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Amanda – Learning to Walk Again

Amanda surrounded by friends on her birthday

This weekend Amanda celebrated her 32nd birthday. If you have been anywhere around L’Arche Daybreak this past month, this is probably not news to you! Amanda has told anyone and everyone she has seen that her birthday was coming up.

As 2015 started Amanda found that she could no longer walk. And Amanda loves to walk. Amanda spent much of the first half of the year going to doctor’s appointments, hoping to find out why she couldn’t walk. Finally in late May an MRI found that she had a growth on her spine. Amanda’s doctors said that she would need surgery right away to remove this growth. Amanda’s operation was a success, but now she would have to relearn how to walk.

Amanda Walking

Today Amanda is walking again!

After several months of hard work in the hospital, Amanda was able to return to the Red House at the end of August. She had started to walk again, but still needed to build up strength and stamina. She began to walk everyday to her place of work, the Craft Studio. The normal five minute walk took her twenty minutes, but she did it! As the months have gone by, that time has come down. She is now closing in on that five minute mark.

So we ALL celebrated Amanda’s birthday, her year, all her struggles and all her hard work! Amanda said the best thing about her birthday was that “I am happy!.” She was happy that her friends came to see her, and happy that she got the cake that she wanted. A cake decorated with a scene from the Disney movie “Brave”. We celebrated in thanksgiving for Amanda’s life with us at Daybreak.

~ John McLean, Red House Assistant
John has been a part of L’Arche for many years, starting in the L’Arche community in Mobile Alabama and moving to Daybreak almost nine years ago.