Terribly Thankful

I want to start this post by giving all glory and honor and praise to God.  He is merciful, and miraculous and I truly love Him!

On October 31st I went to the doctor with a simple list a symptoms and physical issues to ask about, and I left confused and terrified.  After blood work that day I got a concerning result that needed attention.  I would love to say that my first reaction was just to seek God's comfort and step out in faith and understand that He is in control.  Instead, I cried a lot and imagined the worst possible scenarios.  I would burst out in tears at the sight of my children.  I was a mess. About a day later God stepped in and I felt Him impress on my heart that if Rhett's testimony hadn't increased my faith, how could I expect Him to use it to increase the faith of others.  Of those who didn't even see what God did in my son's heart, and the miraculous healing that could only be done by God.  I instantly felt convicted and put my total faith and trust in Him.  From that day on peace and comfort have surrounded me.

The past few weeks have been a battery of tests...Luekemia, Hodgkins Lymphoma, Ovarian cancer, Cervical cancer and double breast lump biopsies.  4 CT scans, X-rays, ultrasounds, needles, blood work, disgusting drinks.  You name it, I got it.  My blood was tested for all sorts of things like aids, hepatitis, Chronic Epstein Barr, tumor markers and who knows what else.

From these tests, my surgeon (who is monitoring my lymph nodes) has no answers.  All that had been found were some cysts, my liver and spleen are enlarged, reactive lymphocytes in my blood and that elevated result in my blood work (that cause them to continue looking for something).  Last week at my visit she farmed me out for more tests and shrugged her shoulders and said, "Do you want to retake the blood work and see what happens?"  I agreed.  The next morning I got the computer generated test results back showing that my elevated level of 86 had gone down to a completely normal level of 18!!  I couldn't believe it, but I totally could.  I was laughing and crying and calling my family as fast as I could.  The surgeon called me herself later on to let me know this exciting news! All I could do was praise and thank God.

I had an appointment with a doctor this morning to check out one of the cysts that was found, and his guess is that I likely have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome following a pretty extreme case of Epstein Barr I experienced last fall.  I could not be happier with that assumption.  In fact, I'm thrilled with it.  I am also happy to report that I gained 4 lbs in one week, which had been a struggle for months, and happened to be the same week my elevated blood work came back normal.

God is so good.  Even if this was nothing from the beginning, the peace he provided is miraculous.  I feel in my heart that He touched my body.  I feel like he heard the prayers of the prayer warriors who were on their knees petitioning God for my health.  I am overwhelmed just by the thought of how much He loves me.

I wanted to share this with you to tell you that God loves you and He answers prayers.  James 4:8 says "Draw near to God and He will draw near to you."  You guys, the devil is looking for any and every opportunity to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus is sitting next to God petitioning for us.  He paid the price, "He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are Healed (Isaiah 53:5)!  We have access to the throne to ask for healing.  Hebrews 4:16 says, "Let us then approach God's throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need." Amen and Hallelujah!  If you don't know Jesus, but you want all of this, I want to share it with you!

Love you!

Sarah