Long before personal computers and YouTube I first read the story of Joni Eareckson, who, as a 17-year-old suffered a spinal injury which left her quadraplegic.  Joni was on Huckabee last night, as a 63-old-old woman, with her husband.  It was such a delight to see her for the first time, to hear something of her struggles and triumphs, and even to get a glimpse of her in the process of drawing which is accomplished with a pencil in her mouth.  “Sometimes I drool on my work,”  she says.

Wikipedia has this to say about her:

Joni Eareckson Tada is the founder of Joni and Friends, an organization accelerating Christian outreach in the disability community that numbers 610 million people worldwide. This organization operates out of the new Joni and Friends International Disability Center located in Agoura Hills, California. Joni is not only an international disability advocate but an artist and the author of numerous bestselling books, including Pearls of Great Price, Diamonds in the Dust, More Precious Than Silver, the Platinum award-winning Joni, Heaven: Your Real Home, When God Weeps, and The God I Love.

Here is one of Joni’s latest interviews — her injury, her despair, her hope. And her husband, Ken.

What can one say about a woman such as this? She has had difficulties we can’t even imagine. Recent surgery and chemo for breast cancer just added to her challenges.

On November 27 Joni publicly disagreed with Dr. Phil McGraw in the Huffington Post:

We are joining together to express our disappointment in Dr. Phil for a recent program focused on euthanasia.

Is this a topic that needs to be discussed? Definitely! Is this an issue about which more Americans need to be informed? Most certainly. However, what I must disagree with is how the topic was treated. It must be presented in a responsible manner, with a variety of opinions, beliefs and facts from a diverse range of sources.

Joni Eareckson Tada draws beautiful pictures with her mouth. You can go on line and buy her drawings and her Christmas cards. Joni Eareckson Tada is herself a beautiful work of art. Ken Tada, I would love someday to read your life story!

Nick Vujicic was born without arms or legs. He, too, has a story and a life. He also has a DVD, well worth viewing.

What hath God wrought?