I was supposed to be boarding a plane to Tel Aviv today… but God had different plans for me.

Last November I entered an essay competition to participate in three weeks volunteering and travelling the Holy Land. As it turns out, I won the competition to embark on the trip of a lifetime.

I remember tears flooding my eyes when I got the phone call at work telling me my essay had been chosen as the winner. I felt that God was smiling on me and everything I had been through up to that point. It was a sign (I believed) that so much good was just around the bend.

But God had different plans for me.

My life got flipped turned upside down when in January, my mom, the person I am closest to in the world was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness.

After she fainted in my arms one afternoon, I called 9-1-1. Though all appeared to be okay at the time, I urged her to go to her family doctor and get some blood tests.

That’s when we discovered she had Acute Myeloid Leukemia. Without treatment she would have had only weeks to live.

My mom had been in perfect health my whole life. Sure she had cyclic neutropenia since she was a baby, but all her adult years she had been healthy. I hardly even thought of her condition.

First came shock, then grief, then a feeling of foreboding that gripped our hearts.

After two rounds of chemo, mom was in remission, but it wasn’t smooth sailing. Twice, infection almost took her life thanks to the after effects of the cancer treatment.

But still, was God.

He was faithful even in the storm to alleviate our anxiety and provide us a peace that passes all understanding. His Spirit truly carried us through the last five months.

We have been blessed to have found a donor who will later this month be providing my mom an infusion of their own healthy bone marrow stem cells. This will give her a new lease on life and a very hopeful chance of a cure.

Though we don’t know for certain what God has in store for the future, I feel certain that a season of newness is just around the bend.

This journey has cultivated humility, patience, and perseverance in our hearts.

It has been life changing in every way.