One Year Anniversary

{I wrote and posted this on Facebook in May 2010, one year after my surgery}

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition with Thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus" Phil 4:4-7

This is the passage I clung to in the early months of 2009 as I was ill, and it's the passage that brought me great comfort one year ago today as I went in for neurosurgery. I had been diagnosed two days earlier with a large brain mass (racquetball size) behind my right eye. The first hospital I was sent to diagnosed it as a glioblastoma (100% terminal). Due to a neurosurgical conference on the east coast, there were no surgeons available and they transported me to the Barrows where they had a few neurosurgeons that stayed behind from the conference. They began immediate testing. By 4 am the following morning, there was Hope. They wouldn't know for sure until the biopsy was done, but their preliminary diagnosis was a meningioma tumor (non-benign). Real HOPE.

The following day was surgery. All went well and the mass was benign. What a blessing! Today, May 7, I am a year out and I have my health. The Lord has been good to me.

My friends, I faced death and the Lord delivered me. His perfect plan allowed me health and a renewed reliance on Him.

In my moment of terror (the phone call from my neurologist), the Lord brought so much good- my amazing family flew in from California within a few hours and our amazing church family, Palm Valley, was by our side- immediately. The peace of God was all around us.

I am so very grateful for my experience: to be chosen by God to walk the plank and gain perspective I wouldn't have had otherwise. The truth is, aside from my kids' salvation, nothing really mattered the night I was told I was going to die.

As Rex and I sat completely silent in the first ER room, I vividly remember the few words spoken over the hours of silence.

"Promise me you'll raise our kids in church," I said.

"I will," he replied.

"That's all that matters. I can live with the thought of you raising them without me on earth, but I cannot live with the thought of not spending eternity with them," I responded.

He said, "I will raise them in church, knowing the Lord, I promise." And that was it. That's all that mattered.

And in those moments of painful silence, the Lord brought great comfort to us through our family, our church family and our friends. I've learned that you can trust God right now to supply all your needs for today. And if your needs are more for tomorrow, His supply will be greater also. The Lord gave me what I needed every second of every day from illness to diagnosis to surgery, and now recovery.

"No eye has seen nor ear has heard and no mind has imagined what God prepared for those who love Him" I Cor. 2:9

So that's my story. The Lord has blessed me greatly & today is my 1 year anniversary from my surgery blessing.