my Gratitude 5

1. my kids will be attending a VBS this coming week in the evenings, and i blown away that one of the moms has offered to adapt the church's dinners to be allergy-free for those who need it! Her son has allergies, and she runs an allergy-free daycare. I never in a million years would expect them to cater to us. This will be such a huge weight lifted off of me to not have to accomodate their needs this week...is that awesome or what.

2. I get to stay home this summer!!!!!!!! okay, not stay home, as in never go anywhere (lol) but I won't have to WORK for 3 whole months!!!!!!!! Yay!

3. I was able to actually bandage up one of dd's friends this afternoon, without totally loosing it. I don't handle blood and flesh very well, but i actually aced this, haha. (maybe it helped knowing that i was sending her back to her mom within the hour and wouldn't have to deal with it later)

4. i LOVE the cool summer evenings/mornings that we've been having. heck, i'll take this weather over 98deg. weather back east any day.

5. i have the greatest kids. and they have such awesome personalities. dd (9) is an ESFP and ds (5) is an ESFJ (dd is trapped in a family of all SJ's) studying their traits has made them more endearing to me :heart

Cancer is a 6 letter word

My MIL Barbara has cancer. Stage 4 breast cancer.She is an amazing woman. One who clings to her heavenly Father, and hopes in His purposes for her. I am amazed at how much tenacity she has shown as she faces her cancer. Often when our phone conversations end, I am the one hanging up more uplifted and encouraged, thinking that it should be the other way around. Let me just say, that if i face what she is one day, that I pray i have the same grace and strength. Recently a speaker at our church shared that we can pray for God to do in us what glorifies Him most. And I must say that God is absolutely being glorified thru Barbara's life right now.

The current state of her cancer. She has malignant tumors in her breast, in the lymph under her arm, and bone lesions on her leg, pelvis, lower and upper back, skull and sternum. During the hysterectomy she had 2 weeks ago, one of the polyps they removed also was found to have cancer, although it appears to have been self-contained. Since her cancer seems to be hormone fed, they are thinking that this hysterectomy will help alleviate a source of hormones that were feeding this cancer. It is unbelievable that she hasn't had any pain from these lesions. I think the oncologist is surprised that she is doing so well. She had a Zometa bone strengthening treatment 3 weeks ago, and that was when she felt pain in every one of those lesions, but even that was short-lived and went away after a few days.

So, her current treatment plan is:~Zometa IV treatment 1/x month (her 2nd treatment is June 6th)~Hormone (supression) therapy in the form of a daily pill (beginning on June 9th)~possible addition of a monthly injection to supress hormones, depending on which group the clinical trial places her in.

My MIL's motto has always been "I'll live 'til I die" which, if you think about it, is pretty profound, lol. This was her response whenever i would gently encourage her to seek medical advice about several health concerns that she's had over these past few years. So when she shared with us her cancer dx, I really wasn't sure what to expect her response to be. We want to respect whatever choices she makes, so if she comes to the point where she feels that she needs to stop treatment, we will do our best to support her. But for now, we are very thankful that she is willing to seek treatment, and we are thankful for more time with our mom, MIL and ma-ma. The question in my mind is always, how can we make the most of the time we have been given with her?

speaking of which, we are all excited to be able to drive to visit ma-ma at the end of June and spend a week with her. We'll get to visit her church and meet her new pastor which she raves about, celebrate her 64th birthday together, hopefully spend the 4th all together as a family, including BIL and his family, Camden Park, and who knows what else. As long as Barbara is feeling well, I'm sure we'll be on the go. We're talking about a woman who went out to eat with a friend 4 DAYS after her hysterectomy!!!! I guess you can't keep a good woman down ;-)