Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hello, my brothers and sisters! After a long break from Gaia (and not much access to the internet since May) I've come back! I'm so glad to see everyone, and to those who have joined since my absence, I hope we can become good friends. ^_^ For my old friends, this is what has happened in my life since then.

I've been through a lot since I left Gaia back in January 2007. My main reason for leaving was because I got into World of Warcraft. Unfortunately, it got a firm grip on me, and I became addicted. I wasn't as bad as some of the kids (and adults even) that you see on talk shows, but I'll admit that it consumed me greatly. I quit in January last year, and haven't played it since. I've had horrible withdrawal, though, and thoughts of playing it invade completely unrelated thoughts at times, but I know I can't afford to get back into it.

I got married to my high school sweetheart, James (no, not the James here, lol) on May 3rd of last year. It started out kind of rocky, but it's getting much better. The retina in my left eye detatched in early June, and I had to have corrective surgery for it. James and I moved to another town around that time. Two weeks later, James had to go in for emergency surgery. He had a cyst on his spleen (yes, his spleen. I'm not kidding, even though it sounds funny.) that had ruptured. He had his appendix removed because they thought it was the problem, and just happened to find part of the cyst before they were done with the operation. They found it was not like any cyst they had ever seen: it was hard and rubbery. They said if he had been 20 minutes late, he would have died. In fact, they almost lost him twice on the operating table. We never got too much information on what happened, but this is the theory we put together: James used to take Ritlin for his ADHD, and at age 14, he stopped taking it because he was getting violent. After that, he started having pains on his left side, where his spleen is. The medicine caused these problems, among others, we're sure. As for the cyst, James has always had a highly active immune system. When he went in for surgery, the doctors told him his white blood cell count was incredibly high. We believe the medicine caused a strange occurance that made white blood cells attach themselves to the spleen, the body's main lymph node, and that's what caused the unusual mass (they said the cyst was white).

Two weeks after James' surgery, and a month after mine, I had to have another surgery on my left eye. They attatched a silicone band around it to hold the retina in place. After all this time, I still haven't been able to fully adapt to my situation, and my eyesight is not the best. To make matters worse, I fear my other eye might tear at some point in the near future without corrective surgery. To make matters worse, we have tons of medical bills we are unable to pay, and at this point, they've sicced the collection agencies on us.

But I do have some good news amongst all the sorrow. James and I have both recovered enough that we can hold steady jobs. They don't pay the greatest but we get by, and we've never been late on rent or utilities. 3nodding Also, a friend's dad has asked us to stay at his house while they're gone. We don't have to pay any bills, we just have to watch the house and keep it in good shape. James and I, after many trials, are finally becoming as close as we used to be. And perhaps the greatest news of all is that the Lord has blessed us with a child. The little one hasn't entered the world yet, but we eagerly await his or her arrival. I'm nearly 5 months along, if we calculated it right. It's quite nerve-wrackng, not knowing what to expect, but I know the Lord will provide us with the means to care for our child, one way or the other.