Exceedingly, abundant, all that I can think or imagine.

I had a bad case is nostalgia today. But God has brought me so far in my life.

As for answering prayer…..

When I was a baby, I had an extremely sever case of eczema all over my body. Of course I can’t remember, but my dad told me that I was in the hospital for weeks. My parents would come to see me lying in hospital room, my eyes were filled with terror as the doctors surrounded my crib, poking and pushing me, injecting my skin with needles, and rubbing cream on body. When I came home, the doctors gave my mother many different medical prescriptions for my skin. My mother, being the southern, old fashion woman that she is, threw all the medicine away, prayed for my healing, and bought a gigantic tube of Crisco that she applied to my skin every night. This was my nightly routine till I got to middle school. I can still remember the lubricant sitting in the back of the refrigerator – and even my skin condition subsided until the marks and the swelling became invisible, that tube of Crisco was my constant reminder. People make humbling comments now and again about how my skin and my complexion is “so nice.” I take them all in stride – I can’t lie – I don’t exfoliate, nor do I use any special skin creams or soaps – my skin is without blemish, not because of anything that I did or could ever do. It is only because of an answered prayer.

Not only did I have a bad skin condition, I had the hardest time walking.

I had the most fancy walking shoes. Well I can’t correctly call them “walking” shoes. In fact, they were correcting shoes. I had a serious pigeon-toe. I had to wear my fancy shoes in order to turn my feet straight, which were turned inward – although my knees point straight ahead, my shin bones are/were twisted. My shoes were white with a metal bar in the insole of the shoes that connected the left and right shoe. This bar insured that the shoes would remain straight when I walked, despite the natural inclination for my feet to turn inward. As you can imagine, I had a lot of difficulty moving around. At the beginning, I could only take a few steps before I toppled over onto the floor. Over time, I learned how to walk with the shoes, my leg bones adjusted eventually, and I later began to walk without any correction.

God even answered one of my more selfish prayers – to give me a good friend.

When I was growing up, I had problems making friends. I was extremely shy. I was blessed to have two good friends come into my life when I was in elementary school, Paulette and Tamara. However, by second grade, Tamara’s parents decided that they were going to move back to Puerto Rico. By third grade, tragically Paulette died in a car accident. From then on, I had a series of extremely abusive “friends” come into my life. Of course no one laid a hand on me, but they were emotionally and spiritually abusive to the point that they attacked my self-esteem at every chance they could get (I would give examples but the stories are just ridiculous). Again, I was blessed to have a friend come into my life in high school, Jordan. We were a good team – over our high school career, we were able to start an early morning leadership program for elementary school kids that had behavioral problems. We ran our program until we graduated from high school. By the middle of my first year in college, Jordan had got into a car accident and passed. I prayed fervently for a good friend, just one. I got by for a few years with the support of my sister and her friends while I was in college. They even took me in as a roommate during the first two years of college. However, my by third year, all of my sister’s friends had graduated. With no roommates and not a friend on campus, I decided to get an apartment on campus with a random assignment. I was a bit nervous about that set up because I had a random assignment with a few girls who ended up totally isolating me. Despite my past disappointments, I decided to follow through with my decision. On move-in day, my new roommate peeked her head into my room with a big bold smile and introduced herself, “hi, I’m Bianca.” Many people know now that Bianca is my “sista girl.” But she was also an answered prayer. Our first year, we had a four bedroom apartment practically to ourselves – our first “third” roommate left and the second got pregnant early in the semester. She helped me get back on track with praying and going to church – she even bought me a bible, which I use everyday and can not live without. And even until last summer, she opened her home in Houston, TX to me rent free, while I worked at my first law job.

I look back and thank God for answering my prayers. Although I go through little obstacles every now and then, I always have to remind myself of where I use to be. I know that I will encounter much more difficulty in the coming days, but if I can only remember that the creator of heaven and earth hears my prayers and answers each and every one of them, I will be able to accomplish even the impossible.

Gospel Star Smokie Norful Sings Hope from NPR on Vimeo.