Wednesday, January 23, 2013

New Year, New Me (prayerfully)

It's been a long time since I've written on here and I really left things hanging, didn't I?

Well, let me give you the cliff notes version of the last six months:

After being diagnosed with MDS I underwent six months of chemo. It was very mild in comparison to what I went through with the osteosarcoma and I was pretty much able to carry on as normal. Thankfully I completed my last round of chemo on December 2 and now my counts are in the "normal" ranges. My Dr. said "You responded better to this treatment than we could have even hoped for! I've never seen anyone respond so well!" <---------- That was God, y'all! He did it again. I totally don't deserve the many blessings He gives, but I am so thankful for them and His continuous grace!!

Now it's the end of January, we just got back from one of the best vacations I've ever had and tomorrow is *my* "new year!"

Tonight we start our annual revival at church and boy do I need it. Without going into a lot of detail I will share with you that I've struggled a lot spiritually since going into remission. I think that a lot of it has had to do with the "stuffing" I did with my emotions during the hard journey with cancer, so therefore, I've had to sort through a lot of pain, anger, resentment and bitterness the last year and a half. I still have days when I struggle and am depressed, but I feel like with God's help I am finally coming out of it.

I'm completely ready to clean the slate, start fresh and renew my commitment to the Lord.

I'm excited. I'm happy. I'm overwhelmed with grace. I'm ready to run this race.

Last year I read the life changing book 1000 Gifts by Ann Voskamp. If you haven't read it, well, what are you waiting for? GO! Read!! She keeps an amazing blog A Holy Experience. I enjoy reading her posts and always come away with encouragement and conviction. At the beginning of the year she set out to challenge others to memorize Romans 1, 8 and 12. I'm accepting that challenge and working on memorizing them with her. It's just two verses a week. I've even made the little books and have a friend and my son doing it along with us. If you are interested, you can read more about it here: http://www.aholyexperience.com/2013/01/the-1-habit-god-really-wants-for-your-new-year/

If you are gonna get in on the fun comment and let me know so we can encourage one another. Also, check out the Scripture Typer website. My son and I have been having a blast with that!!

I've got a lot of other exciting things going on, but I just wanted to take a minute to share this.

I'm looking forward to 2013. I think this will be our best year yet. A year of seeking him. A year of counting gifts. A year of hiding His word in our hearts. A healthy year. A peaceful year. A year of joy.