Inside the Mind of an Educator

2025 has been a transformative year for our family, marked by health challenges, faith, and divine moments I call "God winks"—those undeniable signs of God's love, plan, and provision. These moments, woven together, led to the discovery of "Buella," a breast cancer diagnosis that could have gone unnoticed without God's guidance. Here's our story —a testament to His presence, even in the unseen parts of our lives.    In October, Gavin moved back to Alaska as he was asked to take Command,  and Lilyan and I stayed to complete the school year. We are used to separations with the military, but we both dislike this part of the life we have embraced for over 20 years. However, praise God for technology as we were able to Facetime and connect every night. Due to the time difference, he would call as he was heading home for the night and I was getting ready to go to sleep. It was manageable, even if it was challenging to be apart. In December, I lost a friend and...

Dear Buella, This is your notice that you are being permanently evicted from the premises, also known as my body, effective July 1. You have exceeded the number of recommended days to be in residence by more than 30 days; therefore, you will forcibly be removed so you can no longer wreak havoc upon the landscape of our lives. - Management / Allie Dear Family and Friends, On July 1st, I will have a double mastectomy and begin reconstructive surgery. Buella, the name I gave my tumor, has been served her eviction notice after 70+ days since detection, and we are grateful to have a date scheduled.  However, I do keep trying to convince Gavin that traveling to the Amalfi Coast for pasta and coffee would do wonders for healing cancer instead. If you have a study that supports my hypothesis, please share it with me, as I have read at least 50 research articles and a few books about cancer in the past month and have yet to find a correlation or causation study about the benefits of authent...