Life Altering News

To Him be ALL the glory. 

I can do all things through Him who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13

He is my almighty faithful God who has strengthened me to write this blog post and share it with others who want to read it.

Over the last three years things have happened in my life that completely changed me, as well as my family. Unfortunately I cannot put every detail into my blog, but I will try my best so that you can truly capture the feelings and emotions we went through together. My focus is to try to cover the main points and give an overall experience of what happened and why I wanted to write my story. If you would like to ask me questions, or know more about my testimony, please don't hesitate to ask. I would love to talk more about it to those who are curious. I am here to share as well as show comfort and love others because of my own story.

He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. 2 Corinthians 1:4

A few years ago it would have been too difficult to write this post with such honesty and truth from my heart. I cared too much about what others thought about me, and how people perceived me - Sarah Marie Hensley. I chose to write this because the only one I am serving now is God, and to Him be all the glory for who I am and what has happened in my life the past three years. He slowly changed my life once I began to surrender it to Him. He has shown me how truly precious I am as a woman, and also the beautiful life that we have on earth. The life we have on earth is such a gift; a gift that we don’t deserve due to our self-serving nature of wanting to please ourselves. We have it because of what Jesus did for us. I truly believe that. I believe this is just a glimpse of what God has for us, an eternal life which will be more than we can fathom. Since I have this gift of being on earth for a while, I want to show others how God has changed my life and share my testimony. He continues to bless me and I want to share that joy. The official definition of joy is: a feeling of great pleasure, happiness and the expression of such a feeling. Joy has become the anthem of my life.   

"For I know the plans I have for you,” says The Lord. "They are plans for good, and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them. Romans 8:28

A little glimpse into my life in 2010:

In summer 2010 I truly believed that I was living the dream. I was attending school at Washington State University, actively involved in a sorority, lived far from my parents doing what I wanted to do, seeing my friends every day, and just finishing summer school for the first time. Summer school at WSU was a blast; there were hardly any people there so it was a close knit community where everybody knew everybody! I know Pullman already is a small town, but summer school was even smaller because of the lack of students and reduced class sizes. I took one class, worked part time, and hung out with my friends the rest of the time. We drove to the dunes to swim, walked around town to chit-chat, barbecued some delicious food, and basked in the hot weather. It was absolutely wonderful and refreshing to be enjoying the season with close friends by my side. I never wanted summer to end, even though I loved my family and knew I would be going home soon to live with them for the remainder of the summer.    

(At this time I was living only for me, and doing what I thought was best for me) I was truly living the "dream" and doing the stereotypical college thing. I chose to go to Washington State University to pursue a degree in which I could use my heart and passion for loving kids. Originally I was going to school to be a Social Worker; but in conversation with my mom, we both decided that it would be draining on me as a person because of the severity of the job. Therefore I started to look for something more light where I could love on children, but not have to constantly see hardships that they go through  day to day. I chose to go into teaching, and resided on Early Childhood Human Development. This degree would allow me to teach young children as well as impact their lives in a positive way.  

 2009 with some of my pledge class! A pledge class is a group of woman that are typically the same age, who joined during the same year. We became a close group of friends because we spent so much time together and experienced sorority life during the same time!

Gamma Phi Beta Sorority- two of my closest friends and also part of my sorority family. We were the Army family. In a sorority you are joined into a family with other girls, these girls were there to support you and ultimately they became some of your closest friends. 

All dressed up for recruitment. Recruitment is a process in which we recruit more ladies to join our sorority! So we dress up (usually trying to match each other), act proper, and engage in conversation with new freshman so that they will want to join our sorority!

Ladies in 2009 Recruitment- Bid Day! We hand out bids to other ladies who we want to join our sorority, and we express excitement to them for joining the same sorority that we are in! It is really fun to see the sorority grow and to have new girls who want to join. 

Senior year pledge class! 

When I went home after summer school for a few months, my life did a complete turn around. It all started in June 2010 when I came home and found out things were not going well at home; emotionally, physically, or mentally. Something was different. Some things seemed unusual about the atmosphere and once I came home for summer to live and could see how everyone was doing, in my heart I knew something was wrong. Living at home again for the summer and just visiting for a winter/spring break is completely different; because one is a visit, while the other is living day to day. Spring break during March of 2010 I decided to take a trip for ME, and go with my friends to Cabo San Lucas for a week. I did not go home to visit between Christmas and spring break. I decided to do something enjoyable while I could, so I did not realize anything going on at home during that time due to not being there. I only chatted on the phone with my mom and most of the time it was brief because my life in college was busy, and I was constantly on the go with sorority activities or school work. I did get a chance to see my family briefly in March for my brother’s wedding. Again it was very busy and full of activities, and the main focus was on my brother and his new bride.    

Mama and Papa in Hawaii, fall of 2009, enjoying the company of each other because all of their children were in college. Such a sweet picture, shows the beauty of both of them. 

Okay back to the main story; one summer night in June when I moved back home, my mom took my sister and I on a walk around the neighborhood by our house. She told us the recent information that was kept from us because she did not know how to tell us while we were both at school. It was too hard to talk about and too important to do over the phone. I knew right then, after seeing my mom's face and hearing what she said, that I was going to make the decision to put aside my old habits of living for myself and support my family 100%. This meant moving home for good and finishing my degree online. I knew deep down that this is what I wanted to do because my family is my support, my foundation, and I love them with my whole heart. Family is forever; through sickness, health, good times, and death. I believe that from the depths of my heart. So the decision was made to leave Pullman and move home to Tumwater. The future trials that we were about to endure would not only change my life, but also my family’s life forever. My dad was diagnosed with a mental illness called early onset FTD; Frontotemporal Dementia. This was the news that my mom had told us during our walk, while we all embraced each other closely and cried in disbelief and sadness. This was now going to be the journey of a lifetime. FTD is a form of dementia for which there is no cure. FTD is also one of the rarest types of dementia. We were starting from scratch and didn’t know anything about the disease. We didn’t know how to help or how to treat my dad now that he had FTD. All we knew was that we would love him unconditionally through the entire process. However, we were not prepared for what came next.

My lovely family:  this picture was in Arizona during winter of 2008 (Brian had just proposed to Jacquiline) We were on a hike up Superstition Mountain as a family!  Jacquiline (sister in law), Brian (brother), Megan (sister), Me, Janet Hensley (mama), and Richard Hensley (papa)  My dad, my father, and someone I love with my whole heart. This was at a cougar game in 2009 when he came to visit Brian and I at WSU for Father's Weekend. His smile is irreplaceable. I will be posting the rest of my story every Sunday afternoon during the next few weeks, so stay tuned! Having my blog split up into different sections has helped to organize my thoughts and the trials that we went through as a family. Each year is very important to my story and I want to make sure as the reader, you can grasp it all.  Next Sunday I will post what else happened during 2010, after I found out the life altering news and moved home.  If you would like to read more about FTD this website has facts and information about the mental disease. Each case diagnosed is unique to the person, but overall it gives quality information about what the mental disease is and how it affects the brain.  http://memory.ucsf.edu/ftd/ Music fills up my soul and my spirit, this song is one that I had on repeat during 2010. Enjoy!