Testimony!

In a round about way I was asked my testimony today. It was not asked in a manner that I had to produce it verbally on the spot. The question came on paper with a limited amount of space for a response. Not feeling like I truly gave it justice in my tiny print I decided to let my fingers flow.

I was baptized on my 9th birthday at First Baptist Church in Denver City, TX. The same church where my parents were married, my grandparents on both sides taught Sunday school, and both grandfathers were deacons. I continued my spiritual growth there throughout middle and high school then went off to college. I met my future husband and we enjoyed many years together before starting a family. During that time I also lost my mother to breast cancer. I was 19 at the time, and can honestly say that I did not handle my mothers passing like an adult. I caused my share of problems for my family, and over time had to face and deal with them. Spiritually these were not my best times. I had grown up in the church so I knew what a was expected socially from a Christian. I became a punch your card on Sundays kind of follower. Daily devotions, Bible reading, and praying were far from my thought process on any given day. I was a jealous Christian as well, and of the worst possible kind. My jealousy came as an internal wanting of my husbands devotion and relationship with God. I felt like he had something I didn't.

After years of wanting something more as a Christian but not being willing to put forth my own time and effort I was given an open door. I was invited to a women's Bible study called SOS in Denver City. The first time I went JB went with me because I was still nursing him. I fell in love, and thus began my renewing of my Christianity. I did not know what to do first. They talked about prayer journals, reading your Bible, becoming a strong Christian woman. All I could think of though was how I really disliked reading my Bible because it just did not make sense. I knew all the stories but everything else was so boring and most of the time I would fall asleep or I could not remember what I had just read. If I was really going to do something it needed to be different than what I was continuously failing at. The first thing I did was ask Daun for a book to read. Daun handed me "A Gentle and Quiet Spirit." I tried to look on Amazon to give you a link, but its been so long I'm not sure which one I read. The book is based on 1 Peter 3.

1Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives, 2when they see the purity and reverence of your lives. 3Your beauty should not come from outward adornment, such as braided hair and the wearing of gold jewelry and fine clothes. 4Instead, it should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God’s sight.5For this is the way the holy women of the past who put their hope in God used to make themselves beautiful. They were submissive to their own husbands, 6like Sarah, who obeyed Abraham and called him her master. You are her daughters if you do what is right and do not give way to fear.

As a very outspoken matter of fact personality this book was not what I was wanting to read as my first try at getting this God stuff right. By the end of the book I started to realize that God did not want me to fail, he wanted me to succeed. In order for me to succeed though I had to change. The ME that was dominant in my life had to start playing second fiddle to something bigger and better. If I listened and applied what I was learning ME could become what God has always desired of Betsey.

Over the next several years I started to change. I went from being on the defensive to enjoying life. I still struggle at times with getting everything right, and I know I always will. The changes God started then have truly changed me as a person. The Betsey of my teenage and college years would never have been comfortable typing her testimony much less telling it. The change for me has been impressive looking back on it now, but what I am looking forward to is what God is allowing me to do now.

Since I was tested for my BRCA mutation in December of 2009 God has placed in front of me opportunities that I otherwise would not have had. He has used my genetic mutation to build me up and allow me to tell others what He has done for me. After my first year of blogging I did not know what path I would end up taking. I was working on getting into nursing school for a while, but God had another idea. God's idea now goes by the name of Charlie, and he is truly a blessing. I took most of the time I was pregnant with Charlie off from BRCA investigations and blogging. Once again as the new year approached I was unsure as to what would happen with my blog and with my passion for BRCA mutations and learning more.

Looking back on the past two years now, I realize that God was opening and closing doors every step of the way. He wants me to blog and talk to people and continue to share my faith with others. I am human though, and if he feels the need to take control he does. God needed me to step back and reevaluate a few things last year. His plans were not for me to go to nursing school, and He slammed the door shut with a little surprise named Charlie. My focus must first be on God and it wasn't. It was on ME, that terrible thing that always gets in the way. I love to sit down at the computer and pound out an informative rambling for everyone to enjoy, but even when blogging I must remember that God comes first.

God has taken me from a meek and timid seedling to a confident follower who gives you a piece of what He has given me! I am not as well versed as I'd like to be, or deeply intimidating with memorized scripture, but God gives me everything I need to show others what He has done for me. I have a Heavenly Father who can use little ole me who still flips to the front of the Bible to find a chapter if needed to show you His love!

Who did your mutation come from?

I would like to welcome all of you back! I've decided to make a pledge to myself to get back in the swing of things and set some goals for my blog! My first easily achievable goal is one post a month with new information that I have not previously covered.

