Slacker No More!

So, in reading all the posts my friends make on their blogs, I've come to realize I'm already a blog-slacker...and I've just started! AAArrrggh!! Tonight, that shall change!

I guess I should let you in on the title of my blog:

I have always been OBSESSED with the field of medicine, and God has a *funny* way of making these things hit home. I entered OU as a pre-med/microbiology major, with the hopes and aspirations to one day be a pediatric oncologist/hematologist. It was not to be, however, for me to breeze through undergraduate studies, on to med school, and so forth. In the fall of 2002, a couple of weeks before Thanksgiving, I was diagnosed with a brain tumor. This diagnosis caught our entire family off guard. We were plagued with memories of a neighborhood friend who died of an aggressive brain tumor/cancer just a few years before, as that was the only experience we had ever known similar to what we were facing. We were not hopeless, though, as we had no doubts our God would pull all of us through this terrifying ordeal. Tests were run, blood was taken (and taken and taken), spinal taps were drawn, I had every kind of MRI, MRA, MR(you name it)...and it was still up for debate as to exactly what kind of tumor it was. Initial thoughts were that it wasn't even a tumor, rather the "scar" from a stroke. (A stroke?! I'm a healthy 19 year old!) Other thoughts were that it was tumefactive MS. Another shocking possiblility...being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at only 19 years of age. Through MUCH prayer and sheer faith in God, we were led down a path, step by step, that took myself and my family to the place we felt we needed to be. My aunt in Houston is a nurse for a cardiac surgeon, who just *happens* to be good friends with the chief of neurosurgery at MD Anderson Cancer Center. He asked his friend if he would take a look at all my scans, and he agreed. Within days of receiving all the results, Dr. Raymond Sawaya was in contact with my mom, advising her of every step he felt we needed to take. There were many hurdles to overcome- financial, a place for my parents to stay, insurance benefits, risk/benefit ratio, etc. And one by one, our gracious Lord gave us the answers. Insurance carrier agreed to cover 90% of all costs, and the MD Anderson's status as a research facility meant a large portion of what was left after insurance could possibly be written off. My aunt who got us in contact with Dr. Sawaya had a friend who lived literally BLOCKS from the medical center. Again, it just so *happened* that this friend was scheduled to be on vacation for two weeks...the exact two weeks that *coincided* with our scheduled time in Houston. She offered her amazing newly renovated loft for us to stay in, she was going to have to get a housesitter anyway (all three of us stayed there for the few days of pre-op and my parents stayed there while I spent a week in the hospital after surgery), and it took at the most, five minutes to get from her loft to the hospital where I was staying. All the pieces just seemed to be laid out before us...and God just coaxed us along His predestined path. We learned a lot about faith in those months leading up to the surgery...and they are all lessons that resonate with me more strongly as time goes by. After pathology came back, it was discovered the tumor was pre-cancerous. The headaches that led to the discovery of the tumor were/are in no way related to it. It was what most of my doctors refer to as a "coincidental finding". I know the truth. Dr. Sawaya told us that had the tumor not been discovered until IT showed symptoms of itself, I most likely would have been 25/26 years old with cancer the size of an orange or grapefruit that would not have been operable.

Now, for the next part of the story:

