From Ohio to Georgia, Georgia to Ohio....and everywhere in between!

Ok, so usually you see greetings sent in Christmas cards, or even updates on families detailing what has happened in their lives in that particular year. I wasn't going to give out anything, primarily because I never get the time to do such things. However, I thought since its New Years Eve, last day before heading into 2011, I felt strongly about letting many of you know what is happening in the lives of the Haybergs since 2010 began.

So many of you already know we made a move back from Georgia, to Ohio this past year. We came back about 6 months ago, in June. Not having a place to come home to, we bounced around from family to family, and yes, bringing all 5 kids and our insanely heavy luggage (girls!) haha It was quite the adventure. With our highs and lows, frustrations and excitements, the construction on our home was almost complete when we moved in. And with a few days to spare before the kids started school....don't you just love timing! :)

Adjustments to new schools (again) getting back into our church (again) and unpacking a mountain of boxes (again), life started to settle a bit for us. In all honesty, I feel blessed. Obviously blessed with my husband, my family, my kids, and what God has provided for us, no matter where we have lived this year. And even blessed in the craziness of moving and unpacking many times over, and all the frustrations that went along with it. I never would have learned to be content, no matter where I am or what is going on in my life (Phil 4:11) Nor would I have come to meet all the amazing and wonderful people and families that I have relationships with now. That would never have happened if we wouldn't have taken the leap of faith to move out of our comfort zones. Strangely enough, I had done nothing but pray for God to take me out of my comfort zone the year prior!

So pressing on, the kids got involved in their activities and sports here, which meant many days of chaufferuring from one place to the next, eating on the run, and late nights trying to finish homework and catching up on housework and laundry. Lewis and I are still so proud of everyone of them with their talents and achievements! Looking back this past year, our oldest, Lewis IV graduated high school and is now full swing in college! (sometimes I still can't believe it) And then there is Alex, who made a huge transition moving from Florida back to Ohio, especially in his senior year! I'm so impressed with how he has juggled everything in the last few months. Even with the loss of his best friend Jon, who passed away tragically in early August. We are still dealing with the effects of that, unfortunately we are learning this comes with grief and loss. We can only trust God is in control and one day, Alex will be able to use that to help someone else in need. Alex will also be venturing out into the college realm after graduating this upcoming Spring.

So, onward to Corrin, our daughter...she is quite the soccer dynamo! :) As a sophomore, its crazy to say we are already looking at colleges for her to play soccer! Did I mention this life thing is going way too fast? She entered the world of sweet 16 last month, and I'm still in shock! She will very soon have her license too (yikes). She loves drama (go figure), acting, and the all too obvious soccer :) And as for our next girl, Savannah, she's in 7th grade and finished up her first soccer season playing for Dover! She's continuing gymnastics/tumbling, as she did in Georgia. And she is coming more out of her shell, letting all her teachers at school know that she loves to talk! (this isn't always good) Savannah will journey into the "teenage years" this year, giving us 4 teenagers....are you kidding me?? Ok, so now to Trenton "the football beast" Hayberg! Sometimes it scares me to death to see him playing football, especially when he goes up against 100lb 3rd graders! However, he is good at it! He's the typical 6yr old, loves sports, and lots and lots of video games! And last, but of course not least, there is our baby Abbey. She's not a baby no more, she's a big 3yr old with lots of attitude and determination! She is quite the spunky, free-spirited, adventurous, wild, and horse loving girl :) She developed a love for horses while we were in Georgia, and she has never strayed from it! She did gymnastics the entire year in Georgia, just like her big sis, and she just wrapped up her dance classes with Urban Dance Factory. She loved it! She will start basketball and swimming this upcoming month.

And Lewis, my husband is hard at work trying to feed all those mouths and pay for everything that comes along with raising an army! Some of you know this already, but he will be saying goodbye to his 30's next week....and HELLO 40!! :) As for myself, I stay busy at home! I still love to run (weather permitting), I've finished two 10 k races and two half-marathons this year! I would love to run my first full marathon this upcoming year (yes I'm insane...or just plain stupid) :) I clean a lot, do an obscene amount of laundry, and I'm still unpacking (yes, after 4 months). Life is always busy, but I really couldn't imagine it any other way!

Not only has life been busy, it has been different for sure. Its amazing how you can move away for just a year and come back to what you left and everything has changed. It forces you to a place of maturity, and acceptance. To move forward, even though things are sometimes harder than you remember. And to open up your life t new things, new relationships, and new surroundings. Usually leaving a year behind and starting new means to forget that year, especially if it was a hard one. I don't want to forget 2010. I want to remember the good things of this year, taking them into the new one. I want to take the bad things from this year, learn from my hurts and mistakes, so I can do it differently in the the new year.

