When Survival Isn’t the Hardest Part
- Through The Rough
- Mar 22
- 2 min read
“I’ve fought for everyone else my whole life. I just want someone to fight for me.”
Most stories about survival focus on the fight to stay alive. But Lori’s isn’t just about living—it’s about what happens after. After the chemo. After the surgery. After the adoption papers are signed. After the garage door stops opening and the house gets quiet.
That’s when the real fight begins.
Why We Asked That Question
We asked Lori: “What do you know for certain about yourself now that you didn’t five years ago?”
She paused. Tears surfaced. And then she answered with one word: “Courage.”
And it wasn’t the kind of courage you wear like armor. It was the kind you whisper to yourself through tears at 2AM. The kind you pray for—not to move mountains—but just to get out of bed the next morning.
What That Moment Taught Us
Lori’s story is stacked with unbelievable battles:
Born at 1.5 pounds
Four separate cancer diagnoses
Two international adoptions as a single mother
A nursing career marked by death, pain, and relentless compassion
And now, an identity crisis that no one talks about until it’s already consuming you
But through every battle, she held to one truth:
“God wouldn’t put me through all this just to leave me here.”
What’s haunting isn’t what she went through. It’s how often she went through it alone. Fighting for herself when no one else showed up. Healing others while she bled inside. Parenting with grace while carrying grief no one could see.
And somehow, still believing that being kind matters.
What This Means for You, the Listener
If you’ve ever:
Taken care of everyone else and felt invisible in the process
Spent years building a life only to ask yourself, “Who am I now?”
Prayed for connection but didn’t know how to ask for it—
Then Lori’s story is yours too.
She doesn’t want sympathy. She wants truth. And the truth is this:
Sometimes surviving is just step one. Sometimes, healing begins when someone finally asks, “What about you?”
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