There was so much hope for the day when it began at 6:30am. I went on a five mile run and as I headed back in I couldn’t help but stop and take these pictures of the view. Because it was a little later in the morning than I am used to running I don’t often get to see the beautiful views around me (or the pavement for that matter ;)).
After a shower and catching up on the news, finding out more reasons to love Pope Francis I, I made a phone call I’d meant to make yesterday. It was to a woman whom I was introduced to via a friend of mine who is an IBC survivor (Inflammatory Breast Cancer). Last year I highlighted Terry Arnold’s story in my blog. She is a true miracle having been of the 5% who survive IBC. When I went to her about what was going on with my abnormal mammogram she wanted to introduce me to a friend of hers going through the same thing. She felt since we were also both Catholic and both speakers who speak on difficult subjects that we would be a great support to one another.
So I called Karen and instantly we hit it off. She told me she answered my ‘unknown’ number call because she was waiting on a biopsy report. We ended up talking and sharing our situations which eventually led to also talking about our faith and what we each do for a living. She has an amazing story of personal forgiveness which you can read about here at Silent No More. We could have talked for hours but she was waiting on the results and her family kept buzzing in which she was ignoring and most likely scaring them to death. We promised to pray for one another and keep each other informed.
After finishing a few other house keeping items I sat down to finish the final chapter and Epilogue of REDEEMED. I couldn’t believe I had done so much and I felt accomplished. I opened up my iPad and clicked on the Pages app where I write the book, saw it pop up to the last chapter title where I’d left off and then a reminder type button appeared. Or so I thought it was a reminder. I had never had anything come up in regards to the actual Pages app before so I just clicked OK and then it was gone. It made my work go away. No, not the entire book, and that wouldn’t have been a disaster because I do back it up on my PC but I had not backed up the work since Tuesday so everything I wrote yesterday was gone. It was at least 7 or 8 pages, at least if not more.
Mouth agape I kept going back and forth from pressing the document to come up and I kept seeing where I’d left off on Tuesday to making it go back to file. Finally I decided before I touched anything else I would just call tech support and let them tell me exactly what to do. So $150 and two hours later I was left with them telling me “We don’t see there is any way to retreat your data because you didn’t have it backed up to iCloud.”
🙁
Furious is a simple word when it comes to how upset I was with myself. Why didn’t I just take the time to READ what the alert had said? Why did I haphazardly click ‘OK’? And why did I waste two hours on the phone and all that money on a 6 month tech support agreement when I knew they were headed down a path to no answer? I could have been rewriting it and done! After telling Neal and letting off some steam I decided there was no use in wasting more time. ‘It is what it is,’ as Neal says.
So I sat down to work. Just before I got started my phone rang and it was Karen calling me to tell me her biopsy results were benign. Praise God! 😉 There are still a few tests that need to come back and she is still going to MD Anderson for a second opinion on Monday so let’s all keep her in our prayers. But it was good to hear good news at that moment.
When I told her about what had happened to me after we had spoken that morning she said, “Oh this is the enemy. Can I pray for you?” It’s been a long time since I’ve had someone ask to pray for me on the spot and I have to say it felt good. 😉 She prayed for me and I felt peace wash over me, weeding out the negative.
Before we hung up she burst out with, “Oh and you know my son! When I told him who I was on the phone with this morning he said he knew you.” I asked her what her son’s name was and instantly I knew God had ordained our new friendship. Her son, who I met about 10 years ago at Basic Youth Ministry Training at the Diocese was a young man who was one of the first for me to tell my ‘testimony’ to including the spiritual warfare. And he was one of the most adamant in me sharing my story with others. He is now an ordained priest in our Diocese.
Yes, I finished the chapter…again. And I am half way done with the final chapter. I’m hoping to be done tomorrow so I can proof and edit this weekend but I will put it in God’s hands and let Him decide. 😉
Blessings
Shannon