Hello D.W.D.I. Family!

   I hope you are all doing well! I have missed all of you over these past 2-3 weeks (I think it was just that long)! I hope you have all been blessed AND have all been showing God appreciation for your blessings!

  I took that licensing exam again and I have been resting to try to recover.  I have just been super exhausted and just trying to apply to job after job when I have the energy. I have also had to deal with my hair just coming out inexplicably.  It happened during college and started again in May.  Within the last couple of weeks, my hair just changed drastically.  I realized it was a lost cause and I cut pretty much all of my hair off.  So, yes, I now have a teeny-weeny afro (TWA). It is just hair and it will grow back. I am just concerned about being healthy and focusing on God.  I make mistakes all of the time, but I love Him and want to grow closer to him.  Everything else will fall into place.

  My friends love the cut on me. My mom and my brother are fine with it.  I know my dad hates it, but what can I do? I am just trying to get used to it and take care of my hair.  I do wonder how future employers with which I will interview will think.  But, I realize that if a job is meant for me, it will happen because it is God's will. What about dating? I am taking the same attitude with that as well.  Will negative reactions hurt? Absolutely, especially if it is from my father.  But, I am still alive and so grateful for what I have and for what God has done and will do that I will just brush it all off.

  I am watching this show on cable television where the featured people have facial disfigurements. The first person is a little boy who was born with a rare condition.  The last person is a man who was badly disfigured due to an accident and received a facial transplant.  Both face comments and isolation from society because of their appearance. Of course I am grateful for not having to confront their struggles, but I just see them as just so inspiring in how courageous they and their families are in just living their lives and having faith in God throughout these times. If they are appreciative and thankful, then I definitely should be.  We all should be because God is so good and His love endures forever. He loves us so much that He sent His son to die for our sins.  He carefully knitted us together in our mothers' wombs and avenges those who wrong us as His children. He wants us to spend time with Him, to learn from Him, and to ask Him for things (things that are in line with His will of course). Who needs hair when I have Him!

  I also mention this show to encourage each and every one of us to be more empathetic to people who look differently and who have conditions, "disfigurements," etc. We are all human and we are supposed to love one another.  I could just feel the pain of those on that show and I could relate to experiences where I was treated unfairly for something I could not help.  I pray that we can all do better and better appreciate the diversity and the blessings of every person.

  Well, I have got to run.  Take care family, and I will ttys!

Love, CCC