Graduation Day....I MADE IT!

This Saturday, May 16th was my college graduation! I had the pleasure of spending this wonderful milestone and celebration with all of my family present in Palos Heights, Illinois.

Friday evening we attended my Honors Convocation Ceremony where I received High Honors from the College's President. At this ceremony I received my golden cord, which I had worked for four long years to receive! I also received my Trinity Christian College Alumni Medallion. Both of these items were also worn with my graduation gown on Saturday's Graduation Ceremony.

Whitney was able to get a video of me receiving my diploma during Saturday's graduation ceremony as well!

A few hours later, after a lovely time with friends, faculty, and family at a reception following the ceremony, we packed our Suburban and my car full of my entire apartment and four years worth of STUFF! We just BARELY fit it all! Everything was packed like sardines! Thanks to Dad who is the ultimate car packer!

I am truly amazed at God's work in my life and I continually praise Him for allowing me to complete all 13 weeks of my student teaching! I honestly doubted that this would ever be completely finished and God gave me the daily strength to meet this huge goal of mine. AND then of course GRADUATION DAY! I praise God for these wonderful milestones in my life!

I thank you all for your continued support, encouraging words, and prayers. They are so appreciated and a huge part of what keeps me journeying forward on this road. More updates soon to come. I apologize this one came so late, it's been a crazy time in my life finishing teaching.... but I am officially a TEACHER! I actually said my Teacher Vows to Trinity Christian College on Wednesday, May, 13th at my commissioning teachers luncheon and I passed my final teacher's certification test in the state of Illinois about a month ago. Now I just need to file the paper work with the state in July!

Always full of Hope in Christ,
Heidi

Summer 2008

Ever since I began attending college in the mid-west, I have followed-up with my various doctors during my school breaks.

During my spring semester at Trinity Christian College, I experienced some gastrointestinal symptoms, and decided to go to a GI doctor while I was at home over the summer. This appointment was inconclusive, however, it led me to have other tests in order to understand my symptoms better- such as an Echocardiogram, Stress Echocardiogram, more GI tests, advanced pulmonary tests, Nuclear Muga heart scan, three CAT scans, X-Rays, blood work, and the list goes on!

Aside from my laundry list of tests, Summer 2008 was a very busy summer. My sister, Whitney, was married on June 14^th to Joshua Albright. Whitney and Josh’s wedding was the most joyous event of the summer for me, along with a trip to Rhode Island with my mother for a weekend getaway.

A couple weeks after my sister's wedding, I continued with more follow-up tests and discovered some key factors about my chronic lung and cardiac health issues.

Two days before returning to Trinity, I was diagnosed with Restrictive Lung Disease. In addition, my Ejection Fraction for my heart was around 32% (normal being 55%). I returned to Trinity in Chicago and kept mental logs of my cardiac and lung status with plans to follow-up during Thanksgiving break...See my Thanksgiving Break Post for more details.