting the pain under control. After surgery, I thought then I would be able to go back to work. And I was looking forward to getting back in front of my kids. 

But God had other plans. My hero, my dad, who had been diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1998 was slowly slipping away from us. This disease could be traced back to his exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. The summer of 2014, that lymphoma turned into SLL (Simple Lymphatic Leukemia) which eventually took him from us. Seeing my dad lying in the hospice bed, a shell of the man he once was heartbreaking. 

That year could have broken me for sure. But during this year, I found my strength- my faith and renewed my relationship with God. It was after all of this I was introduced to the song, Shackles by Mary Mary and I knew that it would become my personal anthem of strength and looking back I know the only way I got through that year was God.

Hope you enjoy the video.

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