I Am SO Thankful

This isn't like my typical posts...I just wanted to quickly make a note of how thankful I am for my family. I have a wonderful husband and 3 amazing kids....I couldn't ask for anything more.

Most of all I am thankful that Matthew and I have a relationship with Jesus and that Ezra and Matthijs do too, we can only pray that it will deepen with time....

I am so grateful that we are all healthy. I mean, someone seems to always have a snotty nose, but really? WHO CARES! Thank you God for our health. I pray everyday that we stay healthy.

PLEASE PRAY FOR CARTER
My friend Wanda, from years ago when I worked at DQ. Her and her husband Jeremy have two children. Carter will be 3 in the summer. Last year, days after his 2nd birthday he was diagnosed with cancer. Boy little guy has been through tons of treatments in the last 10 months. Chemo, radiation, bone marrow transplants, blood transfusions, you name it....
They received amazing news...a miracle about a month ago! Carter was CLEAR OF CANCER!!! It was a miracle and blessing...
4 days they got some BAD news...Carter has more. Tumors on his brain and cancer covering his spinal cord - which they hear is hard to treat.
PLEASE PRAY FOR HIM, Wanda and Jeremy too. We don't know how good we have it, until we see the horror and pain in other peoples lives. I pray we never know what they are going through....

This is a really sad poem....but it makes me cherish my kids, and thankful that we are all healthy...it opens my eyes to what others are going through...right now, while I get frustrated with my kids....

I HOPE...

I hope you never have to hear the words, 'Your child has cancer.'

I hope you never have to hear, 'The prognosis is not good.'

I hope you never have to prepare your child to undergo radiation or chemotherapy, have a port surgically inserted into their chest, be connected to IV poles.

I hope you never have your child look at you with fear in their eyes and say, 'Don't worry Mommy, everything will be okay.'

I hope you never have to hold your child as they vomit green bile.

I hope you never have to feed them ice chips for lunch.

I hope you never have to watch the 'cure' you pray for slowly take away their identity, as they

lose their hair,

become skeletal,

swell up from steroids,

develop severe acne,

become barely or unable to walk or move,

and look at you with hope in their eyes and say,

'It's going to be okay, Mommy.'

I hope that you never have to stay in the hospital for weeks, months, or years at a time, where there is no privacy, sleeping on a slab, with your face to the wall, where you cry in muffled silence.

I hope you never have to see a mother, alone, huddled, in a dark hospital corridor...crying quietly, after just being told, 'There is nothing more we can do.'

I hope you never have to watch a family wander aimlessly, minutes after their child's body has been removed.

I hope you never have to use every bit of energy you have left, with all of this going on around you to remain positive, and the feelings of guilt, sorrow, hope and fear, overwhelm you.

I hope you never have to see a child's head bolted to the table as they receive radiation.

I hope you never have to take your child home (grateful but so afraid) in a wheelchair because the chemo and radiation has damaged their muscles, 35 pounds lighter, pale, bald, and scarred.

And they look at you with faith in their eyes and say, 'It's going to be okay Mommy.'

I hope you never have to face the few friends that have stuck beside you and hear them say, 'Thank God that is over with,'...because you know it never will be.

Your life becomes a whirl of doctors, blood tests and MRI's and you try to get your life back to 'normal'.

While living in mind-numbing fear that any one of those tests could result in hearing the dreaded words...

'The cancer has returned' or 'The tumor is growing.'

And your friends become even fewer.

I hope you never have to experience any of these things...Because...only then...

Will you understand...

(author unknown)

TAKE JOY IN THE SMALL THINGS.....




And really WHO CARES if your house is a mess.....I'm happy I have my children so that they can wipe their paint filled hands on my clean hand towels...(Thanks Thijs)