Celebrating My Birthday This Year
………Celebrating my birthday this year, March 11, 2016, was the ABSOLUTE best!!!
Wow! I couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day to pause and thank God for blessing me to see another year pass, while also embarking upon the coming of a new year. I do know that it isn’t just by chance that I am still here on this earth, but let me just tell you that I am truly and utterly speechless at times, when I try to reflect or just utter words of gratitude on how great it is to be here, just one more day! You see, although it is hard for me to explain it sometimes, because I just become overwhelmed with pure thanks and praises to God, but it is non-complexed and somewhat easy for me to show you just some of the countless, chemotherapy/radiation treatments, doctors’ visits, surgeries, and hospital stays that God has pulled me through, just to say, “No my child, it isn’t your time to go just yet!”
So keeping this in mind, I have grown to see and know that celebrating my birthday each and every year that God blesses me to see another one that it truly isn’t just about me! Yes, this is the day, March 11th, many, many years ago; that I was BIRTHED into this world, but it is every DAY that I choose to celebrate life, with a smile on my face and thanksgiving in my heart. And no, it wasn’t my illness that put me in this place but thank God, that through my illness, that I remain in this place! I do know that I have grown and continue to grow through my very own testimony and it is my continued hope that my testimony, here vividly on earth and in the flesh, with help others to grow as well.
Okay, I said that to say, since I am so blessed to be a blessing to others, I try to spend most, if not all, of my “birthed day” spreading cheer and blessings to others. So this day wasn’t supposed to be much different from the rest of these, now called birthed days, that I have been celebrating in the past several years. After awakening and thinking, “whew, I just made it to see another year,” I immediately thanked God and meditated on one of my favorite scriptures from Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ which strengthened me.”
With that being said, I got up and got dressed and preceded to the gym to get a little physical strengthening before setting out for the day. The workout went very well but the hunger in my stomach sent me on a diverted trip across the parking lot, to “Dickey’s Barbecue.” I already knew that they would give you a nice barbecue sandwich for your birthday, so I decided for the first time to try the ole birthday excuse to get some free food, why not, was my reasoning to myself and plus, I was very hungry anyway, especially after that hour long workout, lol. Can I just tell you that was the absolute best sandwich that I’ve had ever! Get this, the country girl in me put a little mayo on the sandwich and then I put a little sweet barbecue sauce on top of that. When the two of those mad ingredients met together, it was pure magic to my mouth. Dickey’s that was just wrong, in a good kind of a way! Anyway, I managed to pull myself up out of there and get down to business as usual on this birthed day.
After getting all of my gifts together to give away for today, my daughter Alyah was now home to set out on this journey with me once again. She informed me that Kylie Jenner, from “Keeping Up With the Kardashians” was going to be in town and she would like to stop by to see her since she is just very crazy about her. Why not, I thought. My daughter deserved a little of the blessings as well so after driving across town to visit with a mother from our church, we went to visit with patients at the cancer center, where I receive my treatments. It is so great to see the smiles on their faces when I tell them that it is my birthed day but I wanted to share it with them. That it really one of the greatest gifts, in itself, that I could ever receive anyway. So this is why I do what I do and why I found myself, a 49 year old 3-time cancer survivor, with low blood counts, being pushed and shoved around in a mad crowd of teenagers, just wanting to catch a glimpse, of this very attractive reality star, Kylie Jenner. At this point, I did only what I felt was the sane thing to do and that was to pull out my cell and try to plot with my daughter to get some great shots of her as well.
See, you can find a bright side to any situation. It wasn’t so bad after all. I just hope my white blood counts are okay for me to receive my chemotherapy next week.
At the end of my night, I came home late to find tons of Facebook postings of everyone wishing me some of the greatest birthday wishes that you could imagine, even my darling 2 year old niece, who shares my middle name, Faye, shared a video of her singing happy birthday to me. Delilah Faye, you made my heart sing! From my mom, to my siblings, cousins, and friends, you all are simply the best! Thanks to everyone for making this an extra special day to me, I couldn’t have asked for a better day!
