Monday, September 5, 2016

#PrepWithPurpose - Phoenix's Journey

For backstory on what #PrepWithPurpose is all about please read the blog entry and/or Instagram Post.

Hey Friends,

I hope you are having a great long weekend! We hoped to lay by the pool for a couple hours today but not sure that is going to happen! There is so much to do this week now that I'm going out of town this weekend. Preparing to go out of town for a show is always crazy, plus we have friends coming to stay with us next week, my husband has one of his biggest work projects of the year coming up, I have a big gig to research, etc. So the day will likely be filled with lots of my normal Monday "routine" so that I don't get too behind.

Yesterday I mentioned that due to requests for people to "lift up and for" coming in hit or miss and rather slow ... I may start only posting a new person to lift up and for weekly or bi-weekly. It upset me to even consider this at first but then I started thinking about it. Maybe this is a GOOD thing! I know that realistically MOST people aren't going to log on every day and participate, which only means that some people that are featured get more attention/prayers than others.  So maybe this is the way it needs to be! It gives people all week to log on at their own leisure and participate in lifting up and for the person of the week one day...or all seven! I also have some other ideas to expand and grow Prep With Purpose and changing the person WEEKLY instead of DAILY may make the stuff I have in mind a little more realistic/doable! Stay tuned and make sure you are still logging on at least once a week and participating! You can subscribe on the homepage and you will get an email alert when I post any entry! Also, not doing PRP everyday means that I may have more time to post some new recipes, training, etc.

But for today we DO have a NEW person to lift up! Someone we will focus on ALL WEEK!  This little guy I am about to tell you about has had a really rough first year of life. He has is been IN the hospital more than OUT and is continuing to face battle after battle. Before I tell you more about him I need to backtrack for one second. Because how he came to my attention is rather ... interesting.

I'm not good at making decisions. It's my biggest flaw. I over analyze everything. So when I decided last moment to do compete in the Wings Of Strength Phoenix Pro on September 10th ...  I had LOTS of doubts. I threw out the idea to my coach last weekend, made the decision to actually do it during our Wednesday check in and finalized it on Friday (after my doctors appointment) by singing my IFBB contract for the show. On the day that I signed the contract and made it "official" .. I went to bed really questioning (over analyzing) my decision. Unable to sleep ... I took my computer to bed to work on finding some people to feature this upcoming week. I opened my FB messages and there it was .. a request titled ..... Phoenix's Journey.  Hmmm ... the show I'm laying awake questioning is The Arizona Pro ... in Phoenix and the person sent to me has a FB Prayer page called PHOENIX'S Journey.

Yeah .. this was NOT a coincidence!! 

Prep With Purpose - Phoenix's Journey

November 17, 2015:  The words "Born 5 weeks premature with complex heart complications and cleft lip and palate" were typed into that little square box on Facebook. That is the day  the page "Phoenix's Journey" was created. It appears Phoenix was born several weeks before his mom went to social media to create the page asking for prayer. After scrolling back ... reading over a year of content .. here is what I've gathered.









Phoenix and his family live in California. He was born last Fall with severe heart complications and a cleft lip and palate.





Due to his condition ... it was a month before his mom was able to hold her baby. Can you imagine?! You can certainly see the happiness and relief in her face when she was finally able to hold his tiny little body in her arms.
It was then 72 days before she could carry him out of his room and out into a hallway.
Finally on the first day of 2016 ... 1/1/16 ... Phoenix was moved out of ICU. Then on his 110th day of life confined within hospital walls ... Phoenix took his first breath of fresh air! His family got a 30 min pass to go outside.
After months and months of literally living in the hospital .. on January 27th they were able to ALL go home together .. as a family ... for the first time.
 
But that time at home was very short lived. On February 4th Phoenix was admitted back into the hospital. Since then it seems that the hospital has been their home and their home just somewhere they seem to only be able to visit for short periods of time. Over the months his body has fought infection after infection .. the flu .. he's undergone procedures and surgeries. The biggest surgery was recently .. on July 29th ... it was 8 hours long! Phoenix is still in the hospital today. They have high hopes he will be able to celebrate his 1st birthday at home. But Phoenix needs strength. His family needs strength. He's been a fighter since the day he was born and still has so many battles ahead.


This week I will be thankful for my strength. I'll be grateful that the decisions and stress I have are trivial in comparison to the ones this family has had .. and still has .. to face. Go to the Phoenix's Journey FB page to learn more about this little guy.  He and his family need all the lifting up and for we can offer .. this week and MANY weeks to come!

Maybe I should start making more spontaneous decisions. Not everything has to have strategy. Not everything has to have more pros than cons. Sometimes we have to stop over thinking and JUST DO IT. Just maybe we will find our purpose along the way? No doubt Phoenix's Journey was sent to me during my own personal journey TO Phoenix (one I almost didn't embark on) ... for a reason!!

This week is for YOU Phoenix! I will PREP WITH PURPOSE and you will be my motivation every day! With every rep/stride/step - I will lift up and for you and your family. Then when I step on stage IN PHOENIX this weekend it will be with bigger PURPOSE! You will be on my mind and in my heart.  No doubt .. we are #PhoenixStrong :)

XoXo
Stacy

As you come across people that need urgent or ongoing well wishes/prayer .. please send them to me!!! simplystacyfitness@yahoo.com. Just send all the details you have, any links to blogs/posts and a picture if you have one (or if there aren't any on the links you send me .. if you send them.)

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