Well, life right now is a bit frenzied. I guess it's better than just sitting around all the time, but it does get tiring. Many things have happened recently, so let's get started!
The last week of January I got sick with a sore throat and bad headache. I figured I was just tired so I kept going along with my normal duties until one Sunday morning around 3 or so I woke up because I could hardly breathe. I went downstairs and had my parents pray for me and ended up staying home from church. Boo. I was sick for several days and actually got a fever so my mom made an appointment with the doctor. The verdict: Strep throat.
So I got my antibiotics and went through all that jazz, you know, normal stuff. After about 2 weeks I was pretty much fine. I still felt tired and a little puny but nothing crazy. Then...BOOM! I went home from school with a headache and took a nap.-which is something that has never been a characteristic of mine. I woke up the next morning with my head pounding even worse and I knew that school was not an option. I took my temp and it was 103.6 so my mom made another call to the doctor. I went in and the verdict: Strep Throat. (Keep in mind that by this time it is March) I got started on another round of antibiotics and tried to get plenty of rest so that I could hopefully get all of it out of my system. Then, about a week later, the doctor called and said that I actually didn't have strep throat and they wanted to do some blood work. So off I went to do labs for the first time ever. It was, thankfully, very uneventful and then we waited to find out what was going on...the verdict: Mononucleosis. Isn't that a joy? ;) So I went ahead and finished my antibiotics just to be on the safe side, and started trying to get TONS of rest because that is pretty much the only way you can fight it...
Then we came along another bump in the road. I started getting super bad pain in my abdomen. I'm pretty pain tolerant and I won't take anything for pain if I can help it at all, but I started taking some ibuprofen simply so I could function. It was bad. My mom thought it may be liver damage since it took them at least 3 weeks to find out that I had mono and since I was having symptoms pointing to that. So what did we do? We went and got more labs done! At this point I was getting nervous, but several people text me and told me that they were praying for me or that they had been thinking of me.-most of these people didn't know what was going on. We got lab results back the next day and they were clear! I was SO happy to hear that bit of good news and I know God had His hand in it! The doctor then said that the mono probably messed up my immune system and put me on Prednisone twice a day for about 5 days. (I finished the prednisone on Tuesday, just to give you a time reference.)
Maybe this wouldn't have been nearly as hard if I had been on my normal schedule, but I haven't been for a while now. Things like our Easter drama, graduating, school, church, our annual youth rally, and family have a way of taking up time.-and I love them all, but whew! It was pretty intense for a while! So, let's start with the Easter Drama.
Our Easter drama, Peter's Perspective, was written and directed by a man in our church. He also played Peter in our play. He did an awesome job being patient with us while we worked through all of our parts and characters. We had over 120 in our cast, live animals, 4 performances, TONS of guests, and awesome moves of God throughout our performances AND practices. Literally. People received revelations, healings, and salvation as a result of this effort. It was such a blessing and an honor to be involved!
In the play, I played as the friend of a deaf girl (Kristen Copeland), the sister of a leper (Hope White), and mom to Sarah (Brecklin Short). I was a defender of Jesus and took part in the healings and miracles that he did. I also was one of the servant girls that questioned Peter about his connections to the Messiah. And then of course, I was in the crowd and family scenes. It was utterly exhausting but completely thrilling at the same time. I loved being able to do what I love to do for weeks and days on end. (Acting is a passion of mine, if you couldn't tell...) Brecklin was such a trooper too! She did an awesome job playing as my daughter and immediately started telling everyone to call her Sarah and me 'Momma'. We had fun together. And then Kristen...where do I begin?! From the moment that we start that very first scene, from us swinging and twirling 'Sarah' to my frantic signing about the lame man being able to walk, to you acting as if you can't hear and having to think about signing thank you to the bread seller...it was so much fun working with you! And I definitely can't forget running up the middle of the aisle to cap off that scene before the soldiers come in, and her bread flying out of her basket. (I hope no one in the audience at that...) It was a pleasure working with Kristen and I hope we can work together again next year! (If you've read this far, you're a champ!) Now for some pictures!
On our way to our very last performance. (He doesn't generally smile for these pictures. You can ask Melissa.)
Some of those mean old soldiers and Hepzibah. ;)
The third scene in the play was kind of the kick off of the play for many of us. This is how it started every time and we had so much fun in this scene, so we had to take a picture!
This picture was taken at a practice because I was always backstage during actual performances, but I still think it's great. ;)
And this is a screenshot, because our drama was featured in the Tulsa World, a large news source in our area. I thought it was pretty exciting! (And, yes, the picture was taken at a practice so that's why the backdrop isn't completed.) ;)
Myself, Sis Johna, Brylee Jo, and Brecklin. Sis. Johna did amazing as the adulterous woman! Not a dry eye in the place...either from her scaring them with her em unexpected screams, or her reaction after forgiveness.
I'll be back very soon to post some treasures that I found in preparation for graduation as well as some recent pictures. Thanks for reading! :)
