VITAMIN D in FIGHTING the FLU

PLEASE BE SURE TO PAUSE THE MUSIC PLAYER (BELOW AND TO THE RIGHT) TO HEAR THE VIDEO!

So, you want to know how to combat influenza/flu naturally? Vitamin D is definitely the place to start. Vitamin D doesn't necessarily make the immune system STRONGER, it makes it SMARTER. We will go into a few nutrients/habits at the bottom of the posting that build up the immune system, but for now we'll cover Vitamin D, and the role that God gave it in combating viruses. God designed our bodies to fight off infections and viruses, without the necessity of human interventions. He gave our bodies self-regulators called "antimicrobial Peptides"..... naturally occurring antibiotics, which are "upregulated" and increased by naturally occurring Vitamin D sources. Naturally occurring Vitamin D upregulates antimicrobial peptide output, and dampens the immune system branch that causes excess inflammation, leading to infections and health problems. (discovered by Professor John White, McGill University) Vitamin D may not be the "cure" for influenza, but it is the MAJOR WEAPON that God gave us to fight off influenza and the common cold.

The following information is taken from Adelle Davis's book, Let's have Healthy Children, page 193: When Vitamin D is adequate....it increases the absorption, retention, and utilization of magnesium, as well as calcium, and throughout life it decreases the loss of both minerals in the urine and feces. Without Vitamin D, rickets, a bone disease, is produced by the time a baby is 3-6 months old" It is well-known among TRADITIONAL MEDICINE practice, that kids with rickets get a lot of infections.....Traditional doctors diagnose the cause as beings that their rib cage is too soft to function properly. BUT....among NATURAL MEDICINE...it is known that a lack of Vitamin D causes the rib cage to be soft because of the inability to absorb enough calcium due to the lack of vitamin D present in the body system.

This just PROVES that that it is important to separate FACT from THEORY.

FACT: Vitamin D is needed to absorb calcium, which is needed to have a properly functioning rib cage.

THEORY: infections are caused by a soft rib cage

Vitamin D levels in people during the wintertime typically fall to 1/3 of the levels found in the summer times. What is the significance? Well, typically people are sicker during the wintertime, and typically we don't have near the direct sun rays that we do in the summertime.....and God designed the sun to be our major source of Vitamin D. (click here to view my BLOG POSTING on Vitamin D) So, in order to bring our bodies up to the optimum virus-fighting potential that God gave to us, we need to bring our Vitamin D levels up the optimum levels God gave to us. If you do not have access to direct sunlight (NO SUNSCREEN!!), then the next best resource would be Vitamin D3.....our family takes this brand, for quality assurance: NATURES SUNSHINE VITAMIN D3.(<----click on link) Several different natural health sources mention that adults should have anywhere between 4,000 to 6,000 I.U. (international units) of a naturally occurring (not synthetic) High Quality Vitamin D source, while children should have half of this. The synthetic form of vitamin Dadded to commercial milk and foods does not substitute,and actually does the body MORE HARMthan GOOD. You can have a little better insight into yours/your child's SPECIFIC NEED of Vitamin D by muscle testing/having a Master Herbalist muscle test for you. If you assume an amount, it may be below yours/your child's need.

If you are looking to strengthen the immune system, in addition to increasing the output-functioning of it with Vitamin D......we do these things AS WELL as take Vitamin D, as a precautionary measure against the FLU and COLDS.

• Avoid all processed sugar and flour (which turns to sugar shortly after consumption) which LOWERS the IMMUNE system anywhere between 24 hours-2 days....however long it is in the intestinal tract for. (SUGAR BLOG POSTING)
• Avoid processed/fast foods which lower the immune system as well
• Protect yourself from Electoro Magnetic Radiation from cell phones, computers and electricity (BLOG POSTING ON EMF's)
• TAKE SPIRULINA, BLUE-GREEN ALGAE, or ACF (Acute Cold and FLU) by Buried TREASURE as a WHOLE FOODS VITAMIN
• Take BIFIDOLOPHUS, to increase the good flora in your intestine to combat the virus/bacteria that invade.
• Take an INFLUENZA REMEDY every month from October to May--it's a flu shot in the natural version of a homeopathic remedy, with the most original form of FLU strain that there is.

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

What Musical Vibration Do You Display?

