What a year!!

So far, we are ending the year with ALOT of laughs!! God has done so many dramatic things in our fam in 2011...would love to share with you about the two big ones. Got a minute? Great...
In June of this year, I WAS HEALED. There is no other way to put it really, a true physical healing. Not by doctors visits, not by taking vitamins or the perfect cocktail of RX meds. God used a simple man, and over months and months of constant pain, God built my faith in Himself, His plan and His timing.
Rewind to December of 2010.
I knew one day that first week in December that I was about to get a cold or something. Just didn't feel good, and strangely something I had never noticed before, pain under my arms where my lymph nodes are, lead me to think I was fighting a virus that was coming on. So I geared up, eat well, rested and drank lots of water.
A couple days later I got a mild head cold, but the following day I broke out in hives. Something else that had never happend to me. They were huge welts around my waist and down my legs. Took meds for them and a few days later they left. HOWEVER....
Smack dab in the middle of this strange *cold* pain set in my arms and legs. Pain that was deep, burning, more than an ache. PAIN. But not my whole legs or arms, just the bottom half of both legs and arms. SO VERY STRANGE!

Over the next weeks and months ahead, I searched for answers...relief!! I kept thinking when I wake up tomorrow, it will be GONE. Ok, the next day. Ok then, the next day!! PLEASE GOD THE NEXT DAY!!??
Each doctor I saw had tests run, all but one came back normal. Just one lab out of all the x-rays, bone scan, nerve tests, bloodwork, came back abnormal. They only thing it *said* was something was going on with my immune system, but no one could say *what* was going on.
Many tears, many prayers. Nate and I would cry together and pray together for God to show us what He wanted us to do. I never stopped trusting HIM!
My life was purposely filled with one distraction after the other, month after month. As night time would come each day the distractions would settle and the pain would be at it's most intense. My sleep was minimal. I hated taking meds, hated it. I couldn't be a momma and work full time during the day with pain meds. So I just functioned somehow. At night, about every 3rd night, I would take something to help me go to sleep. Pain meds. Strange though, the pain never went away, I would just fall asleep.

I think this is the ONLY picture of me during those months. This night with my two closest friends from hign school, involved attending an African wedding and reception. What a wonderful distraction!!
So many of my talks with God involved asking Him to use me, to use this time in pain, always to bring Him glory. I prayed that it would END, that this wouldn't be my new life! I know so many dear ones where daily pain IS their life. I knew that if this is what He had planned for me, that He would give me what I need to get through each day. One at a time. Oh but I prayed for answers!!!
One of my wonderful daily distractons was that I work at a Christian school. Oh what a blessing!!! Some co-workers knew what I was in the middle of, and they joined me in prayer!
But then one day, a sweet co-worker shared with me the story of her journey...
With out going into details, she had been given a diagnosis that was unwelcomed. Life-changing! But some one shared with her about a dear old man in Indiana who just might be able to help her. So she went! In faith, that if this was legit, then it just might be worth it! She saw Mr. Solomon Wickey. And he gave her answers!!!! Life-changing for the good!

Dear Mr. Wickey...I would like to make an appointment to see you, Thank you.
It was that simple. That was my letter. This wasn't written the next day after she shared with me. I did as much research as I could. It was hard. Mr.W is an Amish man who has no website, ( unheard of right?!), you can't find a picture of him! If it wasn't her telling me her first hand experience with him, I would have doubted he was even real! What I did find is many others documented experiences of getting answers, relief and even some who had been healed!!
I started reading about how Christ healed in the Bible. Some were immediate, others had to *do* a little something before they were healed.
So after many nights praying and even talking with a couple of my docs about him, we were ALL in agreement that I needed to GO!
This was it. It was all I had left. Please Lord, what ever it is that you ask for me to do, let it lead to complete healing! It's ALL FROM YOU LORD!
I received a letter back a couple weeks later with a appointment date. It was about 6 weeks away!! In the meantime, story after story of others God placed in my path who had seen him and heard of his MINISTRY! That is truly what he has, a ministry!
During the waiting time, the Lord nudged me to share with a friend from high school whos dear wife had been struggling with severe health issues for years with NO relief. So I took a moment and sent a simple message letting them know this just might be what they are looking for as well. You can read their story here http://thadriley.blogspot.com See what the Lord did through Mr.W for his wife!!! AMAZING!!!
We even had appointments with Mr.W the same day!!!

