Count Down

First of all Merry Christmas. I hope you all had a lovely time and that you were all surrounded by loved ones and happiness!  I certainly made the most of my time off from chemo! It was such a gift to have the timing play out that I would have the month of December off. I was able to work and even more importantly, really enjoy and soak in this blessed holiday!

All 3 kids were home and that is such a great feeling. I think that would be my definition of peace. Knowing that all 3 of my "babies" are safely under my roof sleeping...I go to bed with a smile on my face and in my heart! 

Even though I was in the middle of enjoying the season I still had to go for a few appointments. I had my labs done, my port flushed and got all checked out and approved by the anesthesia office. I brought Kendall along to be my second set of ears for the instructions. 

I worked today and I will do the same tomorrow. It is good to keep my mind busy so I don't dwell on the upcoming surgery Wednesday. I am supposed to check in at 7:15 and there is a bunch of stuff they do to me first. I get some sort of needle place in the tumor area, they direct it through an ultra sound. Then I go to radiology to get dye injected in me. After that it is upstairs to meet with Dr Wallace and get prepped for surgery. I guess it takes about 3 hours for the surgery itself. I won't know if I am coming home or not until afterwards. If I needed my lymph nodes out then I will have to stay over. Kendall will post on the blog that night so you will all know what is going on. I feel pretty calm, I have handed it all over to God and I try to not worry myself with things I cannot control. 

Blessings

Yes, Christmas was certainly a blessing. Having the kids here, having time off to feel good and pretty darn normal was incredible. The gifts for our Mexico family were delivered by Julianne from Build a Miracle and I received an awesome photo montage on Facebook from the mother, Cecilia. They all looked so happy and I cannot wait to be able to go down there and visit with them and to hold their new baby Clairita!

Our gift wrapping party is always a
highlight for me!

We surrounded their tree with gifts

Our other adopted family's gift drop off went great as well. Although poor Danielle got delayed in Aspen and missed it, everything else went smoothly. We share this with our "other family" the Brillantes'. We all shop and then gather on the night of the 23rd. After stuffing ourselves with pizza we get around to having a gift wrapping extravaganza! The next morning on the 24th we headed down to Chula Vista to the house. We were let in by a friend while the family was taken out to breakfast. They had such a humble, clean house and you could feel the love in it. The mom had sight words around for the kids to help with reading and there were photos lovingly displayed of their dad/husband that they just lost a little over a month ago. We were so happy to see that they had a Christmas tree and we quickly started bringing in the gifts to stuff their stockings and fill their little living room. When we were done we gathered in a circle and held hands while we said a prayer for them all, it has become a tradition that we do before we leave. I have been sent some photos and a few short videos of them when they returned home. I will always treasure the sound of the 7 year old when he first saw it all. First he said, "this can't be possible" and then he ran around with his arms extended as if he were trying to soak it all in. The laughter that came out of him was complete joy...I tear up when I hear it and have it in my memory bank so deeply that I can hear it in my head without even playing the video! I hope that we were able to bring them all some much needed joy! I couldn't think of a better way to celebrate this blessed holiday! I thank you all that contributed to making it all be able to happen!

Prayers

Okay, let's get down to it...I humbly ask that you all pray that my surgery goes well and that I don't have to have lymph nodes taken out. Not only do I want to come home Wednesday night, more importantly it would be great that the cancer did not spread to them. I could really use some good news! Of course if they remove a lot it opens other cans of worms as well, lymphedema (swelling) would be one of them. I would also like to ask all of you to start praying that I will get a good report on January 11th and 12th. I will get pathology results on the 11th from the surgeon but on the 12th the oncologist will tell me what that actually means for me and the game plan. I would love to hear that the tumor was either without cancer (best case scenario) or that it was so minuscule that I will not need more chemo! Please my prayer warriors, let those prayers fly! You are all such a blessing to me and I appreciate you all for reading my ramblings and for your prayers.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours!