We are 3 days into the New Year and I have done a lot of reflecting back on 2012. Originally I was going to blog about my reflections of last year but then thought a blog about how awesome Christmas time in Germany is would be better. Well, I changed my mind as I feel pushed to share my thoughts on 2012. Next week I will likely write about Christmas in Germany though, because it's pretty great.
Before talking about 2012, I feel it necessary to quickly look back on 2011. 2011 was a very hard year on many levels. Josh left on Mother's Day for his 7 deployment and was gone for 6 months. In the beginning of 2011 I started to feel confident in my faith and really liked how things were going in my Christian life. Well not too long after Josh left my Grandpa, extremely healthy never-smoked-in-his-life Grandpa, got lung cancer. Definitely hit the whole family hard. To see a man who never even got the flu be hit hard with something so serious as cancer was a hard thing to wrap our minds around. Just a few weeks after his diagnosis another blow to my faith happened. A family close to me, very suddenly lost their baby after a very healthy, full term pregnancy-something you only think happens in 3rd world countries where OB care is nonexistent. Needless to say my faith was rocked and God and I were not on good terms. 2011 proved to be the year that I questioned the good of God. I won't go into long stories about either situation as they are not my "stories" to tell but rather give a quick summary of a realization I had later on in 2011. During an Alpha class I was attending (I highly recommend anyone questioning the Christian faith to look into the Alpha course) a question was posed on how we know we believe in God. My answer came rather quickly.When those things happened to my Grandpa and to my friend I immediately started talking to God..not necessarily nice things either. But I realized that if I didn't believe in God, I would have never been mad at Him or hurt by Him. On Christmas I don't get mad at Santa when he doesn't bring me a present, because I know Santa isn't real. So if I didn't truly believe in God, I would have never been mad at him..you can't be mad at someone you don't believe in. After realizing that I knew I was going to have a relationship with God again, it was just going to take time. I had not given up on Him and I wasn't going to. So 2012 was my year of working on my relationship and trust in God.
2 major things and many minor things happened to me in 2012. I will touch on the 2 major things as they are both acts from God and I feel compelled to share them.
As some of you know Joslyn had suffered for almost 2 1/2 yrs from something called Encopresis. I will try my best to save the gory details of it but still need to explain it a bit. Encopresis is basically chronic constipation that results in soiling of the pants in kids that are potty trained. When Joslyn was 4 she had been potty trained for over 2 years but out of the blue had soiling in her pants. This continued for many years getting extremely bad towards the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. Treatment for Encopresis went from occasional colon cleanses to doing them 2-4 times a month! These treatments are something adults would cringe at and our 4,5,6 and almost 7 year old was doing them almost every weekend and missing out on so much of her childhood as she was confined to a bathroom for days. We were seeing her doctor a couple times a month and she even had to be referred to a Psychologist because of the long term damage Encopresis can have on children emotionally. Thankfully God gave us the most understanding tough-cookie of a daughter and the Psychologist was not concerned that she was affected emotionally by this! Physically though, Joslyn went from being one of the tallest kids in pre-k to slowly growing over the next couple years. Although she was healthy looking we just knew she wasn't growing at the rate she was before. We were getting hand me downs from friends whose kids were younger then her!
In February 2012 I was chatting with my good friend, Ari-Amber. I was expressing my frustrations with failed treatments for Joslyn and how it was getting worse and worse. Ari mentioned having our intercessory prayer team at church pray over Joslyn. Immediately I said no. I have trust in doctors and the medical field...we didn't need prayers, we needed modern day medicine (I'm totally kicking myself for ever thinking that!!). I really didn't see how going into a room, praying over Joslyn and bawling my eyes out would help her. Ari being the amazing person she is, never told me how stupid I sounded and just said if I changed my mind she would be happy to go into the room with us. I told Josh Ari's suggestion later that night and he thought it was a good idea. The next day was Sunday and I was outnumbered, so into the room we went with Ari, Josh, Joslyn and myself. 2 people Josh and I knew and trusted, Mike and Tonia Webb, anointed Joslyn with oil and prayed over here. I actually don't know what they said because I was praying so hard in my head for God to heal her and make her better. Later Tonia had told me that during their prayer she kept feeling/hearing "wheat".
Just 3 days later our prayers were answered (now God doesn't always work that fast but He did this time). It was Wednesday evening, Joslyn's GI doctor called and said we needed to see him first thing in the morning to go over test results that were taken a week before. Nope, not waiting till the morning...tell me now!!! So he told us she has celiac disease-makes sense why Tonia kept feeling/hearing "wheat". Most of you know all about this thanks to my endless facebook posts or from hearing about it first hand from me so I won't go into detail about it. There were other appointments we had to do before having her go gluten free (GF). In April 2012 we were given the OK to start the GF diet and since then she has not had a single problem with Encopresis (celiac disease caused the Encopresis). Just weeks after going GF she sprouted up in length and gained weight...she is continuing to grow rapidly but is very healthy.
