Free Unstoppable by Nick Vujicic Page A

myself not to get my hopes up. She hadn’t e-mailed me, after all. Obviously, she had not felt the same sparks for me that I’d felt for her. I had to back off and stay in control of my feelings.
Guard your heart! Stay cool, mate!
    Our plane had barely touched down before I found myself texting Tammy. “Is everyone there?” I asked, trying not to be obvious.
    “Yoshie and I are here cooking lasagna for you,” Tammy texted back.
    “Great!” wrote Mr. Cool. “How about Kanae?”
    I swear, those words typed themselves on my smartphone, which is sometimes too smart for my own good. Okay, so I’m weak when it comes to matters of the heart. I couldn’t help myself. But the answer was even worse than I’d feared.
    “Kanae is here, but she’s out riding bikes with her boyfriend,” Tammy said.
    I seriously thought Tammy was joking, so I brushed off that comment.
    We arrived at Tammy’s house, and sure enough Yoshie and she were in the kitchen, working on the lasagna. I took a seat and we chatted for a few minutes before ol’ Lovesick Nick kicked in again.
    “So, really, where is Kanae?” I asked meekly.
    Tammy put down her bowl of freshly made pasta. Both she and Yoshie gave me puzzled looks.
    “She
really
is riding bikes with her boyfriend, Nick,” Tammy said.
    Blast it, she’s
not
joking!
    Then something dawned on me. Tammy was confused that I was asking about Kanae because she thought I was interested in Yoshie! I had never mentioned which sister had caught my eye, and since both sisters are beautiful but only one was not in a relationship, she’d assumed I’d been attracted to Yoshie, who was closer to my age. That’s why Tammy hadn’t told me earlier about Kanae’s boyfriend!
    I’ve heard people talk about having a sinking feeling, but I never knew what they meant until that moment. I felt like the bottom had dropped out of the entire world and I was plunging deep into an abyss.
    God, please help me handle this with grace
, I prayed.
L OVE N ICK-ED
    It’s scary how often our lives suddenly turn into television sitcoms, isn’t it? My parents probably could have written a hit series,
I Love Nicky
, for all the crazy episodes I’ve acted out over the years. This was a classic!
    I wasn’t laughing at the time, of course. There is a line in
The Butterfly Circus
, the award-winning short film in which I appeared: “The greater the struggle, the more glorious the triumph.” This seems to be true in many aspects of life and even sometimes in relationships.
    If love comes easily for you, be grateful and give thanks. If you have to struggle to find your soul mate, as I certainly did, know that in my case the eventual triumph was indeed glorious. Believe in that, and I will pray that it comes true for you as it did for me. I have so much gratitude and appreciation for the way my life has turned out. I can’t even say anymore that my ridiculously good life has come about
despite
my disabilities and the hardships I’ve faced. Now, I must say that my grand life is
because
of my disabilities and hardships.
    Does that make sense to you? Here’s what I mean: the victories in my life have a richness and depth of meaning for me that I can’t imagine would exist if I had been born with arms and legs. I honestly appreciate my life more because I’ve had to struggle to do many things that most people simply take for granted.
    Have there been times when I prayed for arms and legs and fewer obstacles in my path? Certainly. I still pray for those blessings from time to time. I’m not any different than most. I’d much rather take the easy road than the rough one. Yet I also thank God every day for all the good that has come of the disabilities and challenges He’s given me.
    I encourage you to see your own challenges in relationships and other aspects of your life as potential blessings that one day will come to you, even though their value may not yet be apparent. Sitting there on Tammy’s couch, I certainly did