PLEASE BE SURE TO PAUSE THE MUSIC PLAYER (BELOW AND TO THE RIGHT) TO HEAR THE VIDEO!

Romans 8:9You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

Physics teaches us that everything has an individualized electrical/magnetic vibrational output. While, it is not USUALLY discovered or displayed in the manner of the above video, nevertheless vibrational outputs are very real. Vitamins, minerals, meats, water, even parts of the human body contain an energy field that can naturally attract it to any of these listed items. A wonderful example of this would be in Adelle Davis's book, "Let's Have Healthy Children", in which a study was conducted by Dr. Clara M. Davis with 6 month old orphan children, who had never had solid foods before, and were offered wholesome, God-designed foods in their natural states (meats; hard boiled eggs; salt, grains in an individualized, original state; cod-liver oil; raw milk; vegetables, etc) and were given complete free rein over their choices. Over the course of the experiment, not one single child developed an allergy, infection or illness. "A child whose bone structure was poor drank cod liver oil on his own free will 113 times, or until his bones were considered normal. The salt would sometimes not be touched for days and then eaten by the handful, even though the children grimaced as they ate it. One baby who was (found to be before the experiment) allergic to egg white, carefully separated yolks from whites, ate the yolks, and tossed the whites on the floor" (pg 219) Before bad eating habits set in, children have a natural attraction God has given to the for a means of survival--call it what you will, but all foods also have a specific energy vibration as well.

While supporters of the new age movement have taken this information and twisted it into the the idea that energy IS GOD....we, as Christians hold strong to our belief that energy is MADE BY GOD. Energy is a BLESSING for us to use in learning, teaching and even TREATING health problems through natural methods, 2 examples are: muscle testing (Dr. Mercola's Link, Health Quarters Ministries Link), and Homeopathic remedies (My BLOG LINK on REMEDIES) While there may be some people who practice holistic health care that abide by the new age movement, this can and is found in ANY field of medicine, including conventional. These health care providers can be made distinguished from Christian natural health care practitioners through their practices of taping into energy sources and using such words as "universal energy"& "forces" to reach altered states of consciousness and "godhood".

Wayne Cook and Dr. William Tiller proved that the human body has energy flowing in and around it(thus, the reason that electro-shock therapy, Defibrillators, and lie-detector tests work). Every energy has either a positive current (energy flowing clockwise), negative current (counter clockwise current), a neutral current (flowing vertically) or an oscillating energy that was found in rodents, swines, poisons, diseased tissues (VACCINES contain diseased tissues). He went on to discover that ALL THE UNCLEAN ANIMALS LISTED IN DEUTERONOMY Chapter 14 of the Bible had oscillating energy in them. He found in his study that eating any of these unclean animals (swine) caused problematic vibrations in the human body, and made a positive living environment for parasites and cancer. Along with this, he ALSO discovered that healthy foods have certain vibrations that match certain organs of our body....thus "feeding" the organs with nutrients meant by God to specifically feed! A few examples are: saturated fat and the Brain, black walnuts and the blood.

Knowing that foods, people, medications, chemicals and nature all have energy vibrations that God has given to us.....we can understand a little better why we might be attracted to certain nutrients & people, along with understanding why certain foods and chemicals may cause us harmful effects that we want to avoid. As a Christian, we put out "music", that others can pick up on through body language, talk and life style choices. When we live for Christ, we have a desire for the music that goes in to be equally Holy to our Lord as the music that comes out on display. The next time you think about putting something in your body, or letting something be displayed...be sure it is of significance to your Christian walk!

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

Nourishing the Health that God Gave to You

Here's our family's health mission in a nut shell: Eat food close to it's original state that God designed it in, so that the body will function in a closer state to the way God intended for us to function in.

