Faith and Healing – Be-YOU-tiful Adaptive Warrior

The Road Forward May Look Different

By bawarrior | October 14, 2026

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 26:10 — 27.9MB)

Finding Hope Beyond the Pivot

Part Five of My Pivoting Series

In this final episode of my Pivoting series, I’m sharing the reminder I’ve had to learn again and again: the road forward may look different, but it can still be meaningful, beautiful, and full of possibility.

Life changes for all of us. We can make the best plans, prepare for every scenario, and still find ourselves facing a curveball we never saw coming. As an above-knee amputee, one of my biggest pivots was learning to live in a body that had changed forever. While people may see a smile, they do not always see the grief, fear, mental load, exhaustion, and rebuilding that live underneath it.

But pivoting is not quitting. I can still hold onto a goal while allowing the path to that goal to change.

Do some research to find a new way forward

Skiing is one of the clearest examples in my own life. I had always imagined skiing more with my husband and family as we got older. After years of surgeries and then losing my leg, I wondered whether I would ever ski again. I had to grieve what I thought it would look like, learn a new way to do it with one leg and outriggers, rebuild my strength, and face a lot of fear. Yet standing at the top of a snowy mountain with my family again brought me to tears. The goal was still there, it just looked different.

Together again!

That is why I believe hope is not forced positivity. Hope does not deny that this chapter is hard. It is choosing to believe that hard does not mean meaningless. My faith has helped me trust that God can bring purpose from the parts of my story I never would have chosen.

One of the biggest traps I had to overcome was comparing my old self to my new self—and comparing myself to other amputees. Whether it is watching someone run effortlessly on social media or remembering what I used to lift at the gym, comparison steals the joy of noticing what I am accomplishing today. I recently got on a treadmill with my new running blade, scared and holding tightly to the rails. It may not have looked graceful, but I faced a fear, showed up, and tried. That matters.

Facing fears but pushing through them.

Different does not mean less. Losing a limb does not make any of us less capable, less valuable, less beautiful, or less worthy of joy. We are more than our bodies and more than our parts.

Eight years into this journey, I can see that I did not have to understand the whole plan at the beginning. I only had to take the next right step. One step led to a 10K, skiing, this podcast, Warrior Ground, and a community of women who understand this journey. Your next step may be researching a new doctor, calling a PT, learning about adaptive sports, or simply choosing to believe there is more ahead for you.

Take a few minutes this week and ask yourself: What am I ready to leave behind? What dream am I ready to carry forward? And what is one next step I can take with hope?

Share your next step with me, and if this series encouraged you, please like, subscribe, share it with someone who needs it, and listen back to the first four episodes of Pivoting. Keep moving forward, Warrior.

And as always,

Be Healthy,

Be Happy,

Be YOU!!!

Much love,

Pivoting and Grief

By bawarrior | October 7, 2026

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 33:18 — 35.6MB)

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Honoring What Was, Before Reimagining What’s Next

What if moving forward requires us to first acknowledge what we have lost?

In Part Four of my five-part series on pivoting, I’m exploring a side of change that we don’t talk about enough: grief. We often celebrate the courage it takes to pivot, rebuild, and begin again, but every new direction may also require us to release the life, body, identity, or future we once imagined.

As I approach eight years since electing to amputate my leg, I’ve been asking myself whether I ever truly grieved my limb loss. Looking back, I realize much of my grieving happened during the four months between deciding to amputate and undergoing surgery. I cried, wrestled with my fears, and tried to understand how my future might change. When I finally released it to God, I felt a peace that helped me move forward.

Every amputee’s experience is different. Some of us have time to prepare, while others wake up after an accident or medical emergency and discover that their body has changed. There is no correct way or timeline for grieving.

Grief is not limited to death. We can grieve our independence, body image, physical abilities, relationships, identity, trust, or the path we thought our lives would follow. We can also be deeply grateful for our prosthesis, medical team, family, and progress while still grieving what was lost.

Grief does not make me ungrateful, and gratitude does not require me to pretend that nothing was lost.

When grief remains unacknowledged, it can surface as anger, resentment, emotional numbness, comparison, overworking, or constantly pushing through pain. I recognize my own tendency to connect my value with productivity. Sometimes staying busy feels easier than slowing down long enough to feel what is happening inside me.

I also share five steps for moving through a life-changing pivot: name what you lost, allow yourself to feel it, honor why it mattered, release the original shape of the dream, and reimagine what remains possible.

I may not ski exactly as I once imagined, but I found another way. I learned to ski on one leg with outriggers, and that reimagined future has brought courage and joy back into my life.

This week, name one thing you have been trying to move past. What changed? What do you miss? Why did it matter? Then ask yourself: How can I carry the heart of that dream forward in a new form?

Give yourself permission to grieve without judgment—but don’t stop there. Honor what was, release the path you expected, and begin reimagining what could still be possible. Share this episode with someone facing an unexpected change, and follow the BAWarrior Podcast as we continue learning how to rebuild on the other side of the pivot.