Marathon Weekend!

Most of you know that I am NOT a runner. Every year I was in elementary school we had Little Olympics. Everyone had to participate and I always had a great time...until I had to run the 100 yard dash. I placed 5th every year. And no, that's not 5th out of my class of 74. That's 5th out of the 4 other people that I had to run against. Sad. I am NO Michael Johnson. In fact he could probably run a mile before I even finished 100 yards.I have loved sports all my life, but was always the slowest girl on the basketball court...well almost. In college, I did run 3 miles a day at 6 am, but I still wasn't great at it. We also played softball in college with the greatest team ever called the Black Sox...I was on 3rd base, my friend Kyle hit a home run and we will say that he almost lapped me by the time I got to home. You get the point. I may like to run...it's a good stress reliever for me, but I am definitely the turtle, not the hare. You might ask why I placed running in a marathon on my bucket list. Well, I honestly still cannot answer that question. But I am. This weekend I will be running in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon...the shortest distance of the relay I might add. But I am doing it, even if I'm not fast, even if I don't have perfect form, even if I want to quit while I'm running it. I'm going to run the entire distance. I am ready and I am ready to mark it off my bucket list. You can do anything that you put your mind to, even if you aren't good at it. And while I am running I will remember the people that I have lost that have been so important in my life and I will remember the 168 people that lost their lives 15 years ago in a terrible tragedy. They live on in our hearts and that is why we run...

Why I Celebrate Today!!

Today is a day that I love to CELEBRATE!! I almost bet that anyone I ask, besides close friends and family, wouldn't even know what I am celebrating today. Today I am spreading awareness for Cushing's Disease Awareness Day. What is Cushing's Disease you ask? Well, you will have to look it up. I won't go into details because it took 3 very long years for me to tell anyone all of my symptoms, but I had Cushing's Disease and I lived with it for years not knowing that I had it. I can't say that I didn't know anything was wrong, because I definitely knew something was wrong with me. However, doctors didn't believe me and thought that I was lying (literally!) when I said that a ran 3 miles EVERY SINGLE DAY, ATE NOTHING and still GAINED 10 pounds in a month. Not just one month...but month after month, after month. It was a time when I would look in the mirror and not even see myself because I looked so different from what I had in recent years...even months. I had a moon face...not just the cute chubby face that I've always had. My face was gigantic and my whole body was completely swollen. It was a time when I didn't believe in myself, didn't have any self-confidence, didn't believe that I was worth anything. It destroyed a lot of myself that I am working so hard to get back and I can't explain how it even left, but it did. I didn't understand it then and I don't understand it now, but I do know that I survived after having brain surgery on January 3rd, 2008 to remove a pituitary tumor in my brain. How it got there I will never know, but I know that it would have never been found had it not been for Dr. Harvey Cushing who discovered this rare and deadly disease in 1912. Dr. Cushing is widely regarded as the greatest neurosurgeon of the 20th century and often called the "father of modern neurosurgery". Just a few of Dr. Cushing's accomplishments include: considerably improving the survival of patients after difficult brain operations for intracranial tumors, using x-rays to diagnose brain tumors, using electrical stimuli for study of the human sensory cortex and he played a pivotal role in development of the Bovie electrocautery tool with W.T. Bovie, a physicist. He was the world's leading teacher of neurosurgeons in the first decades of the 20th century. He was one SMART man! Although he passed away on October 7, 1939 he made a huge difference in my life without ever knowing it - someone else may have discovered Cushing's Disease before now, but it may have not been as advanced and there may not have been a solution to this disease. My story may have ended very differently, but it didn't. Today is Dr. Harvey Cushing's birthday and that is why we celebrate Cushing's Disease Awareness on this day. They say that Cushing's Disease is a rare disease and only happens to 10 in every one million people...however, it happened to me and I have found that it is not as rare as everyone might think. There is a group of Cushing's Disease fighters in this world and we are spreading the awareness. My prayer is that one day, the response of people won't be - What is that?!? It will be - you can beat Cushing's Disease! I am thankful that I had God to lead me through this time. I am thankful that I had wonderful friends and family to help me fight Cushing's Disease. I am thankful that today I can celebrate instead of my body fighting against Cushing's Disease. I am thankful that today I am living and I am thankful that I can say I survived Cushing's Disease. Celebrate Cushing's Disease Awareness with me and tell everyone to celebrate with us!!

(To the left are some pictures to show you what Cushing Disease does on the outside...not to mention inside your body! The first picture of me is before I was sick, the second is when I was sick...and the third picture is NOW!! I have to this point lost 35 pounds after my surgery. Still have a ways to go, but I am getting there slowly - the healthy way with diet and exercise and I feel so much better already!!!)

