A Season of Miracles...

We have come to the end of another magnificent Holiday Season. It always passes much too quickly.
This year was beautiful.

We found the perfect Christmas Tree...

We made dozens of Sugar Cookies...

We drank Egg Nog and wore Bad Festive Sweaters...

We chatted with Santa...

And along the way, we experienced some miracles.

I was hoping to get a colonoscopy before 2010 came to a close. I've had some symptoms that started shortly before I became pregnant with Gracie. With Sienna's pregnancy - the symptoms only worsened. We didn't want to do the procedure during my pregnancy - due to the harmful effects of anesthesia on the baby...so it was a race against time to get the procedure scheduled before the end of the year. Since the age bracket for recommended colonoscopies is around 50 plus...few doctors entertained the idea of looking into what might be causing my symptoms. But finally after getting a screening appointment with a doctor on our insurance plan - the nurse looked in her computer calendar to see the next available date for a colonoscopy....

She crinkled her nose, shook her head and said,

"I'm amazed. We've had one cancellation. Will December 17th work for you?

All of our other appointments are well into the new year."

I gladly took the date.

Our first miracle.

Call it a small random turn of events - a Coincidence.
But I know there is no such thing as a Coincidence. All things happen for a reason.

During the Colonoscopy, the Doctor found a large tumor, the size of a silver dollar, in the lower part of my colon - the doctor thinks it was there for about 5 years. After biopsying the tumor, they found it contained areas of high-grade dysplasia and Villous Adenoma was present. Of course, when the doctor told me this - All I heard were words. Blurred Words.

"The Translation Brittany" he explained, "You don't have cancer - but most likely you were only months away from the irregular cells budding into colon cancer."

Another Miracle.

High-Grade Dysplasia is the last step on the ladder before pre-cancer becomes real cancer. The doctor says if I had waited a year from now to have the procedure - the outcome would be very different; most likely resulting in the removal of part of my colon and treatment for cancer.

That is part I can't get out of my head.

I am so lucky. I know so many others don't receive such favorable results from tests like these.

So this Christmas I had my own Ebenezer Scrooge realization {minus the part of being really old and grouchy...okay my husband might disagree with the grouchy part - but that's only for a short time in the morning. :) }

A Commitment to Living Life to the Fullest and loving each and every moment. And if it's not a moment to love (because those exist...potty training a toddler comes to mind) then enduring those moments with charm and a smile. I am so grateful to a loving Heavenly Father for my life - the joyful parts and the challenging parts too.

So Cheers to 2011! Cheers to seeing more gummy grins from my 3-month old baby girl. Cheers to hearing Gracie sing 'Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer' ALL year long.

Cheers to all my blessings.

(Our camera ran out of juice for Gracie's Big Finish. I assure you; it was great!)