To Know That You're Alive

Easter is here!  Easter is here!  Easter is here!

Easter is my FAVORITE holiday...yes, I even prefer it over Christmas (as rotten eggs and fruit fly towards my face).  But I promise you, it's for good reason that Easter is my favorite.

I mean, aside from the fact that it symbolizes the resurrection of Jesus Christ and freedom for me personally, and the fact that there's LOTS OF CHOCOLATE involved... Easter means so much to me.

When I was in the 6th grade, my family and I were all gearing up to go to Pasadena for our annual family reunion.  But I wasn't feeling well at all.  2 and a half weeks prior to the time we were supposed to leave, I started getting intense stomach pains.  I couldn't even laugh—it was that bad.  We went to the doctors a couple days after the pain started—for all we know, I could've just eaten something bad.  So we went and the doc said nothing was wrong, it's just a stomach flu that's going around.  

So we went home, and the pain just kept getting worse and worse.  It got to the point where I could barely walk.  Easter weekend was creeping up and we were going to make the drive the Friday of Easter weekend to Pasadena for the reunion and we decided that just to be sure, we should go to the docs to see if everything was still okay and if there was any meds I should take.  We saw a different doc this time, and he was quite worried.  We did X-rays on the spot and discovered that the pain I had been experiencing was because 2 and half weeks before, my appendix had burst and all of the bile was seeping out to my other organs.  :( 

I went in for emergency surgery and woke up to my mom sitting there waiting for me.  :D  

The doc  came in and said that it was a good thing we came in before we left out of town, because the bile had spread so much that if I had waited another 24 hours, I would have died immediately.  The bile had burned some of my other organs but they were able to stabalize me and I had a long recovery.  10 days in the hospital.  My mom started calling it my second home.  
Now every time I think of Easter, I'm so grateful to be alive.  24 hours.  Seems like forever.  But knowing that we would have been out of town, believing I had a simple stomach virus, things wouldn't have turned out so well.  

I am so grateful to be alive.  Truly.  To be able to be alive and living my life... is AMAZING.  

That time in the hospital was so good for me.  My family came and saw me and showered me with gifts and love and hope.  My mom's co-workers even bought me my first Calligraphy set and my first Drawing Pad with paints and color pencils and such.  It was the time that I watched PHILADELPHIA a bazillion times a day, crying each time.  It was the time I got to hear All 4 One's I SWEAR over and over again.  It was the time that the youth ministry leaders came to see me and give me hope.  It was the time that I remember being so grateful for life.  

Easter is my FAVORITE holiday!

Happy Easter!