What are some of the deviations in food consumption that do not reflect this mission? Eating "ANTI-NUTRIENTS", which are substances that when consumed increase the body's need for more nutrients. These substances take so much extra energy for the digestive tract to process and eliminate, that the body is left with more nutrients burned up than are taken in. They also increase the appetite because the body is not getting the nutrients it needs. According to Dr. Lendon Smith, author of Feed Your Kids Right, the elimination of anti-nutrients in the diet will help the body improve in overall health and immune response. Examples of ANTI-NUTRIENTS:

• Sugar/corn syrup -- more info: MY SUGAR BLOG POSTING
• Chemical preservatives -- almost everything on the shelf at a grocery store not labeled "Organic" contains various forms of these.
• Synthetic vitamins & minerals -- cheaper for processing, body can't recognize them as nutrients
• Enriched flour products -- nutrients taken out & replaced w/synthetic ones
• Low-fat dairy -- body needs fat to break down/utilize proteins
• Pasteurized/Homogenized Dairy -- PLEASE READ DR. MERCOLA's ARTICLE on processed dairy, entitled: Why You Don't Want to Drink Pasteurized Milk
• Processed meats -- most contain nitrites/nitrates toxic substances that can lead to Methemoglobinemia and have been banned in most European countries
• Yeast -- promotes yeast overgrowths, which lead to NUMEROUS health problems: it's all in the book, The Yeast Connection. This book is mind-blowing!
• Chemical food dyes -- more info: MY CHEMICAL COLORING BLOG POSTING

Let me go into specific details of products that fall into this category:

• Most commercial cereals, escept whole grains & cheerios (safe to stick with cereals under 10 grams of NATURAL derived sugar)
• ALL breads except for sprouted/ezekiel breads, whole grain flatbreads & tortillas
• All pastries, cakes, unless made with whole grain flour & natural sweeteners
• All fruit snacks, candy, kool-aid, soda pops, juices (unless fresh squeezed juices)
• ANY sandwich meat not labeled as being without antibiotics & preservatives
• Any dairy not labeled as WHOLE MILK
• Enriched/Pasta and white rice (basmatti, brown, wild rice & whole grain pastas ok)

It's best to stick with eating foods that promote good health and high functioning immune systems:

• Fruits and vegetables raw whenever possible, eating only clean meats, properly cooked (Leviticus chapter 11 for more information)


• Whole grains, but limit even their presence in the diet
• Clean/natural meat- meats grown naturally without antibiotics, hormones (that go to your body!!) and that are grass/vegetable fed (cows/chickens corn-fed to get "fattened" do the same to your body--fatten you! Cows/chickens fed grass and vegetables provide your body with those minerals included!!)


• Natural Salt (The body uses salt to make the enzymes that digest invading microbes and parasites, as well as food. The only time salt has ever been found to be detrimental is when you have failing kidneys or are missing a kidney) REDMOND from Nature's Sunshine has naturally occuring minerals in their natural Sea Salt.


• Lots of pure water (Your body needs water to make the mucus that surrounds and suffocates invading microbes, it keeps your lungs hydrated (protected), and is necessary to carry nutrients, oxygen, and immune cells to every area of the body) While tap water is clean, it is also FULL of chemicalsto get it that way! Using a reverse Osmosis unit in your house, or drinking bottled water is ideal.
• RAW and WHOLE MILK Organic DAIRY the fats your body DOES need, should be taken with their origins--in dairy and meats. Your body NEEDS fats to break down and utilize proteins, and your body needs protein to stay healthy! Take your fats naturally in foods, and avoid them in chips, pastries andfast food....you'll be MUCH better off!!

Spirulina: Quick Immune Super-Builder

Suzy Cohen is a pharmacist who knows that medications have their place, but she prefers to avoid the automatic rubber stamping of drug treatments. She also writes "Dear Pharmacist," a nationally syndicated column which also appears on the Healthier Talk website.

In a recent column, a reader inquired about a so-called "superfood."T.E. Chicago, Illinois: You mentioned "spirulina" in a recent column as a supplement to help boost thyroid hormone. I've never heard of this, is it a vitamin? What else is it good for?"

Suzy Cohen: "Spirulina is supercool, and it's a superfood. It's actually algae that grows in our oceans, springs and lakes. If you viewed it with a microscope you would see beautiful bright blue-green spirals, for which it is named. Spirulina is a single-cell organism that is capable of turning sunlight into energy, and it has been on earth for eons.

"Spirulina is a superfood because it has tons of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes. It's food, people of many cultures actually eat a version of it. Spirulina is a great source of vegetable protein and what makes it even more amazing is the detoxifying chlorophyll (the green pigment in plants).

