WOW, it has BEEN a while! The last month has been a bit crazy–make that SERIOUSLY crazy. I’m fixing to go pick up my cousin Ali because we have to leave for our drive to San Diego, but since the next 2 weeks are gonna be psycho, I figured I should at least update as I can!
WHY, you may ask, are we driving to San Diego? Well of course, to get my car out there so it can make it on the ship over to HONOLULU!!!! Ok, so I told you a ton has happened in the last month. For those who have already heard, you can skip over the next section, but for those who are wondering what’s this about Hawaii, below is what I e-mailed to my teammates and friends from home:
“Basically, I found out a couple days before my Wheaton graduation that I didn’t get the Hawaii Baptist Academy teaching job I had applied for. So, my plans then moved to me being back in Dallas for this next year and then re-applying for the 2010-2011 school year and in the meantime applying to be the varsity volleyball assistant coach at my high school TCA.
However, this past Friday (June 12), HBA’s principal called me and offered me a different job than the one I had applied for–she said it would be three high school speech classes, one freshman English class, and one middle school drama class. I had some reservations–first of all, I have never taken or been involved with ANY kind of drama class in my life, and while my dad joked that it couldn’t be TOO hard (he said, “Don’t you pretty much just say, ‘Go! Act!’ “), that made me a little wary. Also, I didn’t want to go back on a spoken commitment I had made to the varsity coach at TCA, but we talked on Monday (June 15) and she was so supportive and gave me her blessing–which I so needed and am so thankful for Karen because of her sincerity! I was also a bit nervous when actually faced with the reality of picking up and moving halfway across the ocean to Honolulu in a month (Inservice starts July 27th), but I had a good amount of encouragement from family and friends, lots of prayer, and the advice of my parents and friends their age who lamented that they wished they’d done something adventurous like teach in Hawaii. I also realized that if I don’t do this now, I probably never will, so, Monday night (June 15), I accepted the offer. What’s more, the principal e-mailed me yesterday (June 16) saying that they had successfully switched some classes around, so, it looks like now I’m teaching 3 speech classes and 2 sophomore English classes this year (no more Drama!!!)!!!
I’m so excited–what a huge praise and such a blessing after a difficult year! While I have definitely learned the power of prayer in this past year, when I had prayed for certain things (like stuff during volleyball season, to not have cancer (back when we were figuring out the diagnosis), to not lose my hair, and to teach in Hawaii)–all prayers that, in my mind, God had said “no” to, I think I had become a little cynical about Him actually saying “yes.” This has been another humbling moment to show that, despite my resignation that if I prayed it, He would probably answer “no” anyway and give me His plan (which I KNOW is a great plan; it’s just not mine…), He is not out to get us nor does He wait to squash our dreams. Maybe you already know that, but I am still learning that today.
Anyway, the past few days have been frantic with apartment-hunting, trying to figure out how to ship a car, learning about getting a Hawaii license, etc., but I’m SO very excited! As I mentioned, Inservice starts July 27th, and my family actually was already heading out to Maui for family vacation on the 18th of July anyway, so my mom and I might just head out a few days earlier than that now to move things in and finalize some details. Thank you ALL for your prayers, recommendations, and encouragement for this as I’ve been trying to make hard decisions and figure out this next year! Thank you also for your prayers for me this past year–they were all PRICELESS in a difficult time, and I am so thankful for each of you and how you’ve each blessed my life. If anyone comes to Hawaii this year…it’s not that big of a place, so you better let me know!”
Yeah. PRAISE THE LORD!!! I have a job, and it happens to be in Honolulu!!! Also, since I sent that e-mail, we rebooked our tickets, so my mom and I are flying out to Honolulu on July 15th to move into the apartment we found (PTL!). We’re gonna do some massive moving in and furniture hunting at Sam’s and Goodwill probably, and we’ll be unpacking. I’ve already shipped 3 boxes to a friend from Wheaton named Jenny whose family lives on Oahu and is staying with them before she starts nursing school in the fall, so that has been a huge blessing, too! And, as I mentioned in the opening of this post, my cousin Ali and I are about to start the 21 hour drive to San Diego so that they can ship my car over to Honolulu by July 17th.
I still have some packing to do, and I also have to clean out EVERYTHING in my car before we leave–literally, I can’t even have a cd in the cd player. BUT, you also should know that I’ve been back to Chicago twice in June–the first time for just a checkup with Dr. Gordon–they took my blood counts, and they are up from the 90-150 range and now into the 1000-1200 range!! PTL! Also, I was just back in Chicago and Wheaton this past weekend for my teammate Ruth’s wedding–which was beautiful, by the way!–and I had CT and PET scans done. Dr. Gordon called me at Ruth and James’s rehearsal dinner to let me know that everything came back clear, so I am still in remission! What a praise! As much fun as going through chemo and all was (sarcasm), it would be such a bummer to find out it hadn’t worked, so again, I need to count my blessings and not forget that! Also, many are curious to know, so I’ll update on my hair: it’s growing back in–slowly but surely–and in some places on my head it’s between 1-2 inches probably. Still too short for my liking, but it’s coming. Also, my eyebrows are coming back–kinda all over the place, but still…–and my eyelashes are coming in, too. Yesterday I was putting on mascara, and it took about half the time that it has been when I’ve tried to find any lashes to even put it on, and I was just amazed at how quickly my bottom lashes have reappeared, which made me so thankful for eyelashes–CRAZY and seems like such a menial thing to be thankful for. BUT, I never would have been thankful for them until I finally lost them and started to get them back. I’m sure there’s some kind of metaphor I could relate all of this to, but the image that keeps coming back in my mind is that of flowers after the rain. Why? I’m not sure. BUT, to follow that image, in my mind it’s as if there’s been a really big storm…or I guess a drought could work, too…I’m no horticulturist…but anyway, and after this storm, despite the damage, things DO begin to grow back once again and do what they’re supposed to. As much as the chemo killed so many cells, the good stuff will begin to grow again, and that just reminds me that God is so faithful to restore what has been broken as He is the giver of life. He makes all things new!
Anyway, I’m out of time for now, so I’m sure I’ve left a ton of holes in this narrative, but I’ll try and be better with updating–even if I have to do a few quick updates this month. Lastly, I would LOVE prayer for my sweet cousin Natalie Nelson. This morning, she had surgery because she had a cyst on her ovaries the size of a grapefruit–which is HUGE, btw. So, I’m not sure how it went yet, but if you’d pray that everything is successful and she is healed completely, as well as lifting up Natalie and her family and asking for peace for all of them, that would be great. For me, I’d love prayer for safety as Ali and I traverse the southwest U.S., and I would also love prayer to use my time well as I’m down to 13 days till the move and only 7 of them at home. I’m a little stressed, and I hate that in the midst of CRAZY, I let other things slide like my walk with the Lord and my relationships.
Lastly, in reference to this post’s title, I’ve found that, even if I’ve not necessarily had an “aha!” moment with the Lord for that day, sharing my story still has been so humbling. It’s definitely been a reminder to me that this whole situation was not just in my life for those 12 chemo treatments over the past 7 months; this is something that God can TOTALLY use in the future as I tell my story…not trying to exploit it or anything, but realizing that God’s faithfulness absolutely shines through my experience with cancer, and this is an opportunity to show others that. “Let me live that I may praise You.”
Thanks again for EVERYTHING. Thanks for checking in with me even now and for all of your continued commitments to praying for me and my family. Y’all have blessed me (and my family, too) beyond belief. Have a great day, and enjoy this amazing summer!
On Christ the solid Rock I stand,
Hannah