Jackie Oakes

I don't really know where to start so I'll try to start at the beginning.  I was actually a regular size baby 7 pounds 10 ounces.......imagine that for once I was regular size.  I have been overweight my entire life.  Got teased as a child, which really hurts, destroys your self-esteem.  I am sure that all would agree children can be cruel. I got married in 2000 to the love of my life.  John Carlton Oakes.  He loved me for who I was and didn't care that I was overweight and he said he'd love me at the size I was and he'd love me if I gained more.  How sweet.  I was told that I probably would never be able to have chidren.  My husband is a preacher and they laid hands on my belly at church when we first got married and six months later I found out I was going to have a baby.  I gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Jacee Jewel.  She is my heart and I love her so so very much.  One day I got to thinking that if I didn't stop gaining weight that I could die and then my lil girl would have to grow up without her Mommy.  I decided right then and there that I was going to do something about it.  I looked into getting gastric by-pass surgery.  My younger cousin had it done and she did wonderful with it, but the thought of getting the blood clots in my lungs scared me.  I went ahead and saw a surgeon about it.  Then my insurance turned me down.  I was sad and relieved at the same time.   I prayed to God and said that if this is for me God please let it happen.  Insurances changed and then I got approved for the surgery.  I was excited, my prayers answered.  Then about a month before the surgery the insurance company stopped covering weight loss surgery.  I was like OK God I got it gastric by-pass isn't for me.  I then started looking into getting the lap-band.  Then Hurricane Katrina came and struck the MS Gulf Coast.  At the time, we were living two blocks off the beach and needless to say we lost everything.  So there I was trying to deal with everything with that, there would be yet another stumbling block in my weight lost journey.  Finally, after we went through the whole living in FEMA trailer things and all we were able to move into our new home.  Don't get me wrong I am thankful for that FEMA mansion I lived in.  In April 2008 I inquired again about the surgery.  My husband and I had to make sure we had enough money for it, since he is a preacher and wasn't working a side job there was no insurance.  We got the money for it and I went in to my first consultation, met the surgeon.....wonderful, wonderful man.  And then my journey began.  I had surgery on November 7, 2008.  Now it has been 1 yr and 1 month later and so far I have lost 102 pounds.  I am so happy, I can do things better and easier.  I feel better about myself.  I hope that with me being healthier that I can be here longer for my lil girl. That I will get to see her grow up, see her go to her school dances, graduate, go to college, gradute from college (local only she can't leave me) get married ( I don't ever want her to leave me), and all the important stepping stones of her life.    I pray that God continues to be with me on my journey.  Without him none of this would have been possible.