"Chlorophyll eliminates body odor and cleans out the digestive tract. Because spirulina packs this kind of a punch, I think it is a good supplement for everyone, especially those of you who do not eat a lot of fruits and veggies. Spirulina could be of benefit to you if you have:

Chronic fatigue or anemia
Hypothyroidism, Hashimoto's or Graves' disease
Vision loss
Frequent infections
Pollen, hayfever, and/or mold allergies
Heart problems
Neuropathis pain or heavy metal burdens
Type 2 diabetes

You can read Suzy's detailed comments on how spirulina offers benefits for each of these conditions in her article "Spirulina is a Supercool Superfood" on the Healthier Talk website.

I have found 2 wonderful resources of authentic, fully potency Spirulina that our family uses and switches between: EarthRise Spirulina Natural and Natures Sunshine Spirulina .

• Earthrise are chewables that our daughters pop in like candy, several times a day.
• Nature's Sunshine brand are capsules for easy swallowing.

Spirulina does occasionally detox the system too quickly when first starting, so I would start out with adults: 1/day with a meal, Children 1/2 tablet a day. Adults can EVENTUALLY build up to 3 capsules a day, and children 3-5 tablets a day.

This is a WONDERFUL all-purpose vitamin for children, otherwise I would reccomend this one as well as a safe and effective, daily vitamin for children: Natures Sunshine Elderberry Plus Herbasaurs.

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

Chemical Food Dyes

If you go to almost any child's birthday party now days, you will most likely find a colorful, brightly frosted birthday cake with colors so vivid, you can't possibly miss them. Yes, birthday parties and colorful cakes SEEM to go hand -in-hand, but do they necessarily HAVE to? Some may call it "common sense" to "need" a colorful birthday cake in order to celebrate, yet others may call it "materialistic" to "need" colorful birthday cakes. The same goes for blue applesauce, florescent cereals, green ketchup, purple "vitamins" and all colors of sugar drinks. So, why would someone opt out of those brightly colored chemical dyes in their child's celebration? Let's find out through a little bit of history, study, and effects.

"In the 1800's some manufacturers colored products with potentially poisonous mineral-and metal based compounds. Toxic chemicals tinted certain candies and pickles, while other color additives contained arsenic....." John Henkel

HISTORY

(Taken from http://www.fennogold.org/) Natural food colors were first used, but the cheaper chemical colorants quickly took their place because they were cheaper to make, easier to use, control and mix into foods and had limited flavor to alter the taste of foods. By the time the early 1900's hit, there were more than 80 types of dyes, none of them having been tested for short/long term affects. The dyes created were, and still are, derived from PETROLEUM ANILINE, and were first named coal-tar colors because the starting product was taken from bituminous coal. Laws were eventually made to attempt to control the extent and identify the colors, but nevertheless, very little research done on the safety of putting them in the human body.

SOURCES/EFFECTS

RED #40

Is usually in anything red, pink, purple, burgundy, or orange colored, possible foods: Popsicles, salad dressing, kids drinks and cereals, ice cream, & chips. It is also sprayed on many non-organic, fresh red apples, red potatoes, cherries and strawberries to enhance them with a more appealing look.

Holistic health views this food dye to have a negative/weakening impact on our killer cells: T-cells, macrophages and white cells. Abnormal cell growth in ANY AREA of the body, brain, bone or pituitary glands. Dr. Feingold did his own research to find that this food dye can increase hyperactivity, anger, rage, and irritability.

BLUE #1

Found in most any foods that are blue, green, purple, including many of the same items as those having Red #40 on them.

Ingesting Blue #1 can lead to illnesses involving the spleen,enlarged lymph nodes, weak veins, polyps in the brain and spleen, some tumors, chronically high triglyceride count, skin problems, weak immunity, abnormal cell growth anywhere in the body.

Yellow #5

Found in green, yellow, orange and brown items such as pickles, drinks, chips, medicines, Hepatitis B vaccine, soap, lotion and various toiletry items.

Yellow #5 in the body can lead to abnormal cell growth and weakness of the liver, abnormal cell growth in the prostate, ovaries, vagina, cervix, intestines, can lead to blood sugar imbalances, improper filtering of toxins out of the blood stream, bone marrow weakness and abnormal T-cell or white blood cell production.

ADDITIONAL ARTICLES WRITTEN ON THE STUDY OF DYES ON CHILDREN:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/2984519.stm http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3742423.stm

Much of the above information came from a "Blessed By Nature" Handout

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

Do You Put 100% Faith in Modern Medicine, or in GOD?

