WOW IT's been a really long time.

Since The last time I blogged lots has happened. To start with I finished school. This was a bitter-sweet thing. While I am glad to be done with school I really miss it. I enjoyed being in school. I am currently contemplating going back for my masters in Child and Family Counseling. I will not do this until I get rid of some of my debt. i just dont think schooling for me is done yet.

I am currently going through a mentor training class at church. While the purpose of this training is to prepare me to mentor other christian, I feel like it has helped me grow so much in my faith. It has also made me question alot. I am really enjoying it. I am also involved in 2 different women's bible studies which I LOVE!!!! The women in my bible studies over the years have become some of my best friends. They are so encouraging and it has been amazing to see how many over our prayers have been answered over the years.

The thing that is taking up most of my time right now is searching for a job. This is another one of those bitter-sweet things. I love my current job but I am needing to earn more. So I am currently looking for jobs that are either part time or full time. I would ask that you pray that something will come up soon. I would really like to get rid of some of my debt. I have been trying to really stick with the Dave Ramsey program and it is going pretty well. I have paid of one debt fully and next month I will have paid off at least one more. It is such a great feeling.

Hope all of you are doing well. I am going to try and post each day about something I am thankful about so stay tuned :)

quick update on life

I am sitting here at doernbecher enjoying my morning coffee reflecting on the craziness of the last month. Im almost a month into my time at Doernbecher. I absolutely love it. It has come with challenges but over all I am gaining great experience. When factoring in classes I am finishing up I am taking approximetly 17-19 credits this term. Taking so many credits makes life feel crazy but I am glad to be almost done. Graduation is August 12 in the park blocks. I can't believe Im almost done. I am not sure what I will do once I am done but I have a few plans in place.

Outside of school stuff I am enjoying time with family and friends. Tonight I am going to the Timbers game, I am also planning on camping at the end of July. I am looking forward to being done with school and being able to enjoy summer a little more. This is just a quick update. I will try to fill in more when I have time.

missing dad

Today would be my dad's birthday. I think of him often but lately it feel like more often then not. I think about how much he is missing. I know he is heaven but I sometimes wonder if he see's what is happening here. I hope that if he can see his family he would be proud. I know I am proud of my family and I only imagine how much more my dad would be. So instead of writing a sad note about my dad I think I will share how proud of my family I am.

I am proud of how my mom is doing on her own. It takes a lot of strength to continue on and she's done it. She went back to school, got another degree and works really hard to provide for herself.

I'm proud of My oldest brother and how he has raised such great loving kids.

I'm proud of my older brother for staying strong even when life is hard. He hasn't given up even when the job market stinks. He continues to rely on God even when others would have given up.

I'm proud of my oldest sister and all that she does. We call her super mom because she is a super mom. She pulls the kiddos teeth when they need to come out (even though it totally disgusts her), she sews, she cooks, she cleans, and still finds time to play with her kiddos.

Im proud of my older sister as she deals with A's illness. Alot of mom's would have given up but she has helped miss A battle her cancer head on. She continues to got to school, while also traveling up her for chemo's and other appointments.

So That's my family. I could brag more. I am so grateful that they are my family and I know my dad would be proud

School ending!!!

So yesterday was a bitter sweet day for me. I had my CFS (child and family studies) graduation party. A lot of them will be graduating next weekend. I was really worried at the begining of the year as the 2 girls I got know really well weren't coming back. As this year has progressed I opened up more to the people in my classes and made some great friends. I am bummed to not be walking with them this weekend, but looking forward to my own graduation later this summer.

On a happier note. The CFS department gave us cords for graduation which was really sweet. Everyone recieved purple cords for our department. I was honored with a purple and yellow cord because I was in the honors program. It was a really cool experience. I am so glad I went to the party. It is just crazy to think of how different graduating from high school and college are from each other. I barely passed high school and I am graduating college with department honors, latin honors and national honor society.

I feel so blessed to have had the opertunity to get my degree. There have been so many people who have supported me and for that I am grateful. If it wasn't for one individual kept encouraging me to apply for FAFSA I never would have been here. She is a true blessing to me and I don't know if I can ever thank for enough for supporting me and believing in me. I could go on but the point is I feel very blessed to have the people in my life who support me.

Update on my life

Since the last post school has started up again. This term I have started my honor project. I am really excited about it. For my project I will be researching child hood cancer and the effects it has in schools. I am looking at the effects it has on the sibling and the child who has cancer and what that means for the classroom. On average one child in every class of 30 will have gone through or be going through treatment for cancer. This means that many classrooms need to look at the short term affects and long term affects cancer can have in the class room. research shows that siblings of cancer patients have a higher rate of behavior issues and PTSD than the child who has the cancer. This will be one of the main focuses of my project.

I got the practicum I wanted :) I will be starting at Doernbechor in May. Doernbechor has not been taking practicum students for a long time and just decided to open it this year. I have always wanted to work at doernbechor and feel very privilaged to have gotten this practicum. Doernbechor decided to only take one practicum student at a time and only took 2 total this year. I feel so blessed to be chosen as one of the two. I feel this is a true blessing from God.

Life is so busy right now. I feel like I am never home. Besides school keeping me busy I have enjoyed spending time with my friends and family. I have had the chance to attend birthday parties for family members as well as just playing with the nieces and nephews. They are growing so fast.

