Plans for the Future

Update 4-19-09 I order to tell you about the plans Kecia has been making over the past week or so, I will first need to update you on a little history. When I first decided to go back to school to get my master's degree (4 years ago) I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I had big plans that included working with fostor children and troubled teens. I envisioned a working ranch where we rescued abused horses and paired them up with hurting kids for a therapeutic and healing experience. The idea of equine therapy is slowing building a name for itself in the counseling field but there are very few people using it. I hope to be a pioneer in this particular area. Kecia was also looking for a new career and felt that she too would be a good counselor who could help many people. She was not, however, certain just what area she would specialize in. She thought about working with people who suffer from addictions, or even those hospitalized with severe psychiatric problems. Until she discovered her calling, Kecia was content to be a general counselor working with all types of people. This is where her experience with cancer comes in. Through this whole ordeal, Kecia has learned so much that one can never truely understand about "terminal" illnesses or the "death sentences" that come with so many diagnoses, unless they have lived it for themselves. She understands the importance of little things, like having appointments scheduled for you, or being able to cry without worrying that it will upset the people around you. She knows that sometimes people want to make plans just incase they don't make it, and that they aren't weak because they sometimes feel afraid. When I visited her the other day it was as if she had just had an epiphany. She was so excited as she told me that she was beginning to make plans for her future. She started by telling me that at first, being blessed with a miracle of her healing was a little overwhelming. She felt alot of pressure to use this second chance that God had given her for His purpose, but she didn't know what that was. She was afraid that she would be given this gift and then blow it, without ever realizing what she was supposed to be doing. But as she lay in her bed recovering from surgery, the word SERENITY kept coming to mind. She thought about it...how it affected her...her family...and others. What a comforting word it was. She had hated my plan to move out to the country (far from everything that was convenient) to be around dirty horses, ducks, and chickens (which she calls wing-ed things). So you can imagine my suprise when she blurted out that she knew her purpose...and it involved working with me on the ranch, providing the peace, comfort and serenity that only nature can provide, to frightened people who were battling cancer. She envisioned so much more than just counseling for her clients. She wants to start a mentoring program, where survivors are paired with newly diagnosed patients to act as "big-sisters" who encourage, discuss options, and help with resources. She wants to hold support groups at the ranch where clients can give and recieve a Godly perspective on all the issues that touch their lives on a daily basis. She said she finally understands how her grandfather can always have such a positive outlook (even as his wife struggled and died at the hands of alzheimer's) and it's because his focus is not on this life. She said she "gets" it now. And she wants others to get it too. She feels so good to have a purpose again, and even better to know that her purpose will glorify God and the miracle that He has blessed her with. Many of you may not know this, but the job Kecia does at Horizon has counted toward her necessary hours for acheiving her counseling license. She and I will have completed our hours in 4 more weeks and should be "full fledged counselors" by the end of May. Our goal is to have my house sold by next summer so that we can begin looking for land either north or east of here. I have spent years praying on this matter and feel very confident that this is what God has planned for my life. I am so happy to hear that He is leading Kecia in the same direction. I can't think of one single person I would rather work with. There is SO much that will have to work out in order for these dreams to be fulfilled...but I think we all know by know that our God is a mighty One and all things are possible through Him. Please pray that God's will on this subject will be made obvious to us so that we will be led in the right direction. Can you believe that just a few months ago Kecia was afraid to even think a few months in advance, and now she is planning big things for her future!?