人生不設限·我受到鼓舞

當然不是對每件事我都有答案。我不知道你所面對的特定痛苦或難關;我缺手少腳地來到這個世界，卻從未體驗過被虐待或忽視的感受;我不必應付家庭破碎的問題，從未失去雙親或手足。有很多更糟糕的事我都沒經(jīng)歷過，我確定我在很多方面都比許多人如意。

Of course I don't have all the answers. I don't know the specific pain or challenges you face. I came into this world shortchanged physically, but I've never known the pain of abuse or neglect. I've never had to deal with a broken family. I've never lost a parent or a brother or a sister. There are many bad experiences I've been spared. I'm certain that I've had it easier in thousands of ways than many people.

當我看見丹尼爾在教堂的人群之中被舉起，那真是改變我生命的一刻，因為我知道自己已成為那個我所祈求的奇跡。上帝沒有給我那樣的奇跡，但他把我變成奇跡，給了丹尼爾。

In that life-changing moment when I looked out and saw Daniel held above the crowd in that church, I realized that I'd become the miracle that I'd prayed for. God had not given me such a miracle. But he had made me Daniel's instead.

遇見丹尼爾時，我24歲。那天稍晚，他的媽媽派蒂抱住我，說自己仿佛走進未來，擁抱著已經(jīng)長大的兒子。

I was twenty-four years old when I met Daniel. When his mother, Patty, hugged me later that day, she said it was like stepping into the future and hugging her own grown-up son.

“你一定不知道，我一直向上帝禱告，請他給我一個神跡，讓我知道他沒有忘了我和我的兒子。”她說著，“你是奇跡，你就是我們的奇跡。”

"You have no idea. I've been praying that God would send me a sign to let me know that He has not forgotten my son or me," she said. "You are a miracle. You are our miracle."

那一天，我父母正在從澳大利亞來美國的路上，那是他們在我一年前移居美國后第一次來訪。幾天后，父母和丹尼爾及他的父母見了面——你應該想象得到，他們有聊不完的話題。

One of the great aspects of our meeting was that on that Sunday my parents were on their way from Australia for their first visit since I'd moved to the United States a year before. A couple days later my mum and dad met with Daniel and his parents. You can believe that they had a lot to talk about.

克里斯和派蒂認為我是丹尼爾的祝福，而我父母是他們更大的祝福。誰比我父母更適合指引他們?nèi)绾勿B(yǎng)育一個沒手沒腳的孩子?我們能為丹尼爾的家人帶來的不只是希望，更是明確的證據(jù)，證明丹尼爾可以過相當正常的生活，而且他也會找到注定要與人分享的福分。

Chris and Patty may have considered me a blessing for Daniel, but my parents were an even bigger blessing to them. Who better to prepare them and guide them through the parenting of a child without arms and legs? We could give them not just hope but solid evidence that Daniel could live a fairly normal life, and that he too would discover the blessings he was meant to share.

我們很有福氣，可以跟他們分享經(jīng)驗、鼓舞他們，向他們證明沒有四肢依然可以活得毫不受限。

We have been blessed to share our experiences with them, to encourage them and to offer proof that there are no limits to a life without limbs.

同時，精力充沛的丹尼爾也是我的祝福，因著他所擁有的能量和喜悅，他帶給我的遠遠超過我給他的。這是另一個完全在我意料之外的回報。

At the same time Daniel is a dynamo who is a blessing to me, giving me far more than I could ever give him because of his energy and joy, and that is another, totally unexpected reward.