The Boy and I started dating the summer before he was to begin law school. This (finally) happened FOUR years after I graduated high school, a year after him. Oh the crush I had on him, though, when we were in school together. He was my idea of "AMAZING", and my best friend and I each shared this affection for him (as did many of my fellow female classmates, I'm sure). He was, in a word, spectacular. Dreamily tall, athletic build (he was a football player!), milk dud eyes, with lashes that went on for days, gorgeous almost black brown hair, and the smile...oh the smile, it would make any girl weak in the knees. It was simply flawless, and he had no problem flashing that thing around like a diamond ring. But the best part about him? He was without a doubt, the sweetest boy I'd ever spoken to. Granted, he spent most of the class time we had together picking on me with some of the other guys in our Algebra 3 class, but I didn't care...it meant I had his attention :) Needless to say, I "suffered" through the class and squeaked out of that ELECTIVE with a C. He, however, made an A. Five years later, a *chance* reunion with an old friend of mine led to her giving The Boy my number (upon my urging, begging, and pleading, of course). He called a few weeks later, to see if I'd like to "hang out" at dinner. I laughed my way through the entire 10 minute conversation- I was SO nervous that was all I could do! But, it was official (at least from my perspective), I was going on a date with THE BOY the following Tuesday (Tuesday? Really?! Who goes on dates on a Tuesday night? But whatever!! It was a date!) So, the day came...I spent hours the night before scouring my wardrobe for the PERFECT outfit, and had finally settled on an amazing little ensemble. I spent the entire day at work just giddy with excitement and nervousness...everyone knew that I was going out the The Boy, and this was a HUGE deal. I had agreed to meet him in Norman, since he was living there at the time (I have NO idea why I did this, ha!) so I headed that way with plenty of extra time for any sort of traffic problems, tie-ups, etc. What I hadn't accounted for however, was getting pulled over by a state trooper. Yep, a mere 10 minutes into my drive, the gut-wrenching blue and reds flashed up behind me, and my stomach dropped to my toes. What seemed like decades (fifteen minutes) later, after explaining to the trooper that I was actually on my way to a date with The Boy, who is the son of the District Judge of the particular county we were in, I drove away with my $220 ticket. But even that couldn't dampen the excitement that was pumping through my veins. I finally made it to Norman, after having to call him and explain to him why I would be about 20 minutes late. We had dinner at this horrible little restaurant (though I didn't admit that to him until at least a year later) and I barely ate a thing due to the feeling that I might puke all over his gorgeous blue shirt that made those brown eyes a dark sea of deliciousness, because I was SO nervous. We then went to hang out at their house where we talked with his roommate, then went out to sit on the back deck and chat. When I get nervous, I tend to talk a lot....and by that, I mean a LOT more than USUAL. I can't say for sure exactly what we talked about that night, but I do know that boy had to listen to nonsensical rambling for a good two hours. When I left that night he gave me the awkward "side hug", and I just knew I'd blown any chance of ever having a second date. Which, in all honesty I knew wasn't a real possibility anyway, because my friend who set us up told me he wasn't looking for anything serious, as he was getting ready to start law school and really wanted to focus on that, and not a relationship. Much to both of our surprise though, a week later (after countless hours on the phone and going on dates every night from Thursday to the following Tuesday!), the boy told me he loved me...and I knew it was true, because I loved him too. Oh, how I loved that amazingly handsome (yes, he even improved with age!), genuine, tenderhearted, smart boy.

(Even with black icing all over his face, those pearly whites just sparkle!!)

And here's how the story goes now:

We barely knew life together before "the law" and now we couldn't tell you what that was like. He started law school in August 2005. In the three years to follow we: got married, moved, gave birth to beautiful bouncing blue-eyed boy, moved, celebrated his graduation, and less than four weeks later gave birth to our precious petite princess!! All that excitement left us with one MAJOR hurdle...the Bar Exam. UGH. Anyone that has ever had to experience in anyway knows what dread and anxiety this can bring with it. Our precious petite princess was a mere 6 weeks old when The Boy spent two days in downtown OKC taking this monster of a test. Then we "got" to wait another 6 weeks before finding out the results. In true rockstar fashion, though, he passed with flying colors!! And we spent the next 4 days celebrating with anyone and everyone! Fortunately, he already had a job lined up (pending his passage of the Bar) and upon being sworn in (another 3 weeks later) he was an official attorney!









Today, I am 26 years old...married to The Boy, who truly is the Man of My Dreams, I am the gushingly proud mommy to the two most amazing babies in the world, sleeping peacefully in their beds down the hall. My life has purpose (as all of ours do) and I'm living to fulfill it. I am back in school finishing up my nursing degree. My goal is to go into pediatric oncology/hematology...but now I have a whole new respect and outlook of what a cancer diagnosis means, and the opportunities it brings with it.

This life of ours is so richly blessed with love beyond measure. I know that each step and decision in our pasts has brought us to this day...where we are together, celebrating the many blessings God has given us. I strive to make Him proud of me every day- to be the follower He desires me to be, the wife He desires me to be, the mother He desires me to be, the daughter, sister, friend...I pray my faith will be the defining trait in my life. And through that faith, I will show compassion, love, forgiveness the way He designed me to.