Today is eight months since my transplant and I am so beyond thankful.  I was in Iowa City two weeks ago and got wonderful news.  My blood work, vitals and lung tests were all normal, not just for a transplant patient but for the average adult in their 50s (even if I am about to cross into the next decade).  I am getting stronger and will be able to go back to teaching and directing in the fall.  Towards the end of my conversation with my doctor, I asked “What next?”  Her response was simply, “Go! Be Happy! Remember what we have taught you and take that to live a full and happy life.”

What a wonderful appointment and I am so thankful for how far God has brought me in the last eight months.  As most of you know, it is easy to be thankful when something first happens, or when something is brought to our attention but how do we learn to stay in that thankful mode? It isn't always easy to be happy during this time of Covid 19 and the problems it has brought clearly to the surface. 

I have followed Joni Erickson Tada for years and listened to her joyous life, even through her journey with quadriplegia.  She has talked before, and I recently heard her talk again, about the specialness of one of her favorite verses, I Samuel 7:12, where Samuel lays an Ebenezer, a special stone, to commemorate his thankfulness to God for all the help God has given him.  For Joni, it is her wheelchair that is her Ebenezer.  For many of you, it is the scars that you carry through your individual journeys that are your reminders.  For me, it is the wiring woven through my rib cage that reminds me with each breathe that God has brought me this far and that I can trust Him to give me every breathe from now until He calls me home.  The tightness from the wiring will always be there but it doesn’t mean that I have pain- just tightness.

As we go through this difficult time with Covid 19 and learn so much about ourselves, I have read and watched many beautiful stories about what our more creative people hope we get out of this and I applaud those beautiful thoughts.  My prayer is that we all come to a deeper trust in God and that you also find your Ebenezer, something that reminds you of all that God has done, and reminds you to be thankful for what He has done in your life. Then you also can Go! Be Happy!

A few prayers:

·      My sister Natalie’s newest scan shows no spot on her liver.  Prayers for strength and healing as she finishes the last 5 rounds of chemo to treat her colon cancer.

·      Evin’s shoulder as the pain continues to hamper movement and make life hard.

·      My dear friend, Janeen, who had a stroke during surgery and is working so hard, living in rehab, to regain speech, eating and the use of her left side.