Stephanie Nielson

For those of you who don't read the nieniedialogues, you should. 

Stephanie's blog won most inspiring blog of 2009.

 

 

In 2008 Stephanie and her husband Christian were in a serious plane crash. It was a private flight with the two of them and another close friend. Stephanie and Christian survived, their friend did not.

Stephanie started her blog long before the accident, as a way to keep in touch with her family (much like this one). She blogged about being a mother, wife and friend and everything her daily life entailed. Unlike many of the popular "mommy blogs" out there, her's is very positive. It is one of the reasons I enjoy reading her posts. She has always tried to focus on the positive aspects of life. 

 

Stephanie, Christian and her four (beautiful) children live in Provo.

 

Last week Stephanie came to speak at BYU on behalf of the women's services and resources.

Their theme for the year is recapturing beauty. I thought inviting Stephanie to speak about beauty was a perfect idea. If anyone knows what it means to truly love yourself and understand divine beauty, it's her. 

 

Me, Alyson and Alex went to hear her on Thursday and my goodness does she have quite the local following. It was held in the ballroom of the Wilkinson Center. This is a pretty large room. I don't know how many chairs there were but when we got there at 6:45 (it started at 7) the ballroom was packed. Every chair was taken. Alyson and Alex found a place to sit on the stage off to the side, so luckily we weren't one of the hundreds standing in the back. 

Her speech was very inspiring. It is going to be available to view sometime later this month and when it becomes available I will post a link, because I really think it's worth watching. She talked a lot about her crash and gave a lot of details that I had never heard before.

One of my favorite things about her speech was how much she could joke about everything. There is obviously still a lot of pain and recalling the accident is still hard (she cried through her entire talk) but she was able to laugh and made a ton of jokes.

Before she could start they had people trying to clear the isles of people because people were trying to find places to sit. Lots of people just perched down on the ground in between isles. But with the fire marshal there, they announced that they wouldn't be able to start until everyone cleared the isles. The first thing Stephanie said when she got up was a joke about the fire marshals and even though it was annoying she understood their urgency and that a fire wasn't something they wanted tonight. 

One of my favorite stories she told was when she awoke from her 3 month coma in the hospital and saw Christian for the first time. They brought Christian in in a wheel chair and when he touched her hand her heart started racing really, really fast. The nurses told Christian that he couldn't touch her anymore because she got too excited when he did. Eventually, they couldn't let him come in the room because she got so excited just upon seeing him. She said that was as hot and heavy as it got then. :) Haha

She also said that the first time Christian came in to see her he gave her a blessing. She said he blessed her and loved her and those were some very special moments to her. I love that after not seeing each other for so long the first thing he does is give her a priesthood blessing. How beautiful.

Stephanie went five months without seeing herself or her children. She recalled the first time she saw herself after the accident and how nothing anyone said could have prepared her for what she saw. 

All four of her children took it pretty hard. Nicholas (the youngest) thought his aunt was his mother (he was only about 18 months at the time). The oldest (Jane) looked at her once and did not look at her again for 3 months. She said those were some of the hardest moments. I can imagine why.

She bore her testimony of the gospel and of what it means to be beautiful. "Our beauty is our inner right that cannot be taken away."

"Beauty is in the red hair of Jane, the freckles of Claire, the sweet disposition of Oliver, the white hair of Nicholas, (her four children) of friends, the sun rising everyday in the east, my sweet husband and the covenants we have made with each other and the children we've had." 

"Beauty is health, harmony, peace and self-confidence."

She closed with her testimony and a challenge that if you are struggling to know your beauty to simply ask God to help you see it. 

Her speech was really incredible. I don't think I can really do it any justice on here but when the full video becomes available, I really encourage you to read it.

These pictures are not mine (we were too far away to get any good pictures). 

One last really sweet thing from the night.

Her husband, Christian, sat right behind her through the speech and while she cried away he quietly took each snotty tissue from her hand and held them. It was really adorable. You can really see how much he loves her and adores her.

 

 See that stage off to the right? This picture was taken before we arrived 15 minutes before it started. We were sitting on that stage.

 

Doesn't she dress adorable? And I think she is really, really beautiful. 

If you know nothing about Stephanie, start here