Blue-Eyed Breather

"Sometimes it's just a cough that reminds us that we are all dust." This statement was part of the prayer said at the beginning of chapel today. Sobering, isn't it? Ecclesiastes 3:20 says, "All go to one place. All are from dust, and to dust all return." James tells us, "Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such town and spend a year there and make a profit'-yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes." (4:13-14) Without the hope of Jesus, this is depressing and upsetting. I mean, if life is just a blip in the eternal perspective, why am I here? What good is my life? Thankfully, if you've been born again into the grace of Christ Jesus, you don't have to live in fear of eternity! You know that God desires a relationship with you, and that the life to come is FAR greater than we can even begin to imagine. The Psa...

I don't know about where you are, but where I am, the weather outside could be the poster picture for sleepy weather. It's cloudy, windy, and cool. No rain yet, but we're supposed to get rain tonight. Instead of caving to the dreary pull of the weather to be unproductive today, I have been researching foods that provide energy in a safe, healthy manner. Some of the foods listed are obvious, but it's always nice to be reminded of healthy foods we should be intaking! I am attaching the link so you can know how to stay alert simply by choosing the correct foods. Enjoy! http://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-energy-mood-boost-diet

If you could fall asleep right now (6 pm) and not wake up until morning, raise your hand. Just so you know, my hand is up. This has been one of the most fun, exhausting, mentally draining, spiritually filling weekends I have had in a long time. I had the blessing of being a Disciple Now leader for the 10th grade girls at my home church in Austin. The theme of the weekend was "saturate," speaking of evangelism and its supreme importance. We talked about transforming our own lives to become more and more like Jesus, witnessing with our "walk" as well as our "talk," and what evangelism truly means in today's society. Evangelism is not about bringing glory to humans; it's about showing off how great God is. It's not about "selling" a product; it's about encouraging, caring for, and discipling others. It's not about our tiny, human capabilities; it's about God's power and grace. I know when I was going through the lessons, ...

These past few days have been absolutely gorgeous here in Waco! The sun has been shining, the squirrels have been chasing each other around the trees, and the sky has been a beautiful shade of bright, Colorado blue, with not a cloud in the sky. Students around Baylor's campus have been doing homework, eating, socializing, tossing around a ball, and swinging from hammocks outside on these gorgeous days. Is it still February, or did we skip ahead to springtime? Oh well! I love to just sit outside and feel the warmth of the sun tanning my fair skin. It provides a great opportunity to think and reflect on God's goodness and mercy. So, naturally, I have been outside, basking in the glorious radiance of the sun while thinking about the majesty of the Son, Savior of the world. On days like these, my eyes are opened to the amazing power of the God we serve. He created the beauty of the earth, everything from the grass moving in the gentle breeze to the brilliant sun providing power...

Everything at my appointment went fairly smoothly. My PFTs were down, as was my weight. Those were obviously negative aspects of the appointment. However, my doctor and I talked a little bit about CF research, and there is some incredible progress occurring!! As you may know, the FDA just recently approved a new drug to be released to the public that has shown to treat the cause, not the symptoms, of CF in patients with a specific mutation. Here's the link to the CF Foundation website that explains the medicine much better than I can explain it. http://www.cff.org/treatments/Therapies/Kalydeco/ Anyway, Kalydeco is now being tested with another drug to help patients with the most common mutation that causes CF, deltaF508. This study is in phase 2 trials. My doctor told me at the appointment that I would qualify to be a study participant in these trials because I have one deltaF508 mutation, am over 17, and have PFTs that re above 40%. This is all SO SO SO exciting!! I would part...

Tomorrow, I have a doctor appointment. OH JOY. CF doctor appointments are always filled with surprises, tid bits of information, and questions. My appointment is at 9:30. I'll fill out the loads of paperwork, be weighed and measured (even though I have remained the same height for at least five years), and see the dietician, respiratory therapist, nurse,social worker, and doctor. I'll do routine PFTs (Pulmonary Function Test, for all you people not familiar with CF appointments) and feel breathless for a few minutes after the tests are completed. I'll also bring in a sputum cup filled with lovely phelgm that I will have coughed up in the morning so that the lab can culture my sputum to determine what bacteria is growing in my lungs. Thankfully, I'll avoid all needle pokes and blood draws (yesssssss). In the appointment, we'll discuss my weight, my cough, my cystic fibrosis related diabetes along with insluin levels, and any other pertinent CF issues. After about 2 h...

This weekend, I got to see Sing at Baylor with some of my family. Sing is a huge musical production put on by the fraternities and sororities. Each performance lasts 7 minutes, with 2 minutes to get the props on and 2 minutes to get the props off. The performances have a theme, and the songs, costumes, make up, and dances are all related to this theme. The Friday and Saturday performances are judged for two weekends, and the top 8 out of 16 acts perform again at Pigskin during Homecoming the following year. The acts were so impressive! The dancing was extremely choreographed and synced. The singing was professional, and the acoustics echoed beautifully in Waco Hall. I love musicals, so maybe that was why I was so enthralled with the many different acts. The performances were creative, energetic, and fun! I was very blessed to spend the weekend with my family, enjoying these great acts. Get your Sing faces on, people. Performances at Sing bring energy, life, and a guaranteed, pleasant...

Well, it's that time of year. The dreaded flu season. I am paranoid about getting sick! Despite having gotten the flu shot every single year of my life, I have gotten the flu for the past 3 out of 4 years. And now, since I'm in college, I know the flu will be even more rampant. People just can't miss class in college because you miss out on so much instructional time. Professors don't give make up lectures or labs. If you miss an assignment or quiz, you simply get a zero. That just encourages sickness to spread like wildfire! There's nothing professors can really do differently, though. Therefore, people are bound to come to class sick or are going to come back after only a day of being out. Already, I have talked to several people who have felt horrible but have come to class anyway to avoid missing important information. I DON'T WANT TO GET SICK! Seriously. I have worked so hard to take good care of my health all year, and it would be such a bummer to get real...

