Here's the deal...

Here’s the deal...I’ve decided to start a blog to share my journey of how I got to where I am today and where I’m going from here. I have come to a road in my life where I now need to make the biggest decision in my life. I was born with a congenital heart defect that has affected my lungs. I’ve been in heart failure for a while now and in the last month I’ve learned that my heart and lungs are now causing damage to my liver as well. So now I need to make a big decision. After meeting with my cardiologist it sounds like I have 4 options. They are as follows:

1. Do nothing and my quality of life will continue to worsen.

2. Move to sea level and have a little better quality of life. However, there is no guarantee that the lower altitude will prolong my life.

3. Start the heart and lungs transplant process and see if I qualify.

4. A combination of 2 and 3.

I’m scheduled for a cardio pulmonary stress test on October 24th, 2017 that will start the transplant process. My doctor will be contacting Stanford University next week to talk to them about the heart and lungs transplant being an option and if I’ll be needing any additional medical testing completed before I can meet with them.

My family and I have not made a decision yet. No matter what option I choose I do not know the outcome. However, my husband and I do not feel comfortable with option number 1 and have taken that option off the list. My amazing husband keeps telling me that I have the final say because it’s my life and body. I have more support than I could ask for between family and friends. I am truly blessed and thankful for that. I want to do what is best for my family and myself.

I’ve always loved the joke, “If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans.” By, Woody Allen

I’ve learned the hard way that God has a plan for me and that it may be similar to my plan, I just need to go about it a different way. In my sophomore year in high school I decided on my plan. I was going to get married right out of high school, adopt and birth children, be a stay at home mom and live happily ever after. I know, I know it sounds too easy to be real. Well, it was.

I did eventually get my happily ever after and most of my plan, but the path to get there was nothing I could ever imagine or design for myself. It was hard, joyful, sorrowful, and the greatest adventure I could ever take. Thankfully the Lord knows what I needed, who I needed in my life, what I needed to learn, when things needed to happen, and where I needed to be. Through every trial, triumph, failure, and learning opportunity my life has been more fulfilling than I could have created or planned for myself. I have become a person I am proud of. I make mistakes and I’m completely imperfect, but I’m truly happy.

So here is a quick overview on how on I got to where I am today. In 1999 I graduated from high school still single, I went to Snow college for 1 year, in the summer of 2000 I transferred to Salt Lake Community College (SLCC), got married December 2001, graduated from SLCC with an Associates of Science in Early Childhood Education in spring 2002, divorced from my abusive spouse in November 2002, graduated in 2004 with a Bachelors of Science in Human Development and Family studies, summer of 2004 I bled in my right lung and ended up in the hospital for a few days and then started the pre-evaluation for a heart and double lung transplant, August 2004 started a full time job in my field and met the man of my dreams, got engaged to the man of my dreams in January 2005, in February 2005 I was officially evaluated at Stanford University for a heart and double lung transplant (discovered the transplant was not needed at that time), married the man of my dreams in March 2005, promoted to middle management at work in 2006, adopted my amazing daughter in April 2010, and quit my job to be a stay at home mom in December 2012.

I did it! I accomplished my plan. Now what? I’m not sure what the next steps are in my life. I’ve accomplished more in my 36 years than I had ever planned for myself because of all the right people, places, and opportunities provided for me by Heavenly Father. I look forward to what else the Lord has in store for me. I’ll keep you posted.