PLEASE hit PLAY to watch the movie FIRST, so that it lines up with the intended song :)

There is definately a place for modern medicine--for emergencies and life-threatening surgeries/illnesses. HOWEVER, I believe pharmaceuticals are waaay over used, and the Pharmaceutical industry is focused too much on profits....please make careful to note that I view doctors differently than pharmaceutical companies, who sponser and fund their medical training.....the quote "DON'T KILL THE MESSANGER" can be applied to this situation.

It is our responsibility to seek out non-invasive measures of treatment for OTHER purposes beyond emergencies. If we don't seek it out, and we put 100% belief in one particular system....we may end up unknowlingly using the system for more than we should. God gave us plants for oils and herbs.....this is the least invasive way of healing from non-emergencies. My intention is to only make you think.....

I am personally one of the 42% that the video mentioned who have been directly affected by a medical mistake...an "experiment" on my right knee you might call it--words from another knee doctor who said that that type of procedure shouldn't have been done on anyone. What makes me know (along with the other doctor's words), that he messed up? He cut the leftover ligaments holding my knee in place to "balance it better", and ended up having to follow it up with YET ANOTHER surgery to attempt to correct the first "experiment". The results? Well, I have to be very careful not to have it fall out of placeduring exercise involving twisting and turning. Later, in my years of studying natural methods, I found that all you need is one shred of ligament in order to repair the entire thing with the proper nutrients. I have come to learn that I need to search out answers, rather than settling for them; I need to pray about decisions heavily before putting total trust in another person's actions if it may be potentially life altering; I will choose to seek out first and foremost, methods of healing that are not invasive, but rather natural ways.

In the clip above, it also mentions that "You're told to stay out of the sun, yet 50,000 people die from cancer each year due to not enough sun exposure". God made the sun to be our major acessable source of VITAMIN D. Without the proper levels of vitamins and nutrients supplied to our bodies on a daily basis, our bodies become suseptable to diseases such as CANCER.

Vitamin D --can be obtained naturally from the sun (ONLY WITHOUT SUNSCREEN), fish liver oils, and meat and dairy raised in the sun (organic ones are). SO, YES! Cows raised in the sun have enough vitamin D in them to pass on through their milk and meat--cows raised indoors in industrial corporate buildings are deprived of vitamin D, and therefore need synthetic Vitamin D added to milk in the processing.

• "NATURAL SOURCES of Vitamin D increase the absorption, retention, and utilization of magnesium, calcium and phosphorus." pg 193, Adelle Davis's book, Let's have Healthy Children


• "Studies have shown that calcium is retained efficiently only when 2,000 units of natural Vitamin D are taken daily. Vitamin D added to calcium tablets, (also commercial milk).... are not stable and should not be relied upon" as a source. pg 99, Adelle Davis's book, Let's have Healthy Children

I had always assumed the more sunscreen, the better, when dealing with health. But, since reading up on Vitamin D and its benefits, I now know to just limit the amount of time in the sun I spend with my children. We usually try to balance time outdoors between shade and direct sunlight. We also start early in the spring getting our bodies accustomed to the sun again by spending hours at a time outdoors. That way, when summer comes, our bodies don't get burned from being a couple hours in the sun without sunscreen. Sun is beneficial for your skin, burning skin is not, and sunscreen is not. If you plan on taking a trip to somewhere tropical, or have no shade on a long day outdoors, there are Natural Sun Creams (click on words for link), if you find you need one. If you start early, there's no reason for sunscreen if you don't over-do it it on any given day! God made the sun for a specific reason, along with making our skin be able to soak it up to detox for a specific reason.

Did you know that "sun spots" are acutally spots that your body is using energy from the sun to detox through, by bringing impurities to the surface? GOD DESIGNED nutrients to detox--too much of a certain nutrient (including Vitamin D from the sun) can speed up the detoxing process too much. So, in essence, a cancerous tumor your body was working on fighting (our body is constantly fighting and breaking up cancerous cells) is instead pushed to the surface to be labeled skin cancer instead of another form. Want more info on cancer? Here's another BLOG post of mine on cancer, click on the following word link: http://bodymindsoulfood.blogspot.com/2009/05/cancer-movie-not-to-miss.html

Dr. Mercola says in one of his newsletters: "Vitamin D levels in your blood fall to their lowest point during flu seasons. Unable to be protected by the body’s own antibiotics (antimicrobial peptides) that are released by vitamin D, a person with a low vitamin D blood level is more vulnerable to contracting colds, influenza, and other respiratory infections."