I believe with all my heart this was God's work in her diagnosis. I know some people believe that the blood test was already taken and her results would have been positive for celiac regardless of praying over her. I completely disagree and say God did it. Statistically her test should have been negative. Most celiacs are diagnosed after 7-11 yrs of suffering (not 2 1/2 yrs) and are diagnosed much later in life (not at age 7). So she had everything stacked against her and yet her test came back positive. For that I give thanks to my Lord and my only regret is that we didn't go into that room and pray sooner. God is more powerful then any smarty-pants doctor or fancy medicine!
My last highlight of 2012 was our move to Germany! When we got orders to Germany (OK we actually got orders to Muscat, Oman first, then it was Germany, then it was Oman again and finally Josh picked Germany!) I was excited and nervous. I don't like change and I'm not a traveler and have never had any desire to see anything except Graceland!! So I knew the only way I could make it in Germany for 3 yrs was to pray A LOT to God. I prayed for acceptance in the move with open arms and an open heart. I also prayed and continue to pray that He help my family with me being so far away.
I can't tell you how many friends and family members have said to me, "Wow, Alethea, I can't believe you are doing so well over there. I can't believe you look so happy in pictures and sound so happy on the phone. I can't believe you are doing so much and seeing so much in Europe. This is NOT the Alethea I know." And those statements are correct! I'm not the same person because I asked God to help change me. I knew I couldn't survive living in Germany without help from God. I put my trust and faith in Him for this move and He has come through! I still struggle being away from family and friends but I also have a freeing feeling that I'm alright here, this is where I am meant to be right now in my life.
If you have actually read this whole thing...thank you! I also hope that if you are one of my friends and family that struggle with your faith, that you can take a look at how much I have changed and I hope that you will see that anything is possible when you give yourself up to God. I am still a work in progress and always will be. But I love that I have my Heavenly Father always on side and always quick to forgive when I do fail. I have found that having a church family surrounded by Christians is what helps me. There is something so wonderful about having friends that are always there to listen, not judge and pray for you when you feel knocked down. A big thank you to my girls back home who have been called upon so many times this last year for prayers, guidance and support. Jill, Ari, Lindsey, Brandi, Cathy, Jen and Nikke...I can't tell you how much you have helped me and you will always be a huge part of my 2012 :) Love you ladies!
Before talking about 2012, I feel it necessary to quickly look back on 2011. 2011 was a very hard year on many levels. Josh left on Mother's Day for his 7 deployment and was gone for 6 months. In the beginning of 2011 I started to feel confident in my faith and really liked how things were going in my Christian life. Well not too long after Josh left my Grandpa, extremely healthy never-smoked-in-his-life Grandpa, got lung cancer. Definitely hit the whole family hard. To see a man who never even got the flu be hit hard with something so serious as cancer was a hard thing to wrap our minds around. Just a few weeks after his diagnosis another blow to my faith happened. A family close to me, very suddenly lost their baby after a very healthy, full term pregnancy-something you only think happens in 3rd world countries where OB care is nonexistent. Needless to say my faith was rocked and God and I were not on good terms. 2011 proved to be the year that I questioned the good of God. I won't go into long stories about either situation as they are not my "stories" to tell but rather give a quick summary of a realization I had later on in 2011. During an Alpha class I was attending (I highly recommend anyone questioning the Christian faith to look into the Alpha course) a question was posed on how we know we believe in God. My answer came rather quickly.When those things happened to my Grandpa and to my friend I immediately started talking to God..not necessarily nice things either. But I realized that if I didn't believe in God, I would have never been mad at Him or hurt by Him. On Christmas I don't get mad at Santa when he doesn't bring me a present, because I know Santa isn't real. So if I didn't truly believe in God, I would have never been mad at him..you can't be mad at someone you don't believe in. After realizing that I knew I was going to have a relationship with God again, it was just going to take time. I had not given up on Him and I wasn't going to. So 2012 was my year of working on my relationship and trust in God.
2 major things and many minor things happened to me in 2012. I will touch on the 2 major things as they are both acts from God and I feel compelled to share them.