Today's blog comes from this article. If only takes a minute to read if you would like to click over. The main point of the article is a new finding related to the BRCA mutations. I'm sure we all realize that these mutations and their study is still in its infancy. Over the years to come we will all be flooded with information. This specific article caught my attention because of my family history. For those of you have read my entire story you know that me and my sister both have the BRCA 2 mutation, but we don't have a complete history of who carried it before us. Our mother lost her battle with cancer before testing was widespread, and my maternal grandparents had both passed before we made the decision to have the testing done for ourselves. This is all significant in my mind. I'm an information junkie, and I can only imagine what the future holds for my family.

Back to the article. The title caught my attention, but the first sentence carried my through the end and left me wanting to find the actual study results. Why do you ask? Anytime I come across information based on age or the early onset of cancer I feel like it applies to my family and want to analyze every word with intense scrutiny.

In this specific study 130 women with breast or ovarian cancer and one of the mutations were considered. These women were all chosen because they knew which of their parents had passed their gene mutation to them. In the cases where the father had passed the gene down there was a higher likelihood that early onset cancer was present. This was in direct relationship to those whose genes were passed by the mother. This is important for those of us carrying a gene mutation.

When we become aware of our gene mutations we are thrust into a demanding and time sensitive battle of what to do and when. Each of us face the decision making process and attempt to make the best choices based on what we have available to us. In this study we are given fairly specific information. If your mutation was passed from your mother you may have a little more time to make these sensitive decisions, whereas if yours originated from the paternal side you might need to stay a little more aware of the recommendations and what early onset could mean for you.

How far down the line do these implications carry? Let's say that my grandfather was the one who passed the mutation to my mother, are their early onset tendencies that continue to carry on to my sister and I?

Another portion of the article highlighted on the point that mutations have become consistently documented in women of Irish and Jamaican descent. These findings are not all that surprising to me. I believe as testing becomes more common place we will find a widespread population of many lineages exhibiting breast and ovarian cancer related mutations.

Year in Review 2011

Looking back at some of my posts from last year I came across my Year in Review post, so trying to keep with the tradition hear goes...

January - Cody & I successfully rented out our first purchased rental property. We made plans for several family vacations, and a vacation for the two of us!

February - The second week in February we found out we were going to be adding an addition to our family. Much to my surprise it was not going to be a Puppy. We were having another baby!

March - Let's go fly a kite! The first of our family vacations was replaced with Cody working & morning sickness for me. So before Cody left on his trip I took JB & Taylor to buy kites!

April & May - Brought about the most awful and relentless wind. We typically experience wind during the spring in the Panhandle, but oh my last year was so much worse than usual. By the time May was over we had a terrible case of cabin fever.

June - We found out we would be welcoming Charlie Dale to the family around the beginning of October. Cody and I traveled to Florida for several days to attend our dear friends Chris & Tiffani's wedding! I also passed out at Church towards the end of the month, and was tagged as the invalid pregnant one who must be constantly watched by my Dad and husband.

July - Did I mention we had the hottest summer I can remember, and as a pregnant woman this is not fun. Instead of going on another tropical vacation like this time the year before I went to Denver City to see my family for nearly two weeks. Back to the invalid pregnant tag, Cody was working and out of town a great deal so I was sent to the babysitters house with the kids. We had alot of fun and were able to swim at my little sisters house!

August - JB started kindergarten! Yeah what a milestone, but before the first week was over we ended up in the Pediatric ICU due to a Rattlesnake bite. Here is the link to that story.

September - Three weeks after JB's hospital stay we were back welcoming Charlie Dale!

October - All I can say is Oh My! Three children is much different than two. We adjusted to the life of diapers, formula, and no sleep once again. We survived!

November - Our Princess turned 4!

December - I received my first phone call about JB visiting the principals office (I'm sure it won't be the last). I started and completed my Christmas shopping on December 22nd. I must admit that we still have not had our Christmas with Cody's family, and I still have not finished making all of their gifts. I will do better in 2012!

The best part of 2011 is this!

Hello 2012!

Well, I have to say that I am glad to leave 2011 behind and welcome in the new year! 2011 was filled with many unexpected events for our family, but in the end another year filled with blessings! Here is the link to my family blog, I am still trying to catch up there. Sure you will understand why I am behind.

This year I have many goals for myself, and one is to keep up with this blog a little more! Right now I am setting my goal of at least one blog per month with news from the BRCA world. I feel like this is a realistic goal, and one I can be proud of for the time being.

Here's to an uneventful 2012, and many blessings to you and yours!

What's in a name?