******None of the above statements have been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. All of the information in this BLOG is strictly for educational purposes. This BLOG should not be used to treat, diagnose, or prescribe for a condition you feel you may have. If you have any health concerns, you should see a competent practitioner. ******

God's Baby

God blessed us with a little miracle at the beginning of April 2009. I remember feeling a little "BLAH" that day, feeling sick to my stomach, with everything else out of sorts. It disappeared after a few days, so I just attributed it to some new juice I had tried..... LATER ON, I would find out that it was a baby that we would never know while it was alive.

At 10 weeks, when we discovered that I was expecting a baby, the baby had already passed away a few days prior, thus setting off "symptoms". It broke my heart to find out, but I know God has a reason for everything, and trusted that LIFE WOULD GO ON. I know under any other circumstances, as I looked down at my flat stomach laying in bed, I would be thankful for it's appearance, but tonight it would be most difficult to see it again considering the circumstances that led up to it.

Today as I found out about the loss, the day seemed so dark and lonely at first. My mind kept swirling with questions and thoughts--so much that I don't even remember driving home from the hospital. God DOES provide comfort in these dark of times, though, I just wasn't ready to look for it. So, even though I felt too weak to pray for myself (ever been there?), and too hopeless to even want to try, I had a gracious friend who God put in my path at the time offer a prayer to me that changed my outlook COMPLETELY. As the day's events unfolded, I would soon see that this WASN'T the horrible event that I kept thinking it was--this was an opportunity to teach our girls about life and death, and to know that God blessed us with a baby that he chose ME to lovingly carry for the blessed short time it was alive! An OPPORTUNITY, instead of a nightmare that my mind kept telling me it SHOULD be! As my focus of the days events changed, so did the actual events unfolding before my eyes.....

My miracles started as I talked with the Chaplin at Sanford Hospital to find out what becomes of the baby once it was"born". Some people may just want to move on and not glance back at the pregnancy-gone-sour, but I couldn't rest easy unless I knew what was generally accepted as the methodology of closure for the precious tiny soul. The Chaplin told me that he would be leaving when we were coming in, so the college campus pastor from my Alma-mater would be on call. I quickly realized that God wanted to give me a familiar comfort for tonight's surgery, something I had never even considered a possibility! I learned that he generally only works about 3 nights a month, and I "happened" to come in on one of those nights! (Happened? Not at all.......more like "was planned to be by divine intervention "!) My college pastor and I have kept up over the years--so he already knew we were expecting a baby, along with knowing our family dynamics, family values, and our family goals.

We decided as a family to do this together, since the girls had been there for the ultrasound, seeing the baby on the screen, and then seeing both their mama and the ultra sound technician brushing back the tears they shared at that moment. Yes, they knew, and were full of questions. Like I said, this was an OPPORTUNITY to share both the blessing AND the sadness with them!

When I got chauffeured into the surgery room, I soon realized that God's plan of comfort wouldn't stop at just my campus pastor friend, he was going to bless me with a room full of familiar faces! Out of the 5 people in my surgery room, I knew 3 of them! (and there were several rooms full of other people!) A classmate/friend from college was my anesthesiologist, one of my nurses was a friend who I had bought scrapbook supplies from for years, and my doctor was my very own, who happened to be on call tonight. YES, God had surrounded me with comforting, familiar faces for the surgery I had been needlessly dreading all day long! Quite awkwardly, most of the night I found myself not being able to hide the smile God had painted on me with such loving hands.

After surgery, we had a ceremony in our room with my college pastor, which was so very meaningful, that I couldn't hold back the tears. Although I may not remember all the words he spoke from the sheer magnitude of the evening, I do remember, that as we held hands he said that we were together as a family for the first time, and that the next time we would be together would be in the presence of our savior. AMEN.

Through this, I have learned that God's plan is God's plan. We may tell ourselves that we are in control but if God's plan is to have a baby in his arms, then so it shall be. Praise the Lord forevermore!

"Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." Matthew 19:14