TWO YEARS OUT

Today was not my best birthday. It wasn’t my worst, either.

Funny how your perspective on everything in life changes when you come so close to death. Tomorrow is the two year anniversary of the day I almost died. Two years was really not that long ago. I still experience some physical side effects from that medical ordeal, but the memory is finally becoming a little more distant. Any hint of nausea does still put me on guard, though. You can read more about my medical emergency here:  http://momchronicles.blogspot.com/2011_02_01_archive.html and here: http://momchronicles.blogspot.com/2011_03_01_archive.html.

Last year I posted "ONE YEAR OUT" which mainly dealt with what I had learned from this experience. You can read that post here: http://momchronicles.blogspot.com/p/health-chronicles.html (scroll down a bit). I was still really wrapping my head around the fact that I actually almost died. Kaput. Finished. Almost kicked the bucket. It really and truly almost happened. I did take some time to examine what I had learned. The year that followed was such a whirlwind as far as getting a new job and jumping into a new leadership opportunity, and just plain trusting God with His plan for me.

This year I think that my focus lies more in what He has next for me. I have been faithful and I have worked hard. The whirlwind has not died down in the least, but I know the path. It's not straight or narrow or clear of debris, but it is more familiar this time. I feel like I am home. I'm just so dagblamed thankful right now. Even on the stinky days.

It’s so ironic that this day falls around my birthday. Not everyone has the privilege of having so many re-birthdays. I actually have a slew of them now! At the top of the list is my re-birth in accepting Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. That one cannot be outdone, of course, but the others are still so much a part of who I am. This literal second chance at life itself is a close second, with the third being weight loss surgery and losing 145 pounds in 2003, which led to a fourth re-birth in leaving an abusive relationship the following year.

Read that paragraph again. Wow! It may sound awful at first but truly...it just screams  out so loudly...I HAVE LIVED! And I have. But there is so much more ahead. And here I am, Lord. Lead on!

O Lord, lead me in Thy righteousness, because of those observing me, make straight before me Thy way.

PSALM 5:8