If I want to be Happy
Purity and I were sitting on the front lawn of the CRF building talking. We were discussing Kenya, music, and God. Then she looked down and said —“If I want to be happy, all I have to do is look down!” Now, most people would say if you want to be happy, you should look up. Maybe you look up to have a better attitude or to envision God. But not Purity. Her joy comes when she looks down and sees her legs.
Purity Wekesa is 14 years old and grew up near Bungoma, Kenya at a place for children called Eruli. In the past, we called it Emmanuel’s Farm. Purity had Blounts Disease. It is a disease of the growth plates around the knees. It made her incredibly bow-legged. It was unbelievable that she could walk at all. The disease was so bad that braces couldn’t correct it. She would need a surgery that was not available for her in Kenya. Without surgery Purity would very soon be crawling on her hands and knees in immense pain.
In an act of extreme grace, Dr. Podeszwa of the Scottish Rite Hospital in Dallas volunteered to do surgery on Purity. The surgery would come at the expense of Dr. Podeszwa and the hospital. And it was very costly. Purity entered the hospital for her first surgery on September 23, 2021. She left the hospital after all of her surgeries on September 23, 2022.
Many people in the hospital and outside of it championed Purity’s cause. She was a rock star at the hospital. No one had ever seen a patient try so hard to walk. She abandoned her braces. She abandoned her walker. She started walking up right. Purity’s CRF sponsor, Lisa Collen, and Emily Bell assisted Purity in the process of this unlikely recovery.
But it was Cristi Clapp who absolutely devoted herself day in and day out through the entire ordeal. She was there for her before the surgery when Purity lived in Kenya. She was there at every surgery and every painful process in the rehabilitation. Cristi offered hope and encouragement when everything seemed so difficult. Cristi was an angel. She said, “Purity exceeded expectations a trillion times.”
Now Purity is back in Kenya living at the Barbie Jones hostel. Most people get overwhelmed with the problems of life. Not Purity. She has been a miracle. If she ever gets tempted to be discouraged, all she has to do is look down.
