One leg of the Journey is Over and a New One Begins

I made it through my last round of chemo without any complications. No fevers or more hospital stays. My counts came up just a few days before Christmas and I was able to enjoy the holidays with my family. Praise God! One leg of the journey is now over and a new one has begun. My treatments are done and now I get tested monthly and seen by the doctor. My hope is to be back at work by February and to have my strength up. I'm still easily fatigued, but seeing progress. My hemoglobin was still very low on Dec 29th when I had my last visit to the doctors. That's probably one of the leading factors for my fatigue other than the fact that my body has had a beating for the last 6 months. Oh! and they pulled my picline out then too. Yipee! no more tubes hanging out of my arm :-)

I started my blog just over six months ago stating that this was my journey through the valley of Leukemia to the green pastures of remission and increased faith. Well, I'm in remission and my faith has definitely been increased. I have learned so much about my self, God, my family and my church. I won't begin to list all the things I've learned, but I feel that I have been truly blessed by this experience with Leukemia. I've experienced such love and encouragement from everyone that it has impacted my faith and understanding of God's love for me in such a way that words cannot express. I noticed the title of the Ladies Retreat my church does each year. This years title is " A joyful journey". My journey was a joyful one. Although this journey challenged my health, faith, marriage, children, family, work and ministry, I had a peace and joy in the midst of my trials. The journey through the valley of the Shadow of Death was not one without its challenges, there were wolves and robbers and rocks and difficult terrain and darkness, but those sheep could rest assure that their Shepherd was in control and they would make it through the valley to the other side where there was green pasture. The sheep that knew their shepherds voice, obeyed and stayed close to the shepherd experienced peace and security. The sheep that were skittish and wondered off easily experienced fear and confusion. Each of us have a choice to choose to get to know and trust God through our journey in life and experience hope and peace and joy even in hard times, which the bible promises we will have, or we can choose not to trust, to go it our own way and depend on ourselves and often experience fear and disappointment and hopelessness, like there's no end or way out when hard times hit us.

Do you like roller coasters? I've shared my passion for a good roller coaster. I've also compared our journey to that of a roller coaster. We can enjoy the ride or fight it all the way. It depends on your outlook. Is it one of fear or one of faith? What will we do when we are challenged with storms and trials? I must confess that I have my moments and I'm not super-human in how I handle the stress in my life, but they are that; moments. This is a daily discipline. It's a process. It does not come naturally. When I'm overwhelmed, I cannot allow myself to sit in fear. I must confess it and look up and be reminded of who God is, what He says He will do, and Who I am in Christ. I couldn't imagine how hard this journey would have been if I had allowed myself to focus on my fears or the what if's. It sure would not have been a joyful one. Praise God that he gave me the strength and wisdom to know that He is ultimately in control and that He loves me and works all things out for my good and His glory. This statement is true and what I believe and therefore will continue to live by it day by day. It needs to impact how I see every aspect of my life, marriage, children, family, work, ministry; that is the process part.

So my new journey has begun. Eat right, Uggh. exercise, and most importantly seek God first and slow down. This leg might be harder than the last. LOL

Love you all! Have a Blessed New Year!

~Edie