Retinitis pigmentosa
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God is good in every circumstance
Some people choose a word for the year. They surround themselves with the word, writing it in notebooks, setting it as their phone or laptop’s wallpaper, and meditating on it throughout the year. I don’t choose a word for the year, but for the past two years or so, a word or two chose me. It’s no coincidence that the message “Be still and know that I am God” surrounded me just before the COVID lockdown of 2020. God nudged me in that direction before I knew the virus existed. From songs and podcasts to books and conversations with friends, that message was emerging in late 2019, and it became…
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2020: Week 5 (sort of)
This week is a little different because we’re now officially in February! And February is Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) Awareness Month. I think it’s been three years since I was diagnosed. The timeline is blurry in my mind because my retina specialist monitored it for about a year before RP became official. I’ve written about it before, so I won’t bore you with the details now. I don’t have any updates about my RP because it’s holding steady, praise God! I ask that you say a prayer for me, though. I’ll have my next appointment in March. I haven’t noticed any vision changes, which is a good indicator of little to…
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#IDontLookBlind
I recently joined a couple of retinitis pigmentosa support groups on Facebook. People with RP are sharing their stories and experiences and encouraging us to embrace this part of our lives. Nobody plans to have a disorder, and it can be difficult to cope with for many reasons, but it helps to know that we’re not alone in this. Joining groups never really occurred to me because I believed — and still believe — that God can restore my vision, or at the very least stop it from progressing beyond what I experience now. It’s what I pray for often, what I know God is capable of doing, so I…
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Retinitis Pigmentosa Awareness Month
It feels weird to acknowledge this month because my RP is progressing slowly. I can see much better than those who are in the later stages of the disorder, and I only have one or two truly bad eye days a month. I’m incredibly thankful for that and thank God for it often. Even though I don’t currently struggle with extreme vision loss, plenty of people are dealing with the effects of RP every day. It’s a scary disorder, knowing that more than likely you will lose most of your vision but not knowing when. Accepting it as the new normal can be difficult as well. I know my future…
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The eyes God gave me
Growing up, I wanted blue eyes. My brown eyes were too normal for me, so I would often wish that they would change colors. It wasn’t until I learned the story of Amy Carmichael that I decided my brown eyes weren’t too bad. Amy wanted blue eyes and remembered her mother telling her that God answers prayers. So, she prayed that God would give her the blue eyes she wanted. Amy was very upset the next morning when she didn’t get what she had prayed for, and her mom explained to her that God sometimes answers “no” and that God had a reason for her brown eyes whether or not…
