Hills & Valleys: Our Faith Journey

Fitness. The ultimate goal. The seemingly unreachable goal. I have a problem. Or I should say, I had a problem. I was a wimp. If exercise got too hard, I just plain quit. Why make yourself go through pain and sweat? It wasn't fun. It wasn't enjoyable. So, I quit. Here's the problem with my problem: it's not good for me. I know, incredibly basic, right? It's actually a bit more complicated than that. I have Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome - a condition that essentially means my hormones are out of wack and my ovaries don't do what they're supposed to. With that, I am at a significantly higher-than-average risk for the following conditions: Type 2 Diabetes High blood pressure Cholesterol and lipid abnormalities Cardiovascular disease Severe liver inflammation Endometrial cancer Gestational diabetes or pregnancy-induced high blood pressure Fun list, huh? :/ The first time I saw this list, I just felt totally depressed. I felt like I was doomed or so...

Tonight I just wanted to share a little bit about my journey surrounding this deployment and a little of what I'm learning. Bear with me if I'm a little disjointed - I am tired and have a lot of school stuff on my mind. As we approached "6 months til see you later" last fall, it just became really hard for me to accept and deal with what was happening. I wrestled a lot with God at that time...a lot of tears were shed, feeling the lonely ache that would only grow stronger, and wondering why this had to happen. My husband had been gone so much  in 2012, and while I knew deployment was a possibility long before that, I guess somewhere inside of me I was trying to deny that it would actually come. But, come it did...and with it came a whirlwind of emotions that I really didn't know how to handle. One night in September as I faced another separation from my husband - this time for a month - I just wept, and if you know me, you know that I don't cry often. But t...

I keep having all these random thoughts running through my head for a blog post, and since I've been way too busy to sit down and write a blog post for each idea, I figured I'd just mash all our little news tid-bits into this one post. :) So, here's the latest happenings... * I took Selah for allergy testing this week after she recently broke out pretty bad from our dog. The test was, of course, not exactly fun for Selah, but she did better than I expected (in part because they didn't do a blood test like her pediatrician had said they would). The test confirmed she is definitely allergic to dogs. Sad day. But, the allergist said that we can definitely keep Honey (our golden retriever), as long as she continues to stay outside. Also, he mentioned a few other things...Selah is more at risk now for other allergies, including dust and mite allergies. Consequently, he said a house with no carpet would be best for her. Unfortunately, that is not an option, at least for...