A Christmas Greeting;

As most of you know, this has been an extremely rough year for me.  Almost every.single.month. I've had an appointment with either a UVA doctor or my Augusta Health doctor. I've had numerous tests, studies, procedures, ect. I look at it in a positive way that all of the tests came back negative which is good and none of the scans showed any significant changes (of concern at this point).   Due to my health, my usual yearly surgeries for continual NF tumor removal was not a good idea, so that was put off until I get a bit stronger.  I'm a bit of a mess......as my neurologists (yes, I have two neurologists), pain management doctor, GI doctor, and whole slew of other doctors would say since they can't figure out the cause of anything.    I'm about worn out from the exorbitant amount of tests and studies that was done to me JUST THIS past several week.  In the first week in December I was getting tested for some swallowing issues I was having.  The study was supposed to last only 1.5-2 hours at most.  Nope. I was there for 5 hours! Needless to say.  I was done for that day.  The only good I got out of that day was that the radiologist gave my Mom and I a free meal ticket to eat at the cafeteria. This was at Augusta Health.  I wish I was allowed to go home, but nope. They made me stay put.    I'm just glad all my health studies are done this year.  I just have next year to look forward to for more studies, tests,  procedures.....etc..yay (hear my sarcasm??)

But, through all this...all this pain; all these appointments (and disappointments of not knowing what is going on or causing all this sickness), I still continue to TRY to reflect on the sovereignty of God and HIS purposes through this...especially this time of year.  The time of year when we remember the birth of Jesus.  The birth of Christ.  For this is where it all began.  He began his life, so that he could live and later die that WE can LIVE.

A couple of my a friends  asked me questions along these lines: "Are you ready for Christmas" and "What do you do for Christmas" "Do you decorate, put up a tree", etc etc....  They are usually stunned at my responses.   As far as being ready for Christmas, I guess you never really know if you are ready or not for Christmas until it comes or not.  Plus that question really usually relates to the other question about decorating the house, putting up a tree, fixing a meal for Christmas, etc.  This is usually my response: 

Our family hasn't put of a Christmas tree since I was probably about six or seven years old.  We've never had stockings up either.  We don't go to the hassle of decorating our house or the exterior of our house either. BUT, we do love looking at other people's houses all decorated. (Disclaimer: nothing against anyone who does put up trees or decorates houses.  We just don't do it just because we mostly don't have the energy/time/place) We don't really make a big deal about a meal either.  It's whatever we feel like cooking that night.  It's a regular breakfast, lunch, dinner day. 

Well, last night, my Okinawan Karate instructor, Scott  responded by saying "You mean you guys don't celebrate, Christmas?"  I was totally dumbfounded by this remark thinking to myself how is it that decorations and food is a form of celebration?  But, I also have heard that some response before as well.   My response to Scott was "yes, we do celebrate Christmas, but Christmas is about family and most of all Christ's Birth. We just don't care too much about decorations. As far as meals are concerned, we aren't too big on ham or anything.  (I then proceeded to tell him examples of things we do usually eat for Christmas dinner....but just fyi, in Chinese tradition,on, we treat every Thanksgiving/Christmas as "regular days/meal times.  We eat breakfast, lunch, dinner same time, same amounts of food....I guess we just aren't too much into turkey or ham)

One of my dear friends likes to listen to Christmas music almost all year long. I give him a hard time about it and I always never like to listen to Christmas music until after Thanksgiving.  The fact of the matter is that whether or not we listen to Christmas music all year long or after Thanksgiving or not or even a week before Christmas, Christ(mas) should be celebrated every.single.day. He's be breath by which we breath. The beat by which our heart pumps. He's our Rock and our Source of pure delight.   So, when people ask me, how do I get through those tough days of pain and agony. I tell them, that I do what I can and trust in Christ. I try to remember who is and what He stands. For He is: 

Wonderful

Counselor

Almighty God

Everlasting Father

Prince of Peace

Jesus, our Emmanuel

Joy, Peace, and Love to you This Christmas Season.