Day #11: #TBT What A Year Can Do
Last year I wrote a blog on my “wishful doing series” about a weekend experience I had with two friends.
You can refresh your memory here:Wishful Weekend
In my blog post last year (around this time), I wrote about a sweet day that happened at my house with two sweet friends.
One friend on the sewing machine, the other popping in for a visit.
It was on that day that we rejoiced with the “Pop in for a visit” friend, Laine.
She popped in that day with her normal excited self.
Peppy, bubbly, always smiling and laughing.
But this particular day last year was the last day that her older brother, Zane, had chemo treatments.
He had suffered and battled from testicular cancer, a journey that still gets Laine a little choked up when she talks about it… because God was so good.
It is my great delight to share that Zane is not only chemo free but CANCER FREE.
Not an ounce of that mess left in him.
Man, a lot can happen in a year!
But I think what I love about reading blogs from blogs past is seeing what all the Lord can do in our lives in one year.
One. Short. Year.
With Laine, that one short 365 days, led to a lot of incredible miracles, moments, and movement.
But she did it.
And she did it well.
Laine and I were college roommates and close friends.
She was so much a part of my later college years and on after that her story tends to touch a different spot on my heart.
(^^these gals… the 4 best roommates that ever walked the earth. Seriously.)
Laine dreamed for most of her high school and college life of being a Physical Therapist.
Not exactly the simple road, but she wouldn’t be Laine if she did things that didn’t challenge her and tackle them with a force only Laine can muster up.
Laine’s journey to applying for PT school was a long one, a road of long hours and jobs that weren’t high paying.
Frustrating moments and the true life of the early 20 something year old.
In the midst of her process of getting into PT school, she found out that her older brother was battling cancer, and she had just begun a relationship with her now husband, Dustin.
Laine shares:
“I was driving 10 hours through sleet and snow to Harding University for my first PT school interview. The day I left was the day we were finding out that what we were fighting was a tumor.”
It was in that where the movement of God, I believe, catapulted Laine into a new space of trust.
Trusting God with her school choice.
Trusting God with her brother, his story, his destiny.
Trusting God with this new guy she was seeing.
Something that I don’t think would have come to pass had Laine not had to face those mountains… all at once.
but a lot can happen in a year.
Because I guarantee you when Laine received those phone calls about her brother her first thought was not that he would be cancer free.
I am sure she didn’t imagine that in a year she would have been accepted into one of the TOP PT Schools in the USA.
I am sure she didn’t imagine that she would marry the guy who walked into her life at one of the most challenging times.
But a lot can happen in a year.
Because within that season of many mountains to move, the miraculous began happening before Laine’s eyes.
Because of her brother’s battle, Laine learned to pray.
It may seem small to many of you, but Laine learned the power of her prayers and coveted others prayers in the midst.
but only prayers of positive words.
Laine shares:
“Dustin in the mean time grew close to me and my gals. We’re better than ever. He was always texting me verses and listening when I needed an ear to hear. My prayer was Acts 3:16. ‘And His name- By faith in His name- has made this man (zane) strong who you see and know, and the faith that is through Jesus has given Zane this perfect health in the presence of you all. YES AND AMEN.’ During the fight, speaking truth aloud was so very important. There were times I would be in the Word praying it aloud and as the words came out there was still doubt, but hearing them would move small mountains in my own faith.”
I’d say that’s true.
It was in the process of praying and believing that the Lord was using this battle for His glory that Laine and Zane saw the miraculous come to pass in the life of one of Zane’s nurses.
It was in her witnessing Zane go through this chemo and battle and the way he loved and trusted God that SHE became a believer AND her son did too.
NOT TO MENTION, Zane reached out to Lance Armstrong’s surgeon asking him about surgery and he EMAILED him back. A free consultation from the BEST testicular cancer doctor in (maybe) the world.
I can’t make this stuff up.
The stories are endless of what Laine saw as she prayed for her brother.
The stories are endless of how she got into PT school.
The stories are endless of how God put her husband in her life at just the right time.
a lot can happen in a year.
Laine and Zane both found their forever partners in the middle of this huge battle.
I don’t think that is a coincidence, I just think it’s the hand of the Lord saying YES to added strength and goodness in someone’s life.
Laine managed to work a job, apply for PT school, date her now husband (and marry him), and fight for her brother in prayer and watch him be healed.
a lot can happen in a year.
I’ll say it again…
A lot can happen in a year.
I wrote my last post on April 18th, 2016, since then,
She was accepted into University of Alabama at Birmingham for their Doctorate of PT school.
Her brother finished his chemo treatments.
She got engaged.
She got married.
She moved to Birmingham and is now swimming in the pool of school for the next 3 years.
I am telling you…
a lot can happen in a year.
But if I have learned anything from witnessing this friend do all the crazy roller coaster of life I have learned this:
Nothing is too hard to do if it’s what you’ve always dreamed of … if it’s what you were always meant to do.
Laine dreamed of being a PT… and she will be one in 3 years.
Laine has always desired a family and a home, and she has that today.
Laine has always desired closeness to the Lord, and He drew her closer to Him by teaching her to talk to Him in a new way.
Laine shares:
“I feel strong enough in my faith now to be outspoken but also tactful and creative in how I minister to those around me. And I really can be that light anywhere. Whether that is a Christian or Public University.”
God readied her heart for a miracle.
God readied her heart for marriage.
God readied her heart for school at a public University.
Because a lot can happen in a year.
A year can do a lot of things for people.
It can encourage them or it can deplete them.
But for this friend of mine, a year only gave her promotion in the Kingdom to move forward into what she’s always been created to do.
In 30 days of wishful doing I am looking at all the people that will let me peek in a little deeper into their lives and learn about what they are DOING.
How they got there.
What they have learned.
What they know.
Because in just a short amount of time, this sweet friend has caught the dream and the vision she always had for herself and is thriving.
It wasn’t easy.
But it was so incredibly good.
What a year can do is simply draw out the best of YOU!
