April 2012 Newsletter - Dare To Do Your Best

Volume 3, Issue 4
April 2012
BECOMING YOUR BEST
Becoming Your Best
Newsletter
Greetings,
Our feature story this month is a story you may have seen circulating
through e-mail or posted on the internet. The story was originally titled
Heaven Scent and published in a book by Richard L. Scott, entitled
Miracles in Our Midst.
Stories Of Hope And Encouragement
BECOMING YOUR BEST
The rough draft of the story was written by the mother of Diana Blessing
and was submitted and selected to be a part of the book. It was an
inspirational story that quickly became popular on the internet.
Although this story is not about an individual with a disability, the story
certainly helps one to understand what parents go through when they
find out their child may not live or may survive, but never have a normal
life. It tells of the emotional turmoil of not knowing what to expect—
what the future may hold for a child who may have significant physical
and/or mental problems.
No one can know what parents of a child with a disability goes through
when they were expecting to have a normal healthy child and find out
otherwise. No one can know what obstacle individuals with disabilities
must overcome, what adversities they face, and how difficult life can
be. To even have an inkling of an idea, you must walk a mile in their
shoes.
The basic facts of the story are true, although over the years many
embellishments have been made, especially with photographs being
added that had nothing to do with the original story. The story as it
appears here has been verified and confirmed by Diana Blessing.
I would like to thank Diana for allowing me to share her story, for taking
the time to answer questions, and for sending me a photograph of her
lovely daughter, Danae, to use with the story.
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Submit your inspirational stories to: [email protected].
Subscribe to our FREE newsletter: [email protected].
_______________________________________________________________________________
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Mission:
We are dedicated to presenting inspiring stories of hope and
encouragement about individuals with disabilities.
Thank you for your stories and your support!
George M. Graham Jr.
“IT SMELLS LIKE RAIN” - A STORY FROM MIRACLES IN OUR MIDST
A cold March wind danced around the dead of night in Dallas as the doctor walked into the small
hospital room of Diana Blessing. Still groggy from surgery, her husband, David, held her hand as they
braced themselves for the latest news.
That afternoon of March 10, 1991, complications had forced Diana, only 24-weeks pregnant, to undergo
an emergency cesarean section to deliver couple's new daughter, Danae Lu Blessing. At 12 inches long
and weighing only one pound nine ounces, they already knew she was perilously premature.
Still, the doctor's soft words dropped like bombs. “I don't think she's going to make it,” he said, as
kindly as he could. “There's only a 10-percent chance she will live through the night, and even then, if
by some slim chance she does make it, her future could be a very cruel one.”
Numb with disbelief, David and Diana listened as the doctor described the devastating problems Danae
would likely face if she survived. She would never walk; she would never talk; she would probably be
blind; and she would certainly be prone to other catastrophic conditions from cerebral palsy
to complete mental retardation; and on and on.
“No! No!” was all Diana could say. She and David, with their 5-year-old son Dustin, had long dreamed of
the day they would have a daughter to become a family of four. Now, within a matter of hours, that
dream was slipping away.
Through the dark hours of morning as Danae held onto life by the thinnest thread, Diana slipped in and
out of drugged sleep, growing more and more determined that their tiny daughter would live—and live to
be a healthy, happy young girl. But David, fully awake and listening to additional dire details of their
daughter’s chances of ever leaving the hospital alive, much less healthy, knew he must confront his
wife with the inevitable.
David walked in and said that we need to talk about making funeral arrangements, Diana remembers.
“I felt so bad for him because he was doing everything, trying to include me in what was going on, but I
just wouldn’t listen, I couldn’t listen.” I said, “No, that is not going to happen, no way! I don’t care what
the doctors say, Danae is not going to die! One day she will be just fine, and she will be coming home
with us!”
As if willed to live by Diana’s determination, Danae clung to life hour after hour, with the help of every
medical machine and marvel her miniature body could endure. But as those first days passed, a new
agony set in for David and Diana.
Because Danae's underdeveloped nervous system was essentially “raw,” the lightest kiss or caress only
intensified her discomfort, so they couldn't even cradle their tiny baby girl against their chests to offer
the strength of their love. All they could do, as Danae struggled alone beneath the ultraviolet light in the
tangle of tubes and wires, was to pray that God would stay close to their precious little girl.
There was never a moment when Danae suddenly grew stronger. But as the weeks went by, she did
slowly gain an ounce of weight here and an ounce of strength there.
At last, when Danae turned two months old, her parents were able to hold her in their arms for the very
first time. And two months later, though doctors continued to gently but grimly warn that her chances of
surviving, much less living any kind of normal life, were next to zero, Danae went home from the
hospital, just as her mother had predicted.
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“IT SMELLS LIKE RAIN” CONTINUED
Five years later, when Danae was a petite but feisty young girl with glittering gray eyes and an
unquenchable zest for life, she showed no signs, whatsoever, of any mental or physical impairments.
Simply, she was everything a little girl can be and more.
One blistering afternoon in the summer of 1996 near her home, Danae was sitting in her mother's lap in
the bleachers of a local ball park where her brother Dustin's baseball team was practicing. As always,
Danae was chattering nonstop with her mother and several other adults sitting nearby, when she
suddenly fell silent. Hugging her arms across her chest, little Danae asked, “Do you smell that?”
Smelling the air and detecting the approach of a thunderstorm, Diana replied, “Yes, it smells like rain.”