I went and saw Billy Elliot last week which was great. I also attended the Dave Ramsey seminar thanks to my friend Jason who had free tickets. I am really excited to start really putting Ramsey's steps into practice.

Last update for this blog is that I have applied for graduation. My application has been accepted so if all goes well I will graduate on August 13th!!!! I can't believe it is happening so fast.

I will update again soon

major update on my life

So it has been a long time since I posted. It seems like life is in fast forward right now. I have just finished applying for my second to last term as PSU. It is crazy to think that in August I will be done. It is exciting and also very scary. I know I have posted a lot about going to Africa. In a bitter sweet desicion I have decided to put that on hold a little while longer. God has been opening many oppertunities here and I feel like the options here are once in a life time options where Africa is something I can persue later on. I am constantly looking for ways in which to serve in Africa and am keeping my options open. I would like to help in an orphange at some point over there. I also recently came accross an article that was about how hospitals in Africa are starting to take on Child Life Specialists. In someways I wonder if that has been God's plan all along. I am continuing to persue Child Life and maybe I will end up in Africa someday. I remember the worry I had when Africa was becoming a reality the first time. I wondered what I had to dream and reach for after that because africa had been a dream for so long. I now see that my dream just changes. I dream of a time where I could either serve full time in a hospital in Africa or a time in which I could visit Africa on a regular occurance and be part of the work over there. I know God knows the plans and I am trying to just follow along.

In other news... I applied to the Honors program at PSU and was accepted. The honors program has been compared to do a thesis project, analysis, and paper over a 2 term stint. I will start that this term. I am working on a practicum site for Child Life. I don't want to jinx it but this is the first time this hospital has allowed practicum students in about 3-4 years. There is one slot available and I am in the running for it so please pray that it will work out. I am also applying for my senior capstone which is working at Camp Starlight which is for kids who are affected with or by AIDS and HIV. School is super crazy and I am not sure what I will do when I no longer have it but I am currently loving it.

While life always has its ups and down I feel so blessed lately by God in my life. I am just trying to keep perspective on what matters in life. I have been reading through the old testament in Chronilogical order. I have done Genesis, Job, Exodus, Leviticus, and now I am on Numbers. In reading the old testament I am constantly reminded that we will have trouble but he is with us, he never leaves us. I am also reminded that we may not know what a profound affect what we do today will impact people for generations to come. As you read these names of people who have died years ago and then look back at the geneology of Christ, those people didn't know that what they did that day would impact a person, a city, a nation, a world. I am trying to remember that as much as I can lately.

I know this is really long but that is the update. I am truly going to try and write in my blog more. I think I need to schedule it in. Last few updates since last post...I got a new laptop (I love my MAC), I started working with the youth at church, went on my first retreat with the youth, got my first injury on a youth event (just a concussion and had my forehead glued back together :) no worries!), and attended my first Blazer game. I will leave it at that. Sorry again for the long post.

Better than a hallelujah update.

So, many of you may have read the Better than a Hallelujah post. That was written the night of my niece Ammys surgery to remove a tumor. God has really been placing on my heart this song as we go through this journey. I will admit that night I was very angry with God. I still don't fully understand why I get to go through the journey of cancer again. It was not fun the first time and definetly not fun the second time watching Ammy go through it. One thing this song has continued to lay on my heart and get me through this is that sometimes it is are cries of anger and sadness that God would rather hear. So during this journey I will continue to give my hallelujahs to God but will also not hold back my cries and prayers from him as well. If you have not seen my sister's update on Ammy I have posted it below. She is much better at explaining it then I am.


Ammy Update

I must apologize to some of you who have been waiting to hear an update on my beautiful Niece Ammy after her last surgery. I know you have waited a long time and we have not shared much details with you. As a family we all needed some time to process and wait for more answers. We greatly appreciate each and every one of you and your many prayers. As far as her surgery she is recovering great and enjoying her first week at school. The Doctors removed most of the tumor located on her spine. Yes I did say MOST that is why we have been quiet for awhile. We knew bits and piece of what might lay ahead but it was just to hard to talk about with so little answers. Yesterday we met with Ammy's Oncologist and got more information as to what might lie ahead. Where to begin ... Ammy has a tumor that will not go away with Chemo or radiation so basically the plan is to keep that crazy thing from growing so she does not have to have any more surgeries. The tumor as is now does not hurt her or cause much problem it is however something she will have to check on for the rest of her life thru regular MRIs. So how do we stop the tumor from growing? The best way at this point in time is a chemo therapy treatment. The treatment is a 6 week coarse that will include 3 different pill forms of chemo and also an injection two or three times in that 6 weeks. This coarse of treatment will be repeated 8 times, so that means it will take about a year to complete. She will be having surgery in a few weeks to get a port put in her chest to make blood draws and injections much easier. Once the port is in place treatment will begin a few weeks after that. The side affects are she will feel sick to her stomach and her hair might thin a bit as well as weakened immune system. She will continue in school and learn to be very good and washing her hands to keep yucky germs away. The chemo is hopefully to keep the tumor from growing any bigger over the next 2 to 3 years. She will be continued to monitored thru MRIs and if new growth happens we will start a new plan. Ammy's spirit is well and she is such a brave little trooper. Thank you again dear friends for your prayers and support!!!