Wow, Where do I Begin?

I guess with an apology would be good. I am so sorry I have been away for so long! Like I said before, no news is usually good news...or exciting news in this case. So much has been going on and my life has been filled with so many blessings! Let me update you with treatment stuff first...

Good News! So all of my other biopsies came back negative so at this point I am only dealing with the one melanoma on my upper left arm. My surgeon from my breast surgery is doing it for me on September 9th and because of where is it and what I do she is making me take a week off...oh darn! lol!!  I plan to see some movies and have time to hang out with friends so let me know if you want to "play" that week! I will see a derm every 3 months now to keep an eye on things. I have a couple of other spots I'd like biopsied at some point but you can only have so many holes at a time I guess! I did look spectacular at the wedding with bandaids all down my arm!! Who needs jewelry when you can have bandaids!?!?

As for my chemo I will start cycle 7 of 8 tomorrow. I will have to do the second week of cycle 5 when I am all done but it was so worth taking it off for the wedding so my feet could feel good.

Speaking of the Wedding!

It was absolutely wonderful! I wouldn't change a thing and it felt like such a gift from God. Kendall made a beautiful bride and Christian was such a handsome groom. You could totally feel the love between them during their ceremony as well as feel and witness their deep faith. A beam of light was pouring down on them the whole time washing them in Glory.

I had a total blast at the reception and I think I danced to all but maybe 5 songs. My knee is still paying the price but it was totally worth it! My dear friend James came up to me and said, "Do you know what you just did? You danced at your daughter's wedding!" Yes I did and it was a blessing to be here to do it! A true blessing in so many ways!!

As if having your daughter get married wasn't enough... 2 days later Joe and I were on a redeye to NY to see Cam go on as the lead (JM Barrie) in Finding Neverland! It was so special because his cousins Bob and Stef were already there and had tickets to that very show and that same dear friend James (aka "Uncle" James) flew out and surprised us. We were all there along with many of Cam's special friends, and his girlfriend Jill to witness him as the lead on Broadway. I cannot even come up with words to describe how it felt. As Cam says, it made me "feel all of the feels"!  Yup, that about sums that up! I feel so incredibly blessed to have had these 2 wonderful things happen in my life and I am so thankful, so VERY thankful!!

Blessings...

Well, a blessing came today at mass. We usually go to St Gregs but today Joe and I found ourselves at Our Lady of Mount Carmel. Father Anthony's homily was on humility.  Of course "the humble shall be exalted and the exalted shall be humbled" was the inspiration for his talk. I loved the quote he used from CS Lewis. He said that humility is not thinking less of yourself...it is thinking of yourself less. It really touched my heart so deeply. This whole "cancer thing" has made me have to put so much focus on myself and I am just not used to that. I have to get back to doing what makes me be me. I want to jump back in with my work in Mexico. I had to be so careful with germs during my other chemo and although I still need to be to some degree I honestly feel I can start to venture back down there. I have missed them all so much and I am so ready. I think I would like to put this saying up somewhere to remind me every day!

I am truly loving life, valuing each and every moment of it. Trying to find lessons in all that I do and experience. And most of all, I am thankful, so VERY thankful! 

Prayers

You tell me you like it when I get specific, it is so hard for me to do this. To ask for people's prayers seems like too much. There are so many others that need it more. I think I would like to ask for your prayers for 2 boys. One is named Orlando. My friend Amanda Haddock (Pearson) has a site called Dragon Master Foundation that she started after losing her own son, David, to brain cancer. She recently posted about 11 year old Orlando who is fighting for his life. He truly needs your prayers. The other boy is Bryson. I randomly met his mom while I was shopping for a top and we got talking. 17 year old Bryson is at Children's with brain cancer. He is also in need of your prayers. These are young boys with lives in front of them that need living. Please keep them and their loved ones in your prayers. Orlando's family is in need of some financial help After being told there were no more options for him they found a specialist in California that is having some breakthrough in his work with this kind of brain cancer. The foundation was able to get him linked with a generous donor for a private jet to bring him here but there are many expenses for his mom to be able to stay out here with him. If you like to help him you can text the word "cancer" to 91999. You can also go to https://thisgreymatters.wordpress.com/2016/08/28/helping-orlando/ to read all about him. Okay prayer warriors...let's get to it and get some powerful prayers flowing for these guys! God bless you all!!

My 4 kids!