A year after suffering serious burns in an airplane crash, blogger Stephanie Aurora Clark Nielson has posted a photo of her reconstructed face:
Kudos to this woman for having the courage to show the world on her popular blog, the Nie Nie Dialogues, how she's recovering from the crash. It was a year ago yesterday that the plane went down near St. Johns, injuring severely her and her husband, Christian, and killing instructor Doug Kinneard.
Here's what Stephanie wrote in June, when she was still deciding when (or if) she should ever publish a picture of her new self:
It hasn't been easy having to reinvent myself. I have (and still do) mourn for Stephanie. Where did she go? Now I look in the mirror and see someone else, but it's still me. It's...well...weird. I have to learn to be me again. I have to accept and hope. And I should stop saying "should" and replace that with "get". I GET to have a second chance at life. I get to enjoy my children even if my fingers don't work. I get to change the way I look at life and how I can somehow help someone else in need.
And best of all, I get to have my husband. He is still him and I am still me and we still can and are creating the same love we had before. I may becoming a different Stephanie, but it's still me.
What an honor.