Danae closed her eyes and again asked, “Do you smell that?”
Once again, her mother replied, “Yes, I think we're about to get wet. It smells like rain.”
Still caught in the moment, Danae shook her head, patted her thin shoulders with her small hands and
loudly announced, “No, it smells like Him. It smells like God
when you lay your head on His chest.”
Tears blurred Diana's eyes as Danae happily hopped down to
play with the other children. Before the rains came, her
daughter's words confirmed what Diana and all the members of
the extended Blessing family had known, at least in their
hearts, all along.
During those long days and nights of her first two months of her
life, when her nerves were too sensitive for them to touch her,
God was holding Danae on His chest and it is His loving scent
that she remembers so well.
A picture of Danae at 16 years old.
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Volume 3, Issue 4
BECOMING YOUR BEST
“QUEST TO BECOMING YOUR BEST— DETERMINED PERSISTENCE”
BY GEORGE M. GRAHAM JR.
Quest to Becoming Your Best!
This is a new feature of the Becoming Your Best Newsletter. In each issue we
will be sharing positive, practical practices which can assist you in your Quest
to Becoming Your Best. We trust you will find this new feature to be insightful
and beneficial, while providing you with hope and encouragement as well.
Anyone who has participated in sports or who has been involved in any field of
the arts knows the importance of mastering the basics. Not only must you
master the basics, but also you must consistently continue to practice them on
a regular basis. Mastering the basics and practicing consistently are the
foundation upon which anyone can build to improve oneself and become more
successful.
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Calvin Coolidge said, “Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is
more common than unsuccessful people with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a
proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone
are omnipotent. The slogan ‘press on’ has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.”
It seems these days just about everyone is impacted by stressful challenges. We are constantly being
bombarded with negative news at every turn—the economy, health issues, politics, unemployment, and
even natural disasters have impacted many families. There are times when the pressure from these
stressors can seem insurmountable and result in discouragement and frustration.
At times, these types of situations may become more than some people can or want to deal with. They
feel defeated and think the obstacles are too difficult to overcome. They give up hope and succumb to the
adversity by which they find themselves surrounded.
In his book Developing the Leader Within You, John C. Maxwell writes “A study of three hundred highly
successful people, people like Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Helen Keller, Winston Churchill, Albert
Schweitzer, Mahatma Gandhi, and Albert Einstein, reveals that one-fourth had handicaps, such as
blindness, deafness, or crippled limbs. Three-fourths had either been born in poverty, came from broken
homes, or at least came from exceedingly tense and disturbed situations.”
He goes on to write, “Why did the achievers overcome problems while thousands are overwhelmed by
theirs? They refused to hold on to the common excuses for failure. They turned their stumbling blocks into
stepping stones. They realized they could not determine every circumstance in life but they could
determine their choice of attitude toward every circumstance.”
Thomas Alva Edison is a great example of determined persistence. Even though he had a hearing
impairment and a possible learning disability, he is considered one of the most prolific inventors in history
with 1,093 patents to his credit. Not all of Thomas Edison’s inventions were successful, he had many
failures as well. Although he had one failed attempt after another, he persisted until he could discover the
answer. He once said, “If I find 10,000 ways something won’t work, I haven’t failed. I am not discouraged,
because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward.”
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“QUEST TO BECOMING YOUR BEST— DETERMINED PERSISTENCE”
BY GEORGE M. GRAHAM JR.
If you find yourself in a similar situation, when you are disappointed, discouraged, or doubtful, you can
either choose to respond by giving up, or choose to use the situation as a opportunity to learn and grow
through your determined persistence. Someone once said, “Greatness is born by perseverance in the face
of adversity.”
I am reminded of a poem that someone shared with me a number of years ago. It is entitled “Don’t Quit.”
The author is unknown.
When things go wrong, as they sometimes will,
When the road you are trudging seems all uphill,
When the funds are low and the debts are high,
And you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
When care is pressing you down a bit,
Rest, if you must— but don’t you quit.
Life is queer with its twists and turns,
As everyone of us sometimes learns,
And many a failure turns about
When he might have won had he stuck it out;
Don’t give up, though the pace seems slow—
You might succeed with another blow.
Often the goal is nearer than
It seems to a faint and faltering man,
Often the struggler has given up
When he might have captured the victor’s cup.
And he learned too late, when the night slipped down,
How close he was to the golden crown.
Success is failure turned inside out—
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt—
And you never can tell how close your are,
It may be near when it seems afar;
So stick to the fight when you’re hardest hit—
It’s when things seem worst that you mustn’t quit.
Coach John Wooden, the legendary college basketball coach and teacher, developed The Pyramid of
Success, which he described as “...a simple way to visualize the foundation and important building blocks
of a successful life.” In his book, Coach Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, he describes in detail the meaning
of each of the building blocks.
One of the building blocks is called “Intentness.” He writes in his book that he could have called this
building block determination, perseverance, persistence or even tenacity. He said, “An intent person will
stay the course and go the distance. He or she will concentrate on objectives with determination, stamina,
and resolve. Intentness is the quality that won’t permit us to quit….” He further states, “Success is peace
of mind which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that
you are capable of becoming.”
Determined persistence is a quality to incorporate in your Quest to Becoming Your Best.
Visit our website - http://www.becomingyourbest.com/ and become a friend on Facebook at Becoming Your
Best. We appreciate your support in spreading hope and encouragement to others.
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