Goodbye November...

Today marks the 10 weeks post-op from my LPAO! Things are going really really well but now I'm starting to have more pain in my right hip. I go to see my doctor tomorrow so I'll talk to him about it then but I know it's just because i have been putting all my weight on it for over 2 months so it's just getting a little over worked. I need to take it easy though because I have been walking around more than I should without my crutches and I went up and down the stairs today for the first time without them and I was really tired and a little sore after so I think that was too much... I want to be off everything by Christmas so I need to work hard at the gym and go by Dr.s orders and I hope to be good by then!

I'm thinking of Marcie and Jess C today because they both had their PAO's done today! They both went good and they are doing well but I know it's not always easy, now comes the days of being really good and some days are just pure crap. Girls, you will be just fine and you have so much support behind you and I know you both are soooo strong! You can do this! Love to you both!

Jacob and I have a BUNCH of stuff to do before the wedding, it's insane! Here are just a few things on our list: Continue wedding/honeymoon planning, 3-4 wedding parties, find a house then pack and move both of our stuff to IL, buy me a new car ... and Christmas, new years and birthdays are all thrown in there too! It's a lot but I'm so excited about where God is taking me (us) in a new life together! Sometimes I get in bed and I'm so tired but I start thinking about the wedding and I get so excited it takes me forever to fall asleep!

God has taken me on such a journey since last year and I have learned so much about myself and I'm so happy to keep learning more. Yes some lessons have been hard and difficult to accept (because of pride) but with God's unconditional love, mercy and grace, I can hand issues over to Him freely and give Him complete control. That is an act that is a challenge by itself because most of us want to do things and change things ourselves, but we will always end up falling short. I just have to keep reminding myself (or be reminded by others) that I'm not always right and I'm a very selfish person by nature... but I need to be reminded (as I think, we all do) that it's not about me (you). We need to continually ask, 'What can I do in my everyday life to bring a smile to God's face and that will glorify Him?' Or 'what can I do to bring happiness to others around me and not make it about me?' If you make every day about you, you will end up seeing very little and have a small view on life and God but if you open up your eyes to what God has around you and see what He is doing in the lives of those around you, you may just see something you never saw before.

To kind of explain a little about what I was talking about:
Jacob and I were both learning that we can't make him get a job without God's help. I think it's safe to say that we both had faith that something would come along but we weren't really giving God control of the job hunt. He was trying to get into places where he knew someone, or he had a foot in the door and he got some great leads and ended up in the top 2 or 3 choices for many of them but they all fell through. Then one night after a big let down, he got advice from someone, that maybe Jacob wasn't allowing God to show him what God could do in times of need. He wasn't really letting Him provide for Jacob when he really needed it. A few days later he got a call (the first out of over 40 jobs applied for) and they called him for an interview! In the end he didn't get that job but after letting God lead him, God started to let things happen. I look back to when he got the good news and I really think one day God spoke to Jacob and he picked up the phone and contacted an old company he used to work with and in just over a week, he got a call saying "I hear ya need a job?! Well, you got one..!" God has provided for Jacob and I in ways we didn't see but we're excited about it and we're going to go into it strong knowing He is showing us the way.

Ok well, thanks for listening me rant on and on but I think it's time for bed!
~~

UPDATE:

I saw my Dr. today and he says things look wonderful. The bones are healing great, and my pain is good. He did ask if I notice a difference in hight in my legs and I did say my right leg seemed a little shorter even before surgery and he said he thought so because he measured and it is a little shorter and my right femur is mushroom shaped so that could also play a part in the pain i'm feeling on my right said because it's not round the way my left femur is. But he said it's not a big deal and just to take meds as I feel I need it. I'm also allowed to walk crutch free!!! But he did say, again, if I feel tired or sore, to use them or my cane and to take it easy.

Thankfulness...

(not so much about the hip this time around...)

I am very thankful for what I have been put through these past couple of years. It is hard to say that but when I know that great things will come from it, I am thankful.
I'm thankful for how God has lead me to the place I am right now. From where I was, feeling really lost and alone, to being here now with the people in my life that play real parts in my story; thankful for the healing and strength God has given me with going through 2 major hip surgeries less than 9 months apart from each other; and thankful His love and continued protection, that of which I don't deserve but I am His and He died for me and for that I am forever thankful.

I don't want to sound... prideful(?) here but I want to say I feel that Jacob and I are "maturing" more quickly than a lot of people our age, in the aspect of learning how to deal with issues that lot of people don't deal with (at all) or until after many years of marriage. I'll spare you the details but the one subject I will touch on is the faith it take to believe God works all things together for good. In one day our plans got turned upside down at a time and a way neither of us saw coming and it has changed our lives for good but forever. We have truly been put to the test, time and time again and we know the Lord is telling us to look to Him, lean on Him because we can't make these things happen, but all we can do is look to Him and let God show us the way. Jacob and I look back now even over the past 6 months and see God working in wonderful ways when we weren't sure why things were playing out the way there were. There are so many questions we still need answered but only time will give us the answers we need. All we can do right now is to pray and wait patiently on the Lord, for His way is the only way.

Jacob asked me the other day, if we have never met, where do I think I would be right now. And I answered "Probably in Washington" It's funny because a couple days before that, I had been reading notes I wrote after I moved back to Indiana and I had already been planning on moving back to Bellingham that summer/fall after I finished school. I was going to get a job where I had been working that summer, a place to live, I have family out there, and I love to town, and I really felt I left my heart there when I moved... then 4 days before I graduated college, my brother-in-law tells me of a guy that saw my picture on their fridge and wanted to meet me. From there, well the rest is history and I'm still here in Indy, but it just shows that God may have something for you, and in a split second, your life can change. If my sister had never said "Should we tell her?" I don't know if I would ever have met the man who now, is my Fiance! I'm learning that I don't need to worry about tomorrow, because even if I plan for something, anything can happen.

I'm living today and going to hope God gives me a tomorrow...