It's Valentine's Day, so let's talk a little bit about the subject of the day-love. If you love someone, tell them. Simple enough, right? But then why do people struggle so much to say the three simple words that could change a person's life? People desire to be loved. No, I'm not talking about the mushy, romantic kind of love (although that can be applied here, too). I'm talking about the love Christ has for us, the love we should have for other people God has specifically placed in our lives. I think far too often, we take for granted those we love. We think, " Oh, they already know I care about them. I don't need to say anything," or, "they can tell I love them through my actions. My words don't matter." Now, I'm not saying our actions shouldn't show love. I find such joy in showing people my love through my actions, and our actions should always support our words. But the truth is, hearing the words "I love you...

This weekend, I got to go home. Home, sweet home. It was amazing to be home for the weekend! To see my brother play basketball with my immediate family and grandparents, to have family movie night, to talk with my sister, to hug all of my family members around their necks. It was refreshing. Of course, I didn't really have a choice about coming home. I had to get my port flushed for it's monthly access. Which, by the way, was a pain. My port has continually been an issue. It has gotten fibrin sheaths, blood clots, and had to be resituated because it was moving around on top of a rib. This time, when my nurse went to access my port, it refused to draw back blood. My nurse tried three different times to get blood out of my port, but it just wouldn't work. Thankfully, it flushed fine. However, it's a little disheartening that it wouldn't work completely. The port is supposed to work for 10 years, yet it has been nothing but trouble since the beginning. I'm hoping, ...

Tonight, I helped my church in Waco throw a Valentine's Banquet for the senior adults in the church. It was so fun serving the older generation and giving them a fun Valentine's party to remember! I felt so blessed to be able to serve them so they could have a night out with friends and loved ones. Seeing these wonderful people who have been married for 40, 50, and 60 years got me thinking about my future marriage (if I get married, of course). I want to someday have that kind of loving relationship with my husband, when, after 68 years of marriage (that was the longest anniversary at the banquet), we will still hold firm to our love for each other and our love for God. I know that the secret to this couple's marriage is a lot of hard work, faith in God, and trust in His works. Marriage is such a beautiful blessing from God, a picture of Christ and the Church. But it has been so distorted in today's society. Nearly half of all couples get divorced. People of the same ...

I absolutely cannot stand when people ruin their own health. We are only given this ONE body, and it is our responsibility to take care of it. Yet people tend to think they're invincible, so they make disgusting choices for their health. Now, you may be wondering what spurned this outburst of mine. As I've walked across campus today, I have seen so many people sitting outside or walking to classes smoking cigarettes, as if smoking is as necessary as breathing. I must confess, when I walked by the people smoking, I purposefully coughed pretty loudly. I could've handled myself better, but I was just so perturbed! Research has proven how damaging smoking is to a person's lungs. Even so, college kids waste the money to buy the cigarettes while virtually destroy their otherwise perfectly healthy lungs. People don't understand how precious life is. I'm not saying I fully understand, either, because I know I don't. But I think those of us who have faced the reality...

You're looking at one of the newest pledges for the Zeta Omega chapter of Alpha Phi Omega! That's right, folks. Tonight, we had Activation Night, and I am now officially a pledge member. Alpha Phi Omega is built on three things: service, friendship, and leadership. I love that about APO. I enjoy serving so much. As a Christian, we are called to be God's hands and feet, serving the world as we can. Service gives me such joy! Even when I am having a horrible day, service lifts my spirits and takes the focus off of my own problems and onto the needs of others. APO also gives me a chance to form great friendships with people who love serving, just as I do. This co-ed fraternity creates strong bonds of friendship among its members. As well, APO will encourage me to use the innate leadership abilities God has given me. I am so excited to see how God is going to use this opportunity to further His glory and His name across the Waco community! I have my first pledge test on Wednesd...

I'm in the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core (BIC) at Baylor. BIC is an interactive honors program with a focus on integrating intellectual pursuits with knowledge that will be useful in the future, including a huge emphasis on learning about other cultures. Last semester, my BIC class went to a Hindu Temple and a Jewish Synagogue. Today, we journeyed to an Islamic Mosque in Dallas. It was an interesting experience. We observed their third prayer and had a Q&A time with some of the Muslims at the mosque. The prayers are said in Arabic. Men and women pray in separate rooms so they can focus on their prayers, not drawing attention from the opposite sex. The women wear scarves covering their heads and are to be covered modestly. The men are to provide for women because men are the stronger gender. They do not believe Jesus is God's Son but rather that He was a prophet. This is obviously a huge, pivotal difference between the Islamic and Christian faith, a difference that cannot si...

If you get to know me, you'll know that I love watching the Today show. That's pretty much my source of information. Actually, let me rephrase that. I have to read the New York Times for the Baylor Interdisciplinary Core, but my preferred source of information is definitely the Today show. I can watch it while doing a treatment, getting ready in the morning, or running while at the gym. So, basically, I watch it pretty often. Anyway, Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb (who are on the Today show in the last hour) have a mini-series called "Everyone has a Story." On Thursday, Kathie Lee and Hoda highlighted Kaitlyn Slomski in this series, a young woman with epilepsy. I won't go into details with her story so you can watch it for yourself, but I think that many people with CF can relate to her story and the song that the Today show honored her with. Here's a link to the clip: http://video.today.msnbc.msn.com/today/46238048 How true that series title is! "...