A few friends came with me and our son that day. It was a beautiful sunny day. My pain was intense as I drove the 3 hrs to his place. We arrived and my heart was so excited and strangely at complete peace.
We let his wife know we were there and we sat in a very hot waiting area. Posters on the wall were of the line of Christ, and another was of foods we should avoid. They both made me smile. I sat and read a National Geographic from 1989. Somthing else that made me smile. But what made me smile the most was the people there in that room. All waiting to see Mr. W. I wondered why. Are they in pain? no answers anywhere else either? A perfectly quiet Amish family walked in with their children. None of them said a word. The children were shoeless and still. No fooling around in there. They were little, like my boys, but they stood next to their momma totally silent. I was taking notes!!! My son, and the two other teens that were with me that day, also sat in silence...but only because they all had earphones in, listening to music!! We have alot to learn from the Amish!!!
About one hour later, my name was called. This whole time, as silent as this room was, I NEVER heard Mr.W's voice. Was he even here?? People would be called back to see him, be in there a few minutes and leave with smiles but I never heard him talking.
So I wondered when I walked in, if he was even there!!
His quaint little office was simple and clean. A wall of apothocary items were to my right, perfectly labeled. I knew of many who has seen him that he would perscribe herbs for their healing process.

Oh, and then I looked down...there he was!!!! It was all I had not to just reach down and hug this white bearded man. I had been praying for HIM!!! I had! I had prayed that God would use him, that He would give him wisdom!! Please Lord give him wisdom this day!
"hi mr.wickey" ( my voice was little...nervous I guess).
He said hello, then "ok, what brings you here today; who is first?" I sat down and told him for many months I have had severe pain in the lower half of my legs and arms and no one knows why. I'm in ALOT of pain.
We sat knee to knee as he listened and that was all I said. I felt stragely simple.
I prayed as he looked at my face. He said "well, I can see by looking at your face that your spleen isn't working". OK. not sure how to take that. All I verbalized was *OK*.
He then uses a iridology magnifying glass and looked into my eyes. He practices iridology ( study of the map of the iris). He then said "wow, you have alot going on". Again all I could say was OK. My mind was going a mile a minute.
He quietly laid a couple bottles of herbs against my left knee as he asked me to hold up my right arm ( a muscle test). I kept praying and I could see he was too.
He said again." You HAD alot going on" He then told me FOUR other issues that explained my pain. Issues that involved my inability to filter toxins, which have now built up in my system causing the pain.
I noticed right away that the verb tense had changed. ( have to HAD). He said " I wouldn't have guessed all this was going on by looking at you" I told him God has given me what I need to try to keep a smile on my face. He smiled. Then he said something I honestly wasn't expecting...
"It's taken care of,it's been released."
"what? I'm sorry...what?" He patiently repeated himself in such a humble way.
I got quite emotional and told him "thank you for letting God use you".
That was ALL I SAID. Those of you that know me...heck, those of you that are still reading this know that I am NOT one of little words. Not at all!!!
But the Lord was in COMPLETE control of me and I felt Him say in my spirit. TRUST ME, IM IN THE PROCESS OF HEALING YOU!!!
On my drive home as I made phone call after phone call, my pain was at this point 50% GONE!!! I still have the text on my phone from my husband in which his response was "Praise God, I am in tears!"
Each day following my pain was less and less. I kept telling the Lord "You are in the process of healing me!!" I would walk down the halls at school and say it again and again!
I have a special story to share with you about our mission trip to Trinidad that we took just weeks late...all pain free!!!
This is alot to take in for now....I'll give you some time to take it all in.
God is good! He is the Healer. He HEALS. It's his name, Jehovah Rapha - THE GOD THAT HEALS!!!