One Whole Entire Year...

So let me set the scene for you - what was happening one year ago....

February 25, 2012

3:30am
I woke up at  for an opening shift.  Nothing like making coffee bright and early to get the day started.  There wasn't anything special about that morning.  I was kind of at the end of my rope on this particular day.  I had been in and out of the hospital repeatedly the previous three months, and was ending a week of extreme symptoms from a Crohns flare.  I hadn't been able to eat or drink anything without getting sick for almost a full week.  It was to the point I knew I was dehydrated, I had no energy, no motivation, and honestly.  No hope. A month previously my doctors had told me they had tried everything on the market to get my Crohns into remission.  Nothing had worked.  I had been on the highest dosages of the strongest medications, and nothing was working.

They were giving me until March to go into remission, otherwise I was going to start scheduling surgeries to remove the infected parts of my digestive system.  Only four days away from March, and I was more sick than I had been in months.  It wasn't looking good.

6:00am
I was on my break at work sipping on some water, hoping to make it through my shift. I got a text message from a friend.  She said, "I was praying for you this morning.  Something happened! Tell me when you start feeling different."

I hadn't eaten in two days, and water wasn't really going to effect me.  Feeling hopeless and lethargic I replied that I would be sure to let her know.  I wanted to sound hopeful - but my thinking was far from it.

12:00pm
My routine in the previous few months of being sick had been to go to work, and sleep the rest of the day. I got another text message from my friend asking if I would be willing to come over so her and her husband could pray for me.

1:30pm
I got to my friends house and they prayed for me.  After they finished praying my friend looked at me and said, "Go home and eat something." With a smile.

7:00pm
I went to a friends house for a game night.  We made salad, and ordered pizza.  I hadn't eaten in two days. I hadn't been able to keep any food in without being sick in a full week.  No one really knew how sick I had been that week.  I smiled, ate dinner, and enjoyed the night.

February 25, 2013 One Year Later...

10:00am 
I wake up and make my coffee to start the day.

2:00pm
I drive my scooter around Chiang Mai, Thailand running errands.

4:00pm
I finish my list of things to do as I hang up clothes to dry on the balcony upstairs in the 100 degree heat, knowing they will dry quickly before dark.

6:30pm
I have dinner with my wonderful friend at a Thai barbeque.  We laugh and talk half in English, half in Thai as we eat a delicious meal.

10:00pm
I got out and look for the street kids I work with through out the week.

How much difference a year can make...

I've been able to eat and drink anything I want, whenever I want for an entire year.  I've never been sick again.  No more doctors, no more medications, no more sickness.

An entire year!

Can I just say.  When you have several medical professionals telling you that you will never be well again.... Telling you, you will never be able to travel internationally again, never be able to eat certain foods... That you will, 'live a normal life' but have to live in such a way that you are controlled by circumstances of what foods are available, what health complications your having that day, or what side effects your dealing with from medications....

I never thought I would be in this place.  I NEVER thought that one year later I would be writing this from Thailand!  There are so many things I deemed impossible for my life after hearing people tell me for years I would never be able to do it again... But it happened.  It's happening!

And you can say it's a coincidence.  You can say that, it was just going to happen anyway and the timing worked out.  You can say that it was a medical phenomenon, a one in a million chance...

But I am telling you - I know that it was God who healed me.  As crazy, and insane as that sounds.  It was. And I'm also telling you - He is good.  He's so good. Every day.  Even when things are hard, or circumstances seem to be going against us.  When things happen that we can't explain, or don't want to deal with.  Through all of that - He is GOOD.

No.  I didn't like being sick for 3 years, 5 months, and 12 days. Every day - without a break.
No.  I didn't like having blood drawn every three weeks for two straight years, or doctors appointments ever two weeks for months on end.
 I didn't like being admitted into the hospital and being hooked up to IV's on the oncology floor every six weeks.
I didn't like take 26 pills every morning, or not being able to go out into the sun because a side effect of medications was sunburn and heightened risk of skin cancer, or being severely anemic for three years, having no energy...

None of that was good.

But do you know what IS good?  The fact that every time I get to eat something spicy, salads, nuts, raw vegetables, fried or creamy food... Every day I get to walk around in a foreign country, every day I spend AWAY from hospitals and doctors offices... Do you know how much MORE I appreciate those days?  A lot more.

God gave me a gift. And TRUST me. It's not because I deserved it.  I certainly did not have a good attitude when I was sick.  I wasn't full of faith that he was going to heal me.  I didn't think everything was going to be ok.  But He did it anyway.

And for the last 365 days - honestly... I haven't been great about thanking Him every day.  I haven't had a perfect attitude the whole year.  I haven't done everything right.

But I can honestly say I also haven't passed up any opportunities.  He gave me a chance to live out my dream.  And one year later I can say, I'm doing it.  And He's given me more direction, and more clarity about how to live out my dream in JOY in the future. And I can say that a whole entire year after I've been healed,  I'm not so much amazed that I'm not sick anymore, I'm way more amazed at how GOOD the God I serve is.  And I really hope that people around me will know who He is, and how good He is too.