It's nearly that time around the Timmons house. I am currently 18 weeks along and this pregnancy seems to be flying by now. Next Tuesday on JB's 5th birthday I will be going in for my monthly appointment. At that time we will be scheduling my next ultrasound for the following weeks. I am very excited about finding out what we are having, but at the same time we will be doing away with a set of names.

Cody and I easily agreed upon names for both a boy and a girl very early on this time. Boys names have always been pretty easy for us. JB was inspired from a college friend of Cody's. All we had to do was fill in the blanks. Joshua came from the Bible, when all else fails look to the book!! Brent is Cody's middle name. This one was very easy. On the other hand though Taylor was a bit more of a challenge. Cody and I both like traditional names, and our girl names have always been a challenge. Taylor was also shy and we did not know she was a girl till around 28 weeks. When we finally found out I had to start over with my lists again. Why? Cody had vetoed everything on my list. I went through the baby name book countless times and started my list with about 30 names. I narrowed that down on my own first to 16. I took those 16 to Cody and he did not like any of them. I knew I wanted to use part of my Mother's name, but was not sure which part. So I had the additional challenge of finding a name that went with either Dana or Carol. Finally at 33 weeks I went back to Cody with 6 names with my mother's names as I would like to use them. Taylor had been on my first list, but I guess when I added the Carol is just seemed to work.

This time around Cody and I both agreed on both a boys and girls name within the first few weeks of finding out we were pregnant. They are once again traditional names and pulled from both of our families. I think this is what is making it so hard to have to say goodbye to one set of the names.

For a boy we will be having a:

Charlie Dale- Charlie is associated with both sides of the family. Charlie first comes from Cody's maternal great-grandfather, Charlie Brent. It also has ties in my family. My grandpa was Joe Charles Deaton, as well as, a cousin of mine. Dale is my dad's middle name.

For a girl we will be having:

Dana Christine- Dana was my mother's name. How lucky will I be to have two girls with both of my mother's names in theirs. Christine was Charlie Brent's wife. Making her Cody's maternal great-grandmother. I was lucky enough to know Granny Christine while she was alive, and this is truly a tribute to her!!

Now you know the story behind our names! Who are you voting for?


Dana Christine or Charlie Dale??

Here's to finding out soon!!

It's sinking in...

Talk about a whirlwind, the last 18 months have been non-stop and fairly intense. Just when I was thinking that things were beginning to return to a quasi normal, "Hello Betsey, your pregnant!" I am still not sure what God's reasoning is behind this pregnancy, but I am sure that over time He will let me in on his thinking. This last weekend we were in Denver City, and a friend of mine reminded me that I had once said "I will never be pregnant again." Maybe this is God reminding me that I am not the one in control.

All in all though, it is starting to become more of a tangible reality that we are having another baby. It has also started to occur to me some of the differences due to my mastectomies. I do not have swollen, sore, and ever growing boobies. I am loving this, but with this little perk brings the understanding that there will be no nourishment from Mommy for my new little one. I am sure you can understand all of the thoughts flooding my mind with this to think about. From all of the health questions to the thoughts of bonding there are alot of things I feel this baby might miss out on. Here is the deal though... God has made this pregnancy happen so I don't need to focus on all of the possible negatives. He decided that I was going to have another baby after all of my preventative surgeries from last year. Betsey does not need to worry about all of the things that might or might not happen, God will take care of each and every one of them for me.

So here's to Praying for a healthy baby!!

Unexpected Blessings!

Well I guess it is safe to let everyone in on our unexpected blessing for 2011. Back in early February we found out that we are expecting baby #3. Cody and I had both decided before this that we were content with our little family of four and were ready to take steps towards ovary removal or having my tubes tied. So to say the very least this was a huge surprise.

Over the last 15 months I have read so many message boards about "Baby after PBM," needless to say I never thought that I would one day be in that position. So far things have gone very well. If you were around for my two previous pregnancies you know that I am not a very good pregnant woman. I tend to spend a great deal of my 9 months hugging a toilet or pan of sorts with extreme nausea and vomiting. I had sworn off the thought of having any more babies because of this. Up to this point I have religiously taken my zofran, and had good and bad days. As of Monday we have crossed the 12 weeks mark and seem to be doing very well. I will not say the nausea is gone completely, but seems to be much better. We are still taking things day to day and pray fervently each night for another good day in the morning.

JB & Taylor are both very excited about having a baby, so excited that they have already moved in together and given up one of their bedrooms for the baby.

Other than that things are well in the Timmons household!! I am sure that I will continue to update everyone on the progress, and also have some posts devoted to "Baby after PBM."