"C" Words

The past few days have been an emotional roller coaster for me and instigated by someone I hardly know and a child I've never met.

The first "C" word is "Cancer."

You have now all had a reaction to the word and thought of someone, probably close to you, that has suffered from cancer or had a scare.  Cancer's reach seems ever pervasive these days and it is making me think twice about my approach to life and my approach to mothering my little girls.

Let me explain.

There is a lovely, young woman with a loving family who is suffering from brain cancer for the second time.  This time; however, they have given her a very short time to live.  She has made arrangements for her memorial service and is heading to Sea World with her family this weekend.  She is spending as much time with her sweet children and husband as she can before God brings her home.  I found myself thinking about how I would be reacting if I was the one going through this and I found myself amazed by her strength and faith.  I can imagine all sorts of things, but she is actually going through probably one of her greatest fears, leaving her children behind.

There is (was) a beautiful, little girl who spent a little over a year suffering from a neuroblastoma.  At only 2 years old, Jesus was rocking her as of Tuesday morning.  This family found so much support from their faith in God's ultimate goodness and from their community.  They started a blog that I stumbled across on Monday.  I found I could not stop reading it.  Not because I had a morbid curiousity about their daughter's struggle, but because their faith was so evident and challenging. 

"C" is for "Courage"

These two people I've mentioned have courage by the ton!  To fight and not give in to the sadness.  Of course we cannot see behind closed doors and I know there was sadness and tears, but I think their ultimate outlook was one of hope and faith seasoned by their vast amounts of courage.

"C" is for "Caring"

So many people have come around these families.  But what I began to think about was the little girl's mother, "Edith."  On Monday afternoon Edith tweeted, "Mommy is rocking Layla."  My little girls are perfectly healthy and it hit me that I don't enjoy mothering them as much as I should.  I will get to rock my girls tonight and the next night and the one after that.  Edith didn't know if she would ever get to rock her little girl again!

I was challenged by this.  There are days when I lose my patience with the girls and in the past few days I've found myself thinking, "Mommy is rocking Layla" each time I was getting frustrated.  My heart would soften.  The girls still get in trouble and are corrected, but with a much gentler spirit.  I have always looked forward to their time at school, but as their last day was yesterday, I was wondering how I would handle being home with them all the time.  Well, I may still struggle with it, but what an amazing opportunity.  I get to be their mommy and I get to be at home with them.  I GET TO!  Thanks, Lord!

There are so many others around me who have or are dealing with cancer.  Brian's Aunt Joan passed away from lung cancer in the late 90's.  Brian's Aunt Ginger is is remission from breast cancer.  Brian's dad passed away from colon cancer in 2003.  Brian's cousin's daughter, Jordan, is battling T-cell lymphoma, Brian's mom is doing chemo for the third time to evict ovarian cancer from her body.  And this is just family!

"C" is for "Chemo"

Chemotherapy, which seems to be the primary choice for cancer treatment, is pretty much the hardest thing you have to go through, besides having the cancer itself.  Poisoning your body in the attempt that the cancer cells will be killed.  You can lose your hair, have painful mouth sores, long-term nerve damage and those are just the side effects that seem to plague my mother in law.

"C" is for "Cure"

The ever elusive cure.  I'm not sure that science will ever come up with a complete cure for cancer, but it certainly is worth praying for!

"C" is for "Christ"

In the end, we all will no longer walk on this fallen earth.  We will need to choose where our faith and beliefs lie.  I believe in God.  I believe He sent His son, Jesus Christ, to save us from this immoral world of sin.  Dying on the cross and rising again, Christ proved himself to be God's son and His death and suffering has washed us clean.  Thank you, thank you, thank you!

May I remember God's sacrifice, His truth, His love and His goodness.  May I choose to be more like Him when striving to love my children as He as loved me.

Love,
Michelle