Today is my last day being 24. So I guess you can say I am officially going into a brand spanking new season of life. And I am EXCITED ! It has been a crazy crazy year for me but I'd probably have to rate being 24 9/10 points. There were a few bumps in the road but there wasn't any obstacle that I wasn't able to over come.

I'm starting off being 25 a little early with two birthday presents to myself, a new tattoo and also a Disney annual pass.

I lurves me some Didny Worl. You can find me either crying because I'm meeting Ariel (she's my bae) or riding space mountain over and over and over again.

Enough about the day that I graced this planet with my beautiful, sassy and uncoordinated presence 25 years ago, lets talk about all of you !

I am so incredibly humbled and completely overwhelmed by all of the support I've gotten from all of you (my friends & family, my moms friends, my nana's friends EVERYONE)  I love all of you so much ! Thanks for all of the kind words !

All of you are seriously the best ! *two claps and Rick Flair*

with all that being said, My surgery is JUNE. 6th ! That is approximately 79 days away ! And 23 days after my surgery I will be in the same room breathing the same air as Justin Bieber.  June is going to be such a great month.

I don't have much more to say other than thank you again for all the kind words and support and also thank you in advance for all the birthday wishes !

Until next time babes,
Rachael.

Hi, Hey, Hello !

My name is Rachael and I am (almost) Twenty-five years old. I am currently in the last leg of my first year of ministry school at Celebration College in Jacksonville, Fl. I'm in the Children's track, and it is AWESOME.

I also have a genetic disorder called Neurofibromatosis, this is a disorder that causes tumors to grow on nerve endings throughout the body.  I have had "NF" as they call it, since I was born.  For me, the tumors are all up and down my right leg.  I have had surgeries to remove the tumors, but as MY luck would have it, they grew back with a vengeance.

Unfortunately for me, the older I get the worse my leg gets. And by worse, I mean my leg swells uncontrollably.  Sometimes it swells to the point that I can't even walk.  It is really scary because I don't know the reason why it swells so bad.  Most of the time it's just because I've been walking to much or I don't prop it up as much as I should.

This brings me to the entire reason I've made this blog. I'm about to go into a very scary and exciting season of my life.

With a lot of thought and research for almost a year now, I have made the decision to have my right leg from below the knee amputated.

Boom. Bomb dropped.

Most of you who read this, will know the struggle I go through every single day with NF. To be truthful this wasn't even a hard decision for me to consider or even make. I'm so at peace with it because I know this is what is best for me and my quality of life.

I have two paths to choose from,

• One ... keep my leg, be miserable and insecure when I look down because of how ugly it is.  Be miserable in general because of the pain I get from when it randomly decides to swell up. I can choose to keep my leg and be unhappy for the rest of my life because I have a giant ugly mass on my leg.

• Two ...NO pain!  Did I say NO Pain! Although it will be fake, my "leg" will be beautiful! I can truly feel like myself and not have to worry whether or not I'm going to have to cut my pants off or make a wasteful trip to the ER. My legs will be even and I will have reduced back pain from me being off balance.  I can buy one pair of the same size shoes.  And speaking of shoes, I will own a pair of Louboutin's and i will look GREAT in them.

 This isnt some rash decision and I know what I'm getting myself into. I'm just going to need so much love and support and prayers in this next season. And I'm hoping that that is what I will get from you.

Until next time babes,

Rachael