As some of you know Joslyn had suffered for almost 2 1/2 yrs from something called Encopresis. I will try my best to save the gory details of it but still need to explain it a bit. Encopresis is basically chronic constipation that results in soiling of the pants in kids that are potty trained. When Joslyn was 4 she had been potty trained for over 2 years but out of the blue had soiling in her pants. This continued for many years getting extremely bad towards the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012. Treatment for Encopresis went from occasional colon cleanses to doing them 2-4 times a month! These treatments are something adults would cringe at and our 4,5,6 and almost 7 year old was doing them almost every weekend and missing out on so much of her childhood as she was confined to a bathroom for days. We were seeing her doctor a couple times a month and she even had to be referred to a Psychologist because of the long term damage Encopresis can have on children emotionally. Thankfully God gave us the most understanding tough-cookie of a daughter and the Psychologist was not concerned that she was affected emotionally by this! Physically though, Joslyn went from being one of the tallest kids in pre-k to slowly growing over the next couple years. Although she was healthy looking we just knew she wasn't growing at the rate she was before. We were getting hand me downs from friends whose kids were younger then her!
In February 2012 I was chatting with my good friend, Ari-Amber. I was expressing my frustrations with failed treatments for Joslyn and how it was getting worse and worse. Ari mentioned having our intercessory prayer team at church pray over Joslyn. Immediately I said no. I have trust in doctors and the medical field...we didn't need prayers, we needed modern day medicine (I'm totally kicking myself for ever thinking that!!). I really didn't see how going into a room, praying over Joslyn and bawling my eyes out would help her. Ari being the amazing person she is, never told me how stupid I sounded and just said if I changed my mind she would be happy to go into the room with us. I told Josh Ari's suggestion later that night and he thought it was a good idea. The next day was Sunday and I was outnumbered, so into the room we went with Ari, Josh, Joslyn and myself. 2 people Josh and I knew and trusted, Mike and Tonia Webb, anointed Joslyn with oil and prayed over here. I actually don't know what they said because I was praying so hard in my head for God to heal her and make her better. Later Tonia had told me that during their prayer she kept feeling/hearing "wheat".
Just 3 days later our prayers were answered (now God doesn't always work that fast but He did this time). It was Wednesday evening, Joslyn's GI doctor called and said we needed to see him first thing in the morning to go over test results that were taken a week before. Nope, not waiting till the morning...tell me now!!! So he told us she has celiac disease-makes sense why Tonia kept feeling/hearing "wheat". Most of you know all about this thanks to my endless facebook posts or from hearing about it first hand from me so I won't go into detail about it. There were other appointments we had to do before having her go gluten free (GF). In April 2012 we were given the OK to start the GF diet and since then she has not had a single problem with Encopresis (celiac disease caused the Encopresis). Just weeks after going GF she sprouted up in length and gained weight...she is continuing to grow rapidly but is very healthy.
I believe with all my heart this was God's work in her diagnosis. I know some people believe that the blood test was already taken and her results would have been positive for celiac regardless of praying over her. I completely disagree and say God did it. Statistically her test should have been negative. Most celiacs are diagnosed after 7-11 yrs of suffering (not 2 1/2 yrs) and are diagnosed much later in life (not at age 7). So she had everything stacked against her and yet her test came back positive. For that I give thanks to my Lord and my only regret is that we didn't go into that room and pray sooner. God is more powerful then any smarty-pants doctor or fancy medicine!
My last highlight of 2012 was our move to Germany! When we got orders to Germany (OK we actually got orders to Muscat, Oman first, then it was Germany, then it was Oman again and finally Josh picked Germany!) I was excited and nervous. I don't like change and I'm not a traveler and have never had any desire to see anything except Graceland!! So I knew the only way I could make it in Germany for 3 yrs was to pray A LOT to God. I prayed for acceptance in the move with open arms and an open heart. I also prayed and continue to pray that He help my family with me being so far away.
I can't tell you how many friends and family members have said to me, "Wow, Alethea, I can't believe you are doing so well over there. I can't believe you look so happy in pictures and sound so happy on the phone. I can't believe you are doing so much and seeing so much in Europe. This is NOT the Alethea I know." And those statements are correct! I'm not the same person because I asked God to help change me. I knew I couldn't survive living in Germany without help from God. I put my trust and faith in Him for this move and He has come through! I still struggle being away from family and friends but I also have a freeing feeling that I'm alright here, this is where I am meant to be right now in my life.
If you have actually read this whole thing...thank you! I also hope that if you are one of my friends and family that struggle with your faith, that you can take a look at how much I have changed and I hope that you will see that anything is possible when you give yourself up to God. I am still a work in progress and always will be. But I love that I have my Heavenly Father always on side and always quick to forgive when I do fail. I have found that having a church family surrounded by Christians is what helps me. There is something so wonderful about having friends that are always there to listen, not judge and pray for you when you feel knocked down. A big thank you to my girls back home who have been called upon so many times this last year for prayers, guidance and support. Jill, Ari, Lindsey, Brandi, Cathy, Jen and Nikke...I can't tell you how much you have helped me and you will always be a huge part of my 2012 :) Love you ladies!
