Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Lifetime of Hope Session - Grace: Congential Heart Defect

Meet Grace, born in 2011 with a congential heart defect.


Grace is about the sweetest of little girls I've ever met and if you didn't know she was born with this defect you would never be able to tell!!!

Upon learning of the diagnosis, Grace's parents were overwhelmed, but became very hopeful as their knowledge of the defect increased.  Grace's symptoms were enough to scare any parent, trouble feeding, growing and maintaining weight, but despite these terrifying symptoms her parents were very satisfied with the overall health care that she received.

Grace is a year post surgeries and all the scary stuff that surrounds her diagnosis, however, she still has follow-up care, but is doing well!!!!

A life threatening diagnosis can change anyone's outlook on life, Grace's parents are simply thankful for every minute they have with her.  They found their strength in having faith and when asked what their advice to others who may find themselves in a similar situation they said "Have faith and find the best doctors you can!"  A little piece of wisdom they wish to pass along is "God does not give you more then you can handle! We have learned this!"

Tuesday, January 1, 2013

Parting is such sweet sorrow ... not really.

You know the scene in Romeo and Juliet where they both die, or rather Romeo thinks Juliet is dead, drinks poison and kills himself but then she awakens only to find Romeo dead? Well that was a little how the beginning of 2012 felt for me.  Let me explain ...

In December of 2011, things in my personal life were simply horrible. I had no idea how to end a relationship that I had been faking being happy in for several years and I felt helpless and hopeless.  I had started hitting a bottom that I really did not want to hit.  With choices made by another, choices were forced on my part.  Only to be halted briefly with what January brought. 

In January 2012, I came to realize that I had become a bigger part of a co-dependent relationship.  Me. Miss Independent is now co-dependent. I couldn't wrap my head around it.  I allowed lies, deceit, cheating and selfishness to become and overwhelm me.  I started to feel, once again, that I deserved to be treated this way.  With one more lie, a change I had hoped for ended.  Only I didn't realize it.  

February is pretty much a blur, all I really remember is feeling like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders again and not a single person to trust by my side. But, I started to make plans for me and my girls, plans that did not include this other person in my life. 

March was the beginning of the end of a chapter of my life, actually it was more like a volume in my encyclopedic auto-biography, but alas, it was the beginning of an end and the start of a new beginning.  I finally found my way out of this toxicity I had been involved in, and it was a lot easier then I imagined.  I also learned that I had developed a cyst again on my ovary, a fairly large one too, which was a large part of some other issues I was having, which I had attributed to just being caused by stress.

April, May, June and July were spent working on me, on my own happiness. I needed to find a place where I felt whole again.  A place where I knew who I was again.  It didn't take long, but it took a whole lot of courage on my part.  I was battling with becoming an improved me. 

August hit me hard, both in a good way and a bad way.  I'll explain the bad part first.  I had this looming feeling that another chapter of my life was coming to an end.  I had been working in a job that I thought I loved for nearly 6 years, but just wasn't happy anymore.  I wanted a way out without actually quitting or having to find another job.  As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for, because you will, eventually, get it.  It wasn't so much that I needed to be careful with what I was wishing for, but rather, that I was ready for what I was wishing for.  At the end of August, I had been informed that I was losing my job, corporate America had come in and taken over the small company that I had loved working for and shutting down the department I was a part of.  I was both happy and sad upon hearing this news.  I was happy because I can finally do what I love without having to worry about the effects of quitting a job. But sad because this was something I could rely on, a job with benefits and was very flexible when I needed it to be.  I had also started really talking to Al, literally, the man of my dreams, also someone I didn't think I would ever find. But from the very minute things "got real" with him, I embraced every moment of it, I feared nothing.  Which leads me into September...

September brought me to a whole new volume in my encyclopedic auto-biography.  My best friend and I took a weekend trip to Gettysburg to visit a very dear friend and celebrate our birthdays.  I can honestly say, it was one of the best trips I have ever taken.  We laughed so much and had so much fun.  I turned 35 and got one of the best birthday gifts ever ... Al.  We had our first "official" date the day after my birthday and we've been together since.  Then, on September 10th, I received some news that practically devastated me.  I not only had a cyst on one of my ovaries, but now on both of them.  This would mean surgery.  I had to have my tubes tied, my right ovary removed, the cyst taken off my left ovary and have a uterine ablation. This means no more kids. Not that I really wanted anymore, but it's still felt a lot like my womanhood was being ripped away from me.  In the end, I also had to have my appendix out because it was twisted up with the cyst from my ovary ... can you say OUCH! It was also confirmed that I had stage 4 endometriosis, which was no big surprise, I had known for years that I suffered from it, just not the severity of it.   Back to Al, when I say that I literally found the man of my dreams, I really mean it.  I have forever said that I just want a man who will take care of me, not necessarily financially, but more in the terms of emotionally, physically and mentally ... and that is exactly what I have with Al!!!!  He completely amazes me and I feel like I am the luckiest girl in the world to have this man in my life!!! 

The rest of year has brought nothing but increased happiness in my life.  I finally feel like I am where I should be and I got to experience NYC and cross off two of my bucket list items with the man of my dreams and we had an amazing time!!!  So, goodbye 2012, you were good to me, but I have to make room for new and exciting experiences in 2013.


I hope you all have a wonderful new year filled with positive change and love.

Peace, Love and Light, 

Christine
http://www.lifetimememorieswny.com

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