An Omaha Journey

As many of you know Steven was blind for three years. It has been a long exhausting journey ripe with blessings and miracles as the years since his sight in one eye was restored.


In December of 2012 his, what I deemed, bad eye had a severe infection, so severe the eye had to be removed. Four visits to the doctor in two weeks, all before Christmas was painful yet rewarding at the same time. He was devastated that the eye had to be removed and that a miracle wouldn’t happen in that eye, but it was not to be so, his eye was removed and we celebrated Christmas joyfully and appreciative of all the many blessings that we had been given.

Fast forward to April 2, 2013.

Yesterday we were scheduled for his appointment to get a prosthetic eye in place of just a clear lens he’s had in place since the removal surgery. What a blessed journey it turned out to be. The sun was shining, nary any wind, and we had a safe journey both ways. It sure takes off a lot of stress on my back with him being able to drive half the journey!

We spent three hours in the office. Steven had thought that we’d have to kill three hours time while his eye was being made, but no, we had to remain at the office, and we got to experience the making of a prosthetic eye. We watched as the eye, step-by-step was being made! It was an awesome experience to say the least.

We had thirty-minute intervals in the office then the waiting room while the doctor made, and gently painted the eye to look amazingly like his ‘good’ eye. As we waited in the waiting room, we had a God moment while there. A woman who was having her (prosthetic) eye cleaned, smiled softly and announced, “It’s my turn.”

Her husband sat and told us of her story, telling us how she had come to have a prosthetic eye and he went on to ask us questions. When she came out of the docs, she too sat and told us of her journey. Strangely, (God working?) the man had been born and raised in Minden! That is where we live, coincidentally. They now lived twenty minutes from the Omaha office but it felt like such a connecting moment to God. He went on to say, “Sometimes people need to hear another's story so they can understand they’re not alone.”

The woman surprisingly has no restrictions on her license (like Steven has) except she must wear her glasses. She can even drive at night (but she says she don’t like to, like many of us.) I found that interesting. She also noted that she would be 80 years old next month! We shook hands and parted and I think we all felt blessed by the meeting.

Now keep in mind, this is an eye care facility. Most people were there getting eye check-ups and what not. The Ocularists is only there once a month because they reside in Missouri.

We went back into the office for her to finish painting the eye. The practice is a father daughter team, and today the daughter Corinne was making Stevens eye. The whole process took every ounce of three hours time.

The father came in to watch also at times and we chatted and he immediately picked up on my East coast ‘accent’ which had us talking about seafood and his visiting a fine restaurant right down the street from where I grew up. A very personable duo these two.

The moment came where the placement of the eye was at hand. She gently placed it in the socket and voila, Steven’s eye is so beautiful! For years that eye had been losing color so I haven’t really seen both his eyes in sync for far too long. When she placed his eye in, I cried; tears of joy began streaming down my face as this mans face now came alive! It was amazing to see two eyes, exactly the same color and it felt like he was seeing me for the first time.

I am in awe of such a wonderful, spirit-filled journey. If you did not know of our story, you would not ever know that Steven has a prosthetic eye.

We are so blessed. Even our truck, whose transmission has been puttering along and giving us trouble, held out for the long six and a half hour journey. Maybe it was the awesome audiobook we listened to “What we talk about when we talk about God”. It was a breathtaking book by minister Rob Bell who clarified an awful lot for me.

And today as a bonus, my back doesn’t even feel like it had been on a long journey.

What an amazing God we have. He listens, hears our prayers, and answers. Praise Be to God!!!