The Race
Hebrews 12:1-3 Therefore since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider Him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
(This is our wedding verse almost 13 years ago.)
It has been a long time since I have wrote anything on here! I think today will be the last and it may be a long one! Yesterday I was able to spend time with my friend Ellen. We went to the Lemmon Holten Cancer Pavilion to take part in the Breast Cancer Survivor Art Prize Project. It will be displayed in the lobby of the building. We got to use our crafty skills to make a transparent figure that signified something of our cancer journey. It was great to spend time reflecting over the last year and chatting with Ellen and her friend Becky. We are all in the same race heading toward the same goal, but each of us have different hurdles, different things thrown at us. My friend Ellen is running her race while she fights cancer-that is her hurdle. This doesn't define who she is though and she would tell you that. She is an amazing mother, wife, friend and has a great laugh and she running her race with her eyes on Christ and there are many witnesses that can testify to that! Join me in praying for this dear sister as she continues to fight the battle. Our family will be joining the VanOss-ome Team at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in a month and would love it if you could join us and support Jack and Ellen, Seth and Emarie
Copy and Paste the below and it will take you to her page to sign up.
http://westmichigan.info-komen.org/site/TR/RacefortheCure/GRR_WestMichiganAffiliate?
px=9110974&pg=personal&fr_id=2147
I know I have thanked all our prayer warriors out there, but I thank you again for lifting our family and my health to our heavenly Father. It has been humbling to have people approach me to tell me they are STILL praying for us! I have also had many asking how I am doing because I haven't posted for so long. I am doing very well. I take tomoxifan for 4 more years and the only side effect has been that I'm a little achy. I still have hot flashes, but they have gotten much better with a drug Dr. Barb Depree put me on. (anyone going through menopause needs to see her!) So if I'm still wearing sleeveless when the snow flies, you know why! I still see a doctor...either Dr. Pettinga or my Oncologist Dr. O'Rourke every three months as precaution. There is always a little anxiety going and wondering if they are going to find anything. I have learned to try to live in the day and not look so far ahead because we don't know what tomorrow even holds! I still remember the day I received the call about having breast cancer; my day was planned out and I was about to head to HCS for lunch with Chloe. Just before I was about to leave the phone rang and it was the call that changed our family's life and plans for the next several months. We don't know what call will come tomorrow. As Matthew 6:34 says Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.
Our wedding verse that I shared about has been popping up all over lately. I love it because it so describes the life Chris and I have had together; A RACE where we have needed to keep our eyes on Him or we would have given up long ago. A RACE that has been full of obstacles. A first anniversary spent burying our first son Trayton David, starting a business with nothing in the bank, dealing with depression, Adoption, Cancer. These obstacles we can now consider blessings that God used to refine us into who he wanted us to be. They have caused us to trust Him more and to hold onto this life and things here much more loosely; to truly realize life is a VAPOR here and that treasures or material things here on this earth really don't matter, its the treasures in heaven that we should be storing up; to realize a life of faith is much more exciting than a life of comfort and to grasp the sovereignty of God and that as Psalm 115:3 says; God has a right to do whatever He pleases and from Isaiah 55:9; that His ways and thoughts are infinitely higher than ours. Scripture IS going to say things that don't agree with our natural way of thinking and things in our lives ARE going to happen that totally make NO sense to us.
I think every ones race is like a cross country one. Lots of ups and downs and twists and turns, rough spots, smooth spots, running in the sun and running in the rain. Sound Familiar? I am thankful for my fellow runners and that we can cheer each other on; the ones who are also running with their eyes on the goal. It’s the times that I take my eyes off the goal that I stumble and fall..sometimes flat on my face. That is why we need to fill up with the water of life so that when those hard times come and THEY WILL we can persevere! When we fill up with Him (God's word and prayer) He is able to guide us. We may all be on a cross country race and heading toward the same goal, but we all have different courses...different life experiences...different gifts...and different places God wants to use us.
God has brought our family to a fork in the road. One way would be comfortable and keep everyone happy and the other way that we feel Him leading us would be one of faith, uncertainty, loss of comfort, and even make some people upset.
Nineteen months ago in Ethiopia we were changed. The verses from Matthew 25:34-46 came alive to us in a whole new way.
"Then the King will say to those on His right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you game me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'
Then the righteous will answer Him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'
The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'
Then He will say to those on His left, 'Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.
' They also will answer, "Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you? He will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did NOT do for the least of these, you did not do for me.
Yikes! Our race brought us face to face with countless children in Africa living in desperate poverty. One of these faces was our daughter. The others are still there waiting for someone to offer them food, clothes, a drink of clean water, Love, and HOPE. In America we do not know what poor is. If we have running water, shelter over our heads, clothes to wear, food to eat, and some means of transportation (even if its public transportation) then we are in the top 15 percent of the world's people for wealth! TODAY, more than 26,000 children will breathe their last breath due to starvation or preventable disease. TODAY, more than a billion people in the world live and die in desperate poverty. They attempt to survive on less than a dollar per day. Close to two billion others live on less than two dollars per day. That's nearly half the world struggling today to find food, water, and shelter with the same amount of money I can grab my gas station coffee for. Many of these are our spiritual brothers and sisters in developing nations. We have seen them, hugged them, laughed with them, prayed for them and now here we are at the fork in the road....we know what way we need to turn and God has make it so very clear...so here we go step by step down a road that is sure to have pot holes and probably BIG ditches, but God has shown Himself faithful in our lives thus far and we know He will continue to be! We are excited to share this journey with you and give God all the Glory in getting us to this place in our lives. We will be taking a Vision trip in November to Soroti, Uganda to meet the 'team' that is currently out there and to confirm that this is indeed where God is calling our family. We greatly desire your prayers as we move forward and would love Love love you to follow our journey on our family blog. The many encouraging posts so many of you left helped get us through this past year and brought many smiles and tears. We won't be posting on here anymore. Our blog is fisherfamilystory.blogspot.com This is the same blog we used to share our adoption journey a couple years ago. Did I not say this would be long! I wonder how many got to the end and I am not sure how many are even checking this carepage anymore, but it was probably good for my own mind to get this all out!!! I feel lighter already!
So glad to be running this race with you,
Michelle
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