Thoughts of Summer

I haven't stopped talking ALL day or ALL day yesterday. For most of you that know me, this is very unusual. I guess I should feel lucky that I lost my voice for the entirety of last week - instead of this one. Why didn't I stop talking? Well, I had 20 interviews back to back for college students that will serve as our interns this summer. And let me tell you...they were quite impressive. I am a good interviewer, I've done it a lot in my few years of my big grown up jobs and I like to think that I am a pretty good judge of character from the time that I meet you. I had my guard up, ready to catch any and every flaw from every single one. And did I find any today? Any yesterday? Nope, I don't think so. Not one. They make me so excited for what is to come for the summer. I know that we will have ups and downs (that's a given), but to bring in interns that are so dedicated and excited about working with our kiddos...warms my heart. These kids are come from low-income families, are abused, neglected and some even live in their cars. They come to us for a summer of fun and reading. They learn with our program...and they LOVE it. I know it's going to probably be the busiest, craziest summer of my life, but I'm EXCITED. I am excited for it to be here and for these interns to learn how to lead and just to grow in their walk with Christ. I really believe that some lives can be changed by this program and I haven't even experienced it yet. Please pray for these interns, to prepare their hearts to help these kids and pray that the kiddos come ready to soak all of this love up. It's so exciting. I'm so excited. I don't even care if I talked all day and will be talking all day for the next week. I know that this summer will be amazing.

Pink for St. Patrick's Day

Although I have Irish in my blood, dressing in green is about as far as I go to celebrate St. Patrick's Day. I was reminded today by my 3 year old cousin that there are reasons to celebrate a lot of things in life...

When told he was supposed to wear green on St. Patrick's Day today by his mom, he responded with the innocent reply of, "Okay, but when is SpongeBob's Day?". He then was completely confused as to why the color of choice was green, instead of pink because Patrick, the starfish on SpongeBob, is pink.

I have been smiling about it for a good part of the afternoon, not because it's just a silly thing that only a little kid would say, but because they have imaginations far more creative than any of us. So on this St. Patrick's Day celebrate the little things that make you happy...even if that may be Spongebob.

Perfect Post-its

If you have walked through my apartment lately, you know that there are post-its all over in random, but well thought out places. They were placed there on purpose by yours truly. They may not go with my decor, and hot pink doesn't exactly match my "colors", but they have played a significant part in my life in the last few months.

On a few of these post-its there are Bible verses, others state that He loves me greater than anyone else and the rest remind me to pray for things that have been heavy on my heart. Some days they are ever so present and others it's as if I see right through them like they are not even there at all. I get ready every morning and they "appear" not to be on my mirror in my bathroom, on the mirrors in my bedroom, on my refrigerator, tea maker or even on my front door...I don't know if it's that they start blending in after a while with the rest of my "stuff" or if I'm in such a hurry that I don't think I have time to read the Bible verse or say just a small prayer...probably both. What I have discovered, is that even in the rush of my busy day of going here and there, God doesn't seem to forget that I have post-it notes hanging all over my apartment. He does not forget and He reminds me ever so kindly in the busyness, or laziness, or maybe even in my craziness. He always seems to find a place in my day to make it apparent to me that I need to pay attention to these simple post-its.

One of the things that has been so heavy on my heart is Haiti. It was easy in the beginning to hurt for the people of Haiti, to worry about the children in Haiti and to pray that He watches over everyone in Haiti. After the earthquake, my heart started saying adopt, adopt, adopt...it wouldn't stop and it hasn't yet. My heart aches for children without loving parents like mine. My heart aches to see them hurting, suffering and crying out for help. And as time has moved on however, the news starts to focus on new problems and the children and people of Haiti have been pushed aside in the newscasts. But again, God has not forgotten the people of Haiti, He has not forgotten their hurt, their pain, their tears. He is there. He is everywhere.

It is in those days that I hear the least about Haiti that I see a blog about someone adopting, or someone going to adopt, my friends sponsoring a child in another country, a twitter message from someone who has already adopted, or an article about the things you don't think about before you adopt...these things keep showing up, day after day after day. He is placing His own post-it notes in my life reminding me to pray, to remember and to think about what I can do. Maybe what He is wanting me to do takes time, it may not be tomorrow, or a month from now, it might be a year, or years.

Two of the post-its that are hanging in my apartment read "Pray for the Orphans" and "Pray about Adopting". When I wrote both of these post-its, Haiti was on my heart and in my mind. Yes, I would love to help the orphans of Haiti and adopt them all and bring them here if I could. But lately, I have started to realize that I did not specify Haiti on either post-it. If I have learned anything about the last few years of my life it is that things do not always happen as I plan them. I have learned that my life is in His hands, it is not in mine. And I have discovered that His plan is ALWAYS more beautiful than mine. I can't predict the future, but I know what is in my heart. For now my non-descriptive post-its are perfect and I am simply waiting until He decides to show me that something beautiful.

This Is It.

This is my blog. I've thought for weeks about what the title would be, what it would look like and what in the world I would write in it. It's not perfect just yet, but at least now it exists. In my 25 years of life I have started several journals to never have finished even one. I have remembered to write, forgotten, remembered and forgotten until that final chapter just stays forgotten. However, even in the journals that I have never finished, I look back and I see that I have learned, that I have grown and that I have somehow figured out just a little bit more about life. This is my new journal that hopefully will not have an end. It is my goal to not only learn about myself, but to share with you the things in life that I find most important and the little things that make my heart smile. I can't promise I will be interesting, funny, or clever, but I will attempt to share my life, my feelings, my passions, my hobbies, my favorite things and my dreams with my family, my friends and the world. Welcome to my life and the people and things that matter most in it.