I am watching as the sun has made its way once again behind the mountains.  What a beautiful day to be alive?  I know that sounds so cliche'.  May I say however, There was a time in my life when I wasn't sure if I would ever see the sunrise and make its way across the wide blue skies.  I had just went through a divorce a couple of years earlier.  I then decided I would return to school.  I went to college and just finished getting my college degree.

Being a single mom, I wanted to take some time just to enjoy watching my daughter who was twelve years old at the time grow up.  I had missed two valuable years, going to college full time and working full time.  This had left precious little time for my daughter.

One day, as I was standing gazing out over my back yard, I heard a still small voice tell me it was time for a check up.  I needed to go to the doctor.  Now I had no symptoms.  I was thin but I worked out a lot.  I was very active.  I was tan, because my daughter and I spent a lot of time at our landlord's pool.  I called my gynecologist and made my appointment.  A couple of weeks later, I went into his office.  He told me something had showed up on my test and he wanted to do a more invasive procedure.  I readily agreed.  And so began my journey through the valley of the shadow of death.

One test after another would come back instead of easing my doctor's fears they only enhanced them.  So it was decided in July of 1999 that he would do a biopsy.  It was less than seven days after the biopsy that my doctor called me into his office.  I had felt like I was being punished.  I felt like I was being called into the principles office in high school.  My doctor sat quietly across from me.  He told me I had stage 4 adenocarcinoma of the cervix.  Could this be God's punishment because I had gotten a divorce?  I don't think so, I mused, after all, my ex husband was the one who wanted it not me.  Could it be that God was just mad at me and decided to turn His back on me?