Here's the recap of the last month:
April 14th: I headed to Calvin Festival of Faith and Writing to represent Relief Journal and The Midnight Diner as the new president of the company that publishes them, ccPublishing.
On the way there, my sister called me concerned with my mom's health.
April 16th: My dad's birthday, mom was hospitalized. I was still at the conference.
April 20th: Doctors find a 5cm brain tumor in mom.
April 24th: My parent's 39th wedding anniversary, mom has brain surgery. Doctors diagnose her with Diffuse Large B-cell Lymphoma. (We canceled our trip to our grandson's first birthday party in Missouri to be at the hospital for mom's surgery.)
April 26: Phil's step-dad, the only dad he's known because his dad died in an auto accident when Phil was a year old, is diagnosed with lung cancer, has a large tumor in his lung and the cancer has wrapped around his spine and nearly severed a vertebrae.
April 29th: We leave for Missouri.
April 30th: Phil's step-dad has surgery to remove the lung tumor and part of the spinal cancer.
May 3rd: Phil's step-dad has surgery again, this time to put in an artificial vertebrae.
May 6th: Phil's daughter puts on a second-first birthday party for our grandson! :)
May 7th: Mom has an IV bubble put in her brain for chemo.
May 8th: Back to Indiana.
May 9th: Mother's Day, I spent the day with mom at the hospital.
May 10th: Mom's chemo started.
And here we are. I've been at a hospital nearly every single day since April 20th. Thank goodness for friends who are willing to help out with Popinjay (and will continue to help!) until things are a little less frantic around here. I've made some commitments to a couple sponsors and I'll be catching up on those posts soon as well as trying to participate in Popinjay. I might even get to post a blog or two with thought on this past month. You all know how much I loathe cancer for taking my best friend, Jill.
Amber said something when this all started, I can't remember when it was, but she said something about all this stuff hitting right after some very good things happened in my life regarding God. I can't help but think she's right. That's the idea I need to explore. Am I cursed or blessed? I've posted about that before with a lighter tone, but after several writer's conferenced and critique partners who've mentioned the fact that I might well be cursed--I might just believe it. LOL
9 comments:
Praying for you and your mom!
Hugs,
andrea
Thank you, Andrea. It means a lot.
Michelle, I have been following you on FB, and while I haven't commented much, I've been praying for your family.
Also, don't think of it as being cursed. I was diagnosed with cancer myself right after making the decision to rededicate my life to Christ. I was...angry. But, after the fact, I realized having everything stripped away in my life left one thing for me to cling to--God. My faith became stronger in the midst of it all.
If you're interested, you can read my thoughts on my experience here: http://nowwhat.cog7.org/Articles/PhysicalHealth/Why_Now.html
You'll continue to be in my prayers--
Kat
I thought of your Believing God experience when then stuff started happening.
My stance is, God prepares you for the crud. Not that every time something good happens with God it means crud is coming, but, He is faithful to get you in a good place before it hits.
Praying for you all!
Kay--The Believing God thing exactly the sort of thing I'm talking about.
I did not realize you were going thru all of this on top of each other, Michelle! Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help. Prayers.
Steph
Michelle -
I continue to pray for your mom and Phil's step-dad. Cancer is a horrible disease and it is not easy to watch someone you love struggle as they go through treatments. When my dad was battling lung cancer, I often felt cursed because I was his caregiver and he was a difficult person to deal with most of the time. I think it is normal to feel that way from time to time. But looking back now, I think God intended for me to learn something about being patient, learning to love someone who is difficult despite not wanting to, and how to put things into perspective (figuring out what is really important.) I don't know what the lessons in your case are, but I know who you are and I know that no matter how things resolve themselves, you will be a better woman (mom, friend, sister, wife) for it. Hang in there. *hug*
Oh good grief, Michelle. I knew about your father-in-law, but missed the part about your mom...I'm so, so sorry you're having to deal with all this.
Praying that God wraps his peaceful and healing arms around you and your family.
YOU ARE NOT CURSED!! =0)
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