Happy New Year!

Happy New Year! I don't know about you, but I'm ready for a new year! There have been many blessings in 2011, but there have been many trials and a lot of suffering. Here are the best and worst things from each month in 2011.

January

• Best- Going to Winterfest in Dallas with my youth group for a weekend
• Worst- Several ER trips with more cysts

February

• Best- Surprise birthday party for me at midnight during a youth lock-in at church!
• Worst- More ER trips and more pain with cysts

March

• Best- My brother and dad got to come to Reno, Nevada while my mom and I were there at my Lyme doctor. We got to spend a weekend at Lake Tahoe with them.
• Worst- Being is so much pain from an orange size cyst while getting treatments in Reno. I had to be on so much pain medicine that I was not myself. My mom and I flew to Reno on March 8th. We just bought one way tickets. I also had to go to the ER a few days after we got there.

April 

• Best- My dad and brother surprised us and visited us again!
• Worst- More pain and another ER trip. Still getting treatments in Reno

May

• Best- Coming home from Reno on May 7th after being there for 2 long months
• Worst- Being in the ICU for several days a couple weeks after being home from Reno because of a severe medicine interaction caused by the ER. I had gone to the ER 4 days in a row before being admitted to the ICU

June

• Best- Finishing high school online, enrolling in college, and doing an article for the Oklahoma newspaper about Lyme
• Worst- Struggling with symptoms because I had to be taken off all of my medicines while in ICU. 

July

• Best- Landon being baptized and my graduation reception on the same day!
• Worst- Lots of joint and body pain

August

• Best- Starting college after being out of school for almost 3 years. Taking one class a day.
• Worst- More ER trips because of another cyst

September

• Best- Finally getting abdominal pain under control after another surgery
• Worst- Another abdominal surgery (3rd in a year) on September 19th and trying to go to school while hurting so much

October 

• Best- Spending time with friends
• Worst- Still trying to recover from surgery and go back to school

November

• Best- Getting to meet 2 new friends who also have Lyme
• Worst- Getting the flu and having to go to the ER while my parents were out of the country. Missing 2 weeks of school because of the flu

December

• Best- Finishing school for the semester
• Worst- Getting sick with another virus for a couple of weeks, which I still have. Going to the ER last week.

I love this verse and it's perfect as the new year starts. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." -Jeremiah 29:11-13

I pray that this year is the best one yet for all of us!