I will NOT be defeated!!!!!!!!

Like most newbies I started the 3day eager and so overly excited, for me it wasn't just a walk it was my way of taking a stand and fighting back so that no one has to hear the words "you have cancer" again. I know medically speaking the type of cancer you have makes all the difference. The treatments are different the effects are different the outcomes can be very different but emotionally as a human being in that exact moment when the Dr says those words it is all the same for ever life changing. So although I am four years clear of the "easy" Thyroid cancer I knew I still had to make a difference.

While training and fund-raising I have battled the same ups and downs that most have. An event not going so well, a friend not being as excited as I am, sore feet, scrapped knees from a sidewalk jumping up and biting you, the sunburns from forgetting the sunblock, but the one that has almost defeated me was the ankle surgeries. When I started out in February my family all worried about my ankle. For those that don't know I was in a major car wreck three years ago and had to have my ankle rebuilt fourteen rods and two plates. Up to a few months ago I had had no problems with the ankle but then one day after a five mile training walk it happened.....the screws started moving causing problems, surgery would fix it. Wrong, that only led to more problems and another surgery. Several weeks went by and I thought all was good but NO... the ankle had other plans and a couple of more trips back to the Dr. 

Then this week at church we had an event we call Wake Week, it is prayer and fasting, and to be quite honest there was very little praying about the ankle. But don't you know that we serve an amazing God and when we put others needs first and listen to the desire of God's heart he is gracious and takes care of the desires of our heart.   

After not doing any real training for about a month (don't get me wrong there have been a few walks in there) and in the last two weeks I couldn't even get a tennis shoe on my foot without major swelling! Friday I said self it is time to get back on the horse with only a little over 80 days to go or you have to give into defeat and walk away. You still have fund-raising to do which has been a little slow since I have been so bummed with the ankle. I have never been one to give up very easy so after a long talk with God Saturday morning I got up and walked 8 miles with little to know problem. 

Everyone has said this walk is about so much more than 60 miles it is life changing and that everyone deserves a lifetime. They are so right I just never knew how right they were. I think I understand a little bit better the idea of fighting for what you believe in. I think I understand maybe just a tiny bit the struggle so many of us have to sit still sometimes. I think I understand how to listen to my body a little bit better. So now that I know I won't be defeated I am off to pick up my daughter and go walk 6 more miles today.

Standing Firm, 

Tanya