Birthdays are a celebration of life.  Family and friends gather, send cards, and make phone calls to honor the birth of a loved one. There is cake and there are gifts.  This year for my birthday I had all of these things.  It was a much needed celebration made special by those close to me.  I am a blessed woman.  God has given me gifts in the form of these people that love me and he shows me his love for me through them.  It is wonderful the way God expresses himself to me.  When a nightmare becomes reality it is important to look for God’s hand around you.  As I do, I find that his hand is in the smallest details of my days; old friendships are renewed, families have grown stronger, close friends have helped carry the burden.

 On this birthday I am also grateful for the unexpected gifts he has given me while on my difficult journey.  I have made new friends through the shared pain of disease.  There is an instant bond with others that have walked a similar road…and they are numerous.  I have found the suffering of others many times is hidden away in the deep places of their hearts.  My trauma draws out their pain in the form of compassion and tenderness.  It is beautiful to have a stranger tell his or her story as they commit to pray for me.  I know it is an act born of experience and shared to bring comfort.  In the telling and hearing of the story there is healing for both the teller and the hearer.  Understanding passes between them as the story is told.  With each story, fears surface and are put in perspective by the hope and more importantly faith.  Both of us are strengthened as I walk out my path and somehow give purpose to those that have walked it before me.  I know that someday in the future I will be the storyteller encouraging someone else to hang on and look up.  That is truly a gift worth getting.