Olivia Grace Keifer is my name.  I am ten years old.  I live with my family in Altoona, Pennsylvania.

I have long brown hair, blue eyes, and freckles on my nose and cheeks.  I am fairly skinny, but not too skinny.  I'm just right, according to my mommy and daddy.  I am very pretty (or so most people tell me).

I'm also in a wheelchair. 

Got run over by a train while playing on some railroad tracks (dumb, I know; now I gotta live with the consequences for the rest of my life).  Lost my legs.  This happened almost a year ago, and I just got out of the hospital last month.  It's been a long, hard struggle, but I think I can make it (if I can get past the pain; am still healing).

If there's one thing I have, it is courage.  I have lots of it.

I also have my Savior-God to help me.  I am a Christian; I accepted Jesus into my heart when I was six.  If there's anyone who will guide me through what's happened (and beyond), then Jesus can 'cas He's the Great I Am.  He's God.  So that is probably the main thing that keeps me going (besides my family, of course!).

I sometimes have train dreams, but I know in time they will go away.  I hope so.  I hate ripping my family from a good night's sleep from my screams because I saw the big, black, bad train running over me again!!  I am seeing a therapist who helps kids who have gone through bad experiences, and I know that will help too, in the long run.

Do I have any guilt about what happened to me?  Yes.  I should have known better to play on the tracks, especially since I heard the warning whistle of the train long before it got close to me and saw that the flashers were down and the lights were blinking.  Yet I was too engrossed in chasing some pretty yellow butterflies; didn't even pay any mind to the danger at hand ... until I saw the train ... and by then it was too late.  It was already almost on top of me.  I thought for sure I was gonna be a goner.

That's when everything went black. 

I woke up in the hospital later; when I was more aware, the doctor (and my parents) told me what happened.  I'd lost my legs.  I would now be an amputee for the rest of my life.  All because I made the wrong decision, and a risky one.

At the news, I cried.  I screamed.  I begged mommy and daddy for their forgiveness because I had disobeyed them.  I knew better than to stay away from the train tracks because you never knew when a train would be coming.  All that mattered to me before all this happened was getting my hands on one of the pretty butterflies.  Even when the train signal started flashing and the train's whistle sounded, I did not pay attention until the train entered the picture ... and changed my life forever.

I was also upset because I would never do anything I loved:  riding horses.  Running in the fields or with my friends.  Skating.  Playing sports like basketball and baseball.  Dancing.  Doing the climbing wall at the game place not far from where we lived.  I would have to sit in a wheelchair for the rest of my days.  My life as I knew it was officially over.

I know now that I will be able to walk again one day with crutches (and hopefully with artificial legs, once they're made for me).  I have been having lots of physical therapy to help me gain strength in my upper body and arms so I can learn to propel my wheelchair and do things like getting from wheelchair to bed (or whatever).  I also have been doing standing exercises by holding on to a walker, but then I get dizzy, so I have to lie down until it goes away.

I've heard stories of people walking on artificial legs without any crutches or canes and they do things like run.  Hop.  Jump.  Dance.  Climb rocks or mountains.  So much that they can do, even with no legs, thanks to well-made prosthetic legs that can give them their life back (which they have).  So I have been thinking:  if they can do it, why not me??

So the future may be looking very bright for me.  Until then, I just have to learn to be patient and rely on God to get me through the dark (pain-filled) days.

*to be continued.*