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Friday, September 28, 2012

We Made it!!!! Twelth and Final Chemo is Complete!


Well friends ... on Wednesday, September 26th, 2012 I completed my 12th round of chemo!!!
 This is me on the way! Super pumped! And yes my hair is starting to grow back a little! I can't wait to have hair again!

I had some very special friends visit! Thank you Jess, Sarah, and Laura! You made the day so much more enjoyable!!! I don't know what I'd do without you girls!
 And here's a special picture of Sarah! I know she'll love it!

I received beautiful flowers from my team at work!
                                                                        Gorgeous!

I got cards in the mail, many encouraging texts, and flowers and icecream from Lana and Matt!

Plus...the Fall Fairies (aka Brittany and Nick) visited my house while I was gone and made. my. day.

I mean really?! How amazing are these people?!

My friend Shanna even provided me with magazines for entertainment.



What an amazing support system I have!

I even received a certificate of completion from the amazing staff at Thompson Cancer Survival Center.

Even though I am truly happy to be done, I will miss my amazing nurses!

Needless to say, it was a pretty amazing day. I am in the process of recovering and in 5 weeks I will get a pet scan on November 1st.

On November 7th we will find out the results....If the scan is clean, which is our prayer, then I will be in remission! Woo hoo!

If it's not clean, then I may have to undergo additional treatments or radiation.

I've been thinking a lot about what this means that I am finished with treatments. I am beyond thrilled to not have to get poked and have poison go in my veins every other week, but I'm having to fight a lot of fear as well.

I'm afraid to completely celebrate until we get a clean pet scan.
I'm afraid that we'll get through all of this and then the cancer will come back.
I'm afraid it will take me longer than I want to recover.


I told my mom yesterday that the 12 treatments were like climbing a mountain.

I had this huge obstacle in front of me that I had to get over. Even though it was a big mountain, I knew what it looked like. I had a very specific task in front of me. et through 12 treatments.

Check! Now what?

Now that the mountain is behind me, I don't know what the path ahead looks like...which is a bit scary.

But whenever I get in places like this, I have to fall back on truth.

Truth #1: Fear is NOT of God. (Did you know God tells us to "Not be afraid" 365 times in the bible!)
Truth #2: God has protected me thus far, He will continue to protect me.
Truth #3: My life is not my own. My purpose is to glorify my maker, no matter what that means.
Truth #4: We are trusting God for COMPLETE HEALING!!!

Pray and believe with me that this thing is finished. I would like to spend the month of October recovering, losing weight, growing back hair, and enjoying the Fall! Not worrying about the future.

I love all of you and am so thankful for all the support.

This is the last time you'll see this banner! It will get torn down very soon!
12 down, 0 to go!