More...

 Remember to scroll down to read "Older Posts" first....


I got married when I was 28 to Scott and had a son (Jonathan) about a year later. Jonathan was a little early coming in to the world. I had what is called IGR (intrauterine growth retardation), they ended up taking him at 8 months term since he would grow outside me better than inside me! My body was stealing the nutrition from him. So, although I gained 30 pounds, he only weighed 2 lb 12.5 oz! I'm still holding onto some of those pounds! He's 26 years old now! Motherhood changes you! You wear your seat belt all the time and listen a lot harder to everything going on around you. It's a little less about "me", and you find this little person taking up a lot of your time and energy! Well, I still managed to find "me" time, I had a lot of good baby sitters! I was a pretty selfish person for quite a number of years. 
I started going to a Mom's bible study that I really enjoyed and loved the ladies involved in it too. I think it softened me quite a bit. I was getting into the Word of God and growing closer to Him in a way I hadn't before. Little did I know how much I would be needing this...
When Scott and I were 36 years old (our birthdays were 18 days apart - me being the elder!), he was diagnosed with Chronic Myeloid Leukemia (CML). Well, that was a shocker! Nothing happened at first, then about 6 months down the road they suggested he start on Interferon shots. He did this for quite some time and it put him in deep remission. As a matter of fact, one of the doctors at a hospital in Philadelphia said he was "cured"!! Boy, did we celebrate that day!
Shortly after that, we moved to Florida for a job he was offered. This was in July of 1996. Things were great, we were enjoying life and the beach and being with friends when wham! Blood work came back that "it was baaaccckk!" Oh, my! I was not ready to hear that! We started looking in to a bone marrow transplant right away as it was back as acute no longer chronic! Scott had no family matches for donors (lots of loved ones tried <3) so we looked into other possibilities. After checking with Moffitt Cancer Center here in Tampa and Fred Hutchinson in Seattle, we went to Case Western in Cleveland, Ohio for his BMT.
Unfortunately, he had to go through too many rounds of chemo and radiation and I believe the radiation burned his organs so badly, that by the time the transplant "took", his organs had started to shut down one by one. He passed away on November 26, 1998. During this time, I cannot begin to tell you how much I relied on God to help me through day by day.

Remember to scroll down to read "Older Posts" first....

In the Beginning…

Now that I have given you the low-down of my health history of this disease I am battling, let me go back and tell you more about me and my life…

I was raised in Pennsylvania, north of Philadelphia; in a little rural town in Bucks County called Hilltown. I have 3 siblings, 2 brothers and 1 sister; but I am the baby. Probably, an “accident” as I was 6 years behind my youngest, older sister.

Our home was not a “religious” home; I probably had a closer relationship to the Charlie Chips can than I did with God when I was a little girl. However, we always said grace before eating and went to church on Sundays. I do remember one particular Sunday that I didn’t want to go to church and put up a little fight, and my dad spanked me (the only time I remember that happening) and told me to go get dressed for church.

When I got a little older, about 13 I’d say, we used to go camping quite a bit in the summer time and we went to a campfire revival meeting where when the speaker asked if anyone wanted to accept Jesus in their hearts they were to raise their hand. With my eyes closed (all were supposed to do this), I raised my hand and really meant it. My mom later tells me, she knew (did she peek?) it was me that raised my hand when the man said “Hallelujah, young lady”. Unfortunately, there was no follow up to my beginnings of this small step of faith. My parents were not into this “born-again” thing I wanted to try, so it kind of fell through the cracks of my life.

Later in years, when I was about 18 I got involved with a group of kids that were going to church and one boy in particular attracted my attention. It’s not the noblest reason to attend church but it got me there. Unfortunately again, with this kind of attitude, one doesn’t get out of something what one should. So, my world continued on “sowing my wild oats”.