Hi, I’m Joni Eareckson Tada with a special guest at the microphone today. And it’s my guest, Katie Sorenson, my good friend whom you have met previously on this program. Katie is 32 years old; she has brittle bone disease which is not an easy disability, but this lady is amazing in her wheelchair. A graduate from the University of North Carolina, and then she secured her Masters from USC. She is an awesome occupational therapist but also an awesome ambassador for the Lord Jesus. Welcome again, Katie.
Katie: Thank so much. It’s great to be back.
Joni: And you sitting there in your wheelchair with that big smile of yours, and I know that you have traveled with Joni and Friends overseas to our International Family Retreats; you have served on Wheels For the World teams; you do it all. But you do it with such grace and ease. Was it always that way?
Katie: Not at all. Having brittle bone disease, it’s genetic; I was born with this. They knew the first day of my life I was going to have a disability.
Joni: Talk a little about what brittle bone disease is. What are the risks? What is it like?
Katie: Sure. Brittle bone disease is a disease where my bones lack a certain protein and enamel that makes them stronger and solid like other people. So I was more susceptible when I was a kid; if I fell off a swing I would break my leg.
Joni: How many bones have you broken?
Katie: You know, I don’t know the exact number. I have had over 40 operations in my life because they did a lot of preventative surgery and things like that. But I have broken about 10 or 15 bones in my life.
Joni: Oh, my goodness! So where is the source of this smile? Were you ever discouraged at those times?
Katie: Oh, I was incredibly discouraged. I actually went through a period of depression growing up. I went to church growing up, but I never thought that I was worthy or loveable enough to have a relationship with Christ. And so when I just never thought anything good would come out of my disability, I thought I just had bad luck. When people asked me if I ever got angry with God, I didn’t because I didn’t think I was worthy enough to have a connection with God to be angry with Him. I just felt I didn’t have a purpose in life, so I ended up going to graduate school at USC and got some connections with some people and started playing wheelchair tennis, and was invited to go on a trip to Thailand to do a wheelchair distribution. I knew about God at that point but I didn’t have a personal relationship with Him and I got to Thailand to do this wheelchair distribution -- it was the first time I had ever done it – and there was a little girl there who also had brittle bone disease, and as soon as I saw her I knew exactly what her disability was and there were a whole bunch of children on one side of the room with disabilities and all these wheelchairs on the other side and I just supernaturally knew what to do.
Joni: Wow! So it was on a Wheels for the World trip to Thailand that God solidified your relationship with Jesus Christ?
Katie: Absolutely. I just was standing there and I knew what to do and at that moment God came into my life and said, “See, Katie, this is what it was all for”. And I knew that my personal experience with having a disability was being turned into a gift at that very moment and I haven’t been able to stop smiling ever since.
Joni: Well, you know Katie, coming out real soon – February 17 to the 20 is our Global Access 2015 Conference and you are going to be one of the hosts up there on the platform. I want our listeners who feel touched and moved to reach out to other people with disabilities to come to this conference. Yes, to be inspired and refreshed by the cutting edge disability models that we are going to have, but also to meet you. It’s going to be a wonderful time, won’t it?
Katie: I’m so excited, I can’t wait.
Joni: Yep! And today, friend, on my radio page we have a link to our Global Access website, so please when you have a minute visit joniandfriends.org and learn all about Katie Sorenson and Global Access 2015. By the way, I would love to hear what you are praying about. Tell me about it. Just go to my radio page today at joniandfriends.org.
© Joni and Friends
Compliments of Joni and Friends
PO Box 3333 Agoura Hills, CA 91376