Most importantly, I want to walk (or run, haha) into 2011 with my eyes open. Sometimes I felt like I've lived the last few months of 2010 with my eyes closed. Too concerned with immaterial things, stuff I cannot change, and things that just don't matter. I have winced at a lot of hurt. I have been blinded by situations in life and tried to mask them. My eyes have been dim to those who have taken advantage of others over and over. I want to keep my eyes wide open for doors that God may open up, as well as to guard myself, and my family, and to discern what is good and what is evil. Obviously, I want to be a better wife, mother, sister, daughter, and child of God. Of course I want to eat right, exercise, organize my life, take more time for family and friends, and be that listening ear that everyone needs. But overall, I want to do all these things with my eyes open. I don't want to miss a minute of anything, because life comes fast.

I can only give thanks to Jesus, my Savior, for everything in my life. For loving me, despite my decisions or behavior. For giving me the grace, love and comfort that I could not get anywhere else! Thanks to everyone who has stood by us this year, praying for us. Happy New Year to all my family and friends, old and new. I will pray that 2011 will bring all of you wonderful adventures and that we will all walk into the new year with our eyes open!

Love and God Bless you all!

Alexi

"Run Forrest Run!"

All joking aside, that is what was going thru my head last weekend as I finished my first 10K race. I don't know why, but the goofball I am, of course, my mind shifted to the movie Forrest Gump, where he took off running, and wasn't stopping. In the movie, he says for no particular reason, "I felt like running." I can associate with Forrest, because just a couple months ago, I just felt like running. I used to be one to do more power walking, yoga, my elliptical from time to time, but never running. I needed something different, from my usual routines, which were slacking in every area. Also with the mounting stress of house showings, cleanings, 4 children to care for, and constantly feeling stress or pressures somewhere, I felt maybe this could be an outlet. One that I could get outside, most of the time, and just break away from it all.

As much as I complain from time to time, I was pretty hooked. Trust me, I'm no runner at heart, nor did I run at all when I was younger. Okay, there was that one time I joined the track team back in 9th grade. However, it was not because I loved to run, or was good at it. I was an overweight chubby girl that needed to lose a few pounds. (I never did lose the pounds during that track season) I eeked through that track season, and luckily, don't remember much about it now that it's been 20 yrs later. Other than the horrifying 1990 Track photo. That, along with many other high school photos, will haunt me, as well as my girls shoving them in my face with insane laughter, "That was YOU?"




Since January, I've been running pretty solid. I'm attempting to run a half marathon in a couple of weeks now. My 10k race was my first test at seeing how Iwould hold up. They held it at Burnt Hickory Baptist Church, just right around the corner from our house. An added bonus was that they were raising money for their students going on a missions trip. So I was able to run for a reason, a purpose. Don't get me wrong, running just for health and feeling good is just fine. There is nothing wrong with it. But to me, I felt like all the training I've been doing, the work involved, I wanted to have a foundation, a good cause I could support. So many people who run races and marathons usually run for a cause. It could be for Breast Cancer, Parkinsons, Alzheimer's, the list is endless. However, as I had been searching online, looking at different causes to support, nothing really spoke to my heart.




Maybe a week later, my friend, and neighbor shared with me an amazing trip she was recently on. She was able to be a part of a ministry called Inheritance of Hope. You see, it was founded by a couple, who the wife is suffering from terminal liver cancer. She began this foundation in hopes that they can give families wonderful memories together with their families, taking them on trips, Disney World, amusement parks, etc. Most of the funding is done through marathons. I was like, "Ding, Ding, Ding!" The lightbulb went on. I searched their website, read through these families testimonies, as well as the founders and how they began, and I was so inspired.

With my half marathon fast approaching, unfortunately there wasn't much time to gather and organize a fundraiser on behalf of Inheritance of Hope, but I'm hoping for my next race to get involved. Please take a minute to check out the website and read through some of the families testimonials. Sometimes in our own lives we stress and have many things weighing us down. But as I read what these families are facing, knowing that your spouse/loved one will soon be passing, and raising your children without their mother or father, I understand my problems seem so miniscule and petty.

I challenge you to check out the website www.inheritanceofhope.org It truly makes you sit back in awe of some of these families and for me, makes me want to cherish my health, as well as my family, and strive everyday to be the wife, mother, and daughter that God has called me to be. Colossians 3:16-17

Aren't I too Young??

"Go get a mammogram!" That was a post on my facebook. It was quite random. You see, that day, a few weeks ago, I posted something like, "So now what?" Not really sure why, just being random myself I guess. And that had been the response. I was thinking to myself, "Aren't I too young for that?"

It was that comment that got me to schedule that appointment with the doctor. I've come to believe, especially now, that nothing is by coincidence. God can put things together just perfectly and at the right time in order to teach, show, or help us through things in our lives.

As I said before, I had to wait a week for the results. Seriously, I prayed so hard that I wouldn't stress over that 5% chance that it could be cancerous. Whatever the outcome, I had to deal with it regardless. But boy, did I ever pray and seek God that whole week, hoping it was nothing serious. The appointment came unusually fast. When I arrived, however, it seemed like forever waiting for that surgeon to walk in the room with my results. I took Abbey, my two year old, with me that day, hopefully to lighten the mood. The surgeon came in and gave me my results. It was indeed a fibroid, a benign tumor. I almost wanted to cry with relief! I was leaping with joy leaving the office, so happy, and finally able to breathe.

Driving home, my thoughts went back to those women in the waiting room. There were so many, I'm really not exaggerating. I was thinking to myself, "What are the odds that one, maybe two of those ladies received different news?" Being optimistic, I wanted to believe everyone of them were fine. But sometimes, that's just not reality. The statistics lately are sobering. Many women, even men, are diagnosed with breast cancer every year. While it may be tragic and sad, it's also very encouraging. Technology and science have come a long way to treat women, as well as men. I can see why they stress early detection, because in doing so, can treat and cure so many more with this disease.

If I can do one thing with my story, and everything that has come my way these last few weeks, is to first, be able to share with others, especially women, who never thought they should get checked out at an early age. To my friend who posted that message, I am so grateful that you took the time and care to think of others. I'm certainly not one who shares personal stories with everyone. Most of the things I write, are not shared or shown to anyone. After this happened, I felt it's the least I could do to not only credit God and praise him for everything, but to also put into practice Galatians 6:2 "Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ." That is what we are supposed to do! Lean on each other, pray for one another, encourage, and to lift up!

You are NEVER to young to get a mammogram. In the end it could save your life. I urge everyone to keep this in mind. My story ended

My Beginning

You know, I can sit back and replay things in my mind over and over. But there are some things that stay vivid in my memory, and every time I think about it, it becomes so real, as if I was still there.

I'm talking about the time I walked into a waiting room, a long fluffy robe around my shoulders, tied comfortably around my waist. I sat down in a very crowded area, not many vacant chairs left. As I looked around, I saw women, young and old. I looked for a magazine on the table. I can't even remember what I was reading, but as I was thumbing through, I looked over the magazine to catch some of the women seated around me. No one spoke, it was so quiet. I wondered if they felt the same way I did. Confused, scared, or anxious?

You see, 3 days before, I left my doctors office, told that there was a small lump on my right breast, and also adding she believed it was not a cyst. It didn't sound good, and yes, I was afraid. When I left the doctors that day, of course, everything runs through your mind, usually the worst of things being first. What was I going to do? Well first thing was to schedule a mammogram/ultrasound. I called and was able to get in right away. Thank God for that.

So there I was, sitting in this waiting area. Looking at so many women, some of them, maybe facing the same thing I was, uncertainty of what the future may hold. Ironically, though I couldn't remember the magazine I was reading, the contents were almost all discussing women and health issues, such as breast cancer. It figures, huh? One by one, each woman was called by the nurse. Finally, my turn.

My tests went fine, the ultrasound did reveal a small solid lump. They said they needed to do a biopsy. They said it was routine for all that are not cysts. They said there was nothing to be worried about. They can SAY all they want, but in my heart, which was beating fast and heavy, I had such a doubt and fear that would not go away. The next step, I needed to see a surgeon. I frantically called upon leaving the hospital that day. First they said I would have to wait for over 2 weeks! Are they crazy?? I silently prayed as she put me on hold, and when she came back, I was told they had an opening in just 2 days! Praise God! I snatched that appointment faster than you could blink.

Flash forward 2 days, I'm waiting for the surgeon. It was taking so long, as she had so many patients that day. I didn't care. I was so thankful to get in so soon. Finally, she came in, examined me, talked to me. She then was confused, because a biopsy should never have been scheduled for first time patients in her office. But because I waited so long, she did another ultrasound, spoke with her staff, and said since I was there for a biopsy, asked would I be okay if she removed it completely. I was so extremely happy! God is so good. So about an hour later, a small outpatient surgery was completed, and the lump was removed. The surgeon told me she was 95% sure it was a fibroid, a benign tumor which poses no health threats or problems. Hallelujia! She did tell me it was being sent to the lab for tests, and I was to see her in a week for the final results. There was still the 5% chance that it could come back as cancer. I was resting in the fact that those chances are better than most, and I wasn't going to let that worry me for a week until I found out. I went home, a bit sore, and rested that night. Rested better than I had since this whole thing began. Yeah, I still had to go back for the final results, but in the meantime, I rested, and boy did it feel good.