it's over!

so today marks the end of our church-wide 21-day daniel fast. 3 weeks with no meat, sugar, caffeine, dairy, or preservatives is not impossible, but it is difficult. while i completely enjoyed my pop-tarts and coffee this morning for breakfast, i am very thankful to have participated. God taught my a lot over the past 3 weeks, and i have faith that He is going to answer some very specific prayers in my life and the life of our church as a result of the fast. i am so thankful to be a part of a church like river's crossing and under the godly leadership of a great pastor!

alright, time for some candy! (if you know me, you know i have a huge sweet tooth!)

new cells

so i had the most adorable 7 year old patient this week. when i admitted her for her chemotherapy prep prior to transplant, we were talking about everything that would happen. she was telling me about her bone marrow donor, a 28-year old female. that is all the information the patient/caregivers get. 1 year post transplant, patients can choose to meet their donor if they want to.

so she looks up at me, very serious while painting a picture of a flower, and says - "so um when i get my new cells, since she is 28, will that like make me older too like her?"

i love peds :)

powerful words

this song brought tears to my eyes today. i can't help but think of the devastation in haiti when hearing these beautiful words. despite things going on in my own life, and even when things seem so utterly hopeless in the world - we still have a reason to sing, praise and worship. He is still God. a God who provides for the people He so dearly loves.

desert song (hillsong)

this is my prayer in the desert

and all that's within me feels dry

this is my prayer in the hunger in me

my God is a God who provides

and this is my prayer in the fire

in weakness or trial or pain

there is a faith proved of more worth than gold

so refine me Lord through the flames

and i will bring praise

i will bring praise

no weapon forged against me shall remain

i will rejoice

i will declare

god is my victory and he is here

and this is my prayer in the battle

and triumph is still on its way

i am a conqueror and co-heir with Christ

so firm on His promise i'll stand

all of my life

in every season

you are still God

i have a reason to sing

i have a reason to worship

and i will bring praise

i will bring praise

no weapon forged against me shall remain

i will rejoice

i will declare

God is my victory and He is here

this is my prayer in the harvest

when favor and providence flow

i know i'm filled to be emptied again

the seed i've received i will sow

haiti

here's the ivy's interview with cnn about haiti and adoption. they are doing a great job getting the awareness out about the horrible devastation happening in haiti. what stuck out most to me? the fact that there were 1.2 million orphaned children living in haiti before the earthquake. how many are there now?

7 things i won't eat again

for a while now, i've been working really hard to eat healthy for a couple of different reasons. i've done a lot of research about natural and organic foods, and i came across this article - 7 foods experts won't eat. i have to say it gave some pretty compelling arguments. i'm not obsessed with buying organic, but i do want to buy organic things that matter (meat, some fruits/veggies). so anyway, here's what i won't be buying or eating again - go check out the reasons why and decide for yourself.

1. canned tomatoes
2. corn-fed beef
3. microwave popcorn
4. non-organic potatoes
5. farmed salmon
6. milk produced with artificial hormones
7. conventional apples

day 4 (modified) daniel fast

so this past sunday, pastor paul called us to a 21 day church-wide fast to start off the year. he suggested the daniel fast (from the book of daniel), but you could do whatever you felt led. the daniel fast in a nutshell is fresh fruit, veggies, whole grains, water/no-sugar added fruit juices; all-natural. no meat, dairy, caffeine, sugar/sweets, alcohol or processed foods. we're doing this for the most part; very slightly modified for some health reasons. i'm so excited about this; i have faith God is going to show up in some very specific ways.

tonight i was really craving something sweet, and i found this recipe over at elana's pantry, a gluten free blog with some neat recipes. although i don't eat gluten free, her recipes are interesting and my first try at one turned out great. it even looked just like the picture (above), which is always exciting to me :) if you're looking for something healthy and sweet (and 100% daniel fast approved), this is it. vanilla roasted walnuts - yum!

snowy sunday afternoon

january - the dreaded weather month

it has arrived. january. i dread this month for one reason - the weather. especially after moving here. my friends here in ohio and my patients from other areas across the country (wisconsin, minnesota, pennsylvania, new york ... ) say that cincinnati weather is "not bad" or "nothing" in the way of winter cold.

i beg to differ. let me explain.

last year we bought our house, and as luck would have it, moved during the worst snowstorm of the year. sadly, i was too busy trying to not to freeze to death or slip and fall on the ice to take any pictures. seriously. we have some amazing friends, because about 10 people came and helped unload several truckloads of house stuff across town. please note that we had to park the truck on the road and carry all of our stuff (furniture included) down an icy path and a foot of snow in the dark. then we had to do the same thing at the new house, because we couldn't get up the driveway. not fun at all.

this young southern couple was also very unprepared for the winter weather. no snow boots, no really heavy-duty coats, no good gloves. scarfs? people actually wear them to keep warm? yes, they do. i now own like ten. a snow shovel? come again? we don't need a snow shovel. um ... when we were the only ones on the street who couldn't get up and down our driveway, we became owners of a snow shovel. brandon has become quite good at this now.

the cold is something i was not prepared for last year. this year, i'm still not. when you get off work at 7 am and it's 2 degrees outside, it is literally painful. it takes my breath away. as someone who would rather be burning up hot any day than to be freezing, well enough said about that.

i also love/hate the salt/sand combo. the road crews put out. obviously i love it because i can actually drive safely to and from work, but i hate how nasty the car gets and how i can't wear cute shoes because they'll get ruined. i know, dumb, but true.

now everything about winter isn't all bad. having a warm fire in the fireplace, seeing a beautiful blanket of snow on the ground, watching sparkly snow fall, having hot tea, and curling up on the couch under a warm blanket are all very nice. i'm just a bit more of a summer girl myself.

please note - i am sorry for all the hating on january and winter in general. i actually don't hate it, just prefer sitting by a pool to having to put on 7 layers just to go get the mail :)

hope you all are staying warm!

post holiday ramble ...

my goodness, november and december flew by! i cannot believe it is seriously january 2010. wow. i remember ringing in the new year 10 years ago - my mom and i stayed up until 4 am watching the new year occur in just about every country you can imagine. when i got married and moved out, i actually found the old, hard wad of silly string that my little brother and i had celebrated with that night. ha ha. this year was pretty quiet. we're not really party all night kind of peeps and brandon had had a migraine most of the day, so we got take-out, rented 2 movies, and just barely stayed awake until midnight. some might call it boring, but we quite enjoyed our cozy evening at home :)

the weekend after christmas, my parents and andrew and gini came to visit for a couple of nights. we had so much fun! we introduced andrew and gini to the world's best ribs here, and then took them on their first trip to ikea. i cooked my first ham (thanks to a little advice from cathy), and made home-made mac-n-cheese and sweet potato casserole. my mom brought my absolute favorite holiday food - cornbread dressing. it was my first time hosting a holiday meal, but i was so excited it all turned out so well. yum!

i'd have to say the actual day of christmas didn't really feel much like christmas to me. probably because i was at the hospital on christmas eve and christmas night. sick kids unfortunately don't get to go home for christmas. can you imagine being 5 years old and having to be in the hospital for christmas :( mike and annie had us over for a couple of hours in between my sleeping for a couple of hours and working, for an awesome christmas day meal. we had filet mignon - unconventional, but yum! we were very thankful they opened their home and shared their christmas with us!

i love the holidays, but this year i am happy for things to get back to normal. i like the feeling of a fresh start that the new year brings. i'm looking forward to seeing what 2010 has in store for the gilliams :)