When you’ve had a major health crisis, you develop a team of people around you — doctors and other medical professionals, friends & neighbors, etc. — who help you through the initial shock and the aftermath.
Whether it’s the surgeon who spent an entire day cutting out the tumor and patching your heart, your cardiologist’s office, your doctors and other staff at the cancer center, friends who drove you to chemo and brought meals, or your neighbor who always asked how you were feeling, you build a support system that’s pretty amazing. We absolutely have that kind of a circle around us, and it’s phenomenal.
Initially, the idea of leaving that circle to move across the country terrified me. For almost the first 3 years after my cardiac cancer was discovered and removed, I told Kev we shouldn’t ever plan on moving because we had such a great team who knew me, knew my case, and were totally invested in helping me survive and thrive. Then, God said, “Weeeellll ….” And we started to reevaluate.
We both felt those "whisperings" you get when you know a change is coming. I think God gives us hints well before the actual event, to give us time to adjust and to prepare so that we’re better ready to jump when the moment is right. We weren’t sure exactly what the change would be and where we’d go, but we starting looking at places we COULD go that had certain parameters: good health care, low violent crime rates, near an airport, and more. Bit by bit, we were led to Eugene, Oregon. We hadn’t planned on going back to Oregon anytime soon and even if we did go to the western part of North American again, we were thinking British Columbia or maybe somewhere outside Portland or Seattle. But God kept telling us Eugene was our next stop. So we decided to trust and take the leap (more later on how many divine “coincidences” have happened to make everything work out really well).
As we're driving across the country to our new home, I have so much peace — more than I thought would be possible. And since I'll be coming back to Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa a few times a year for my scans, appointments, and surgeries, I'll be able to get my Florida "fix" every few months. To me, that sounds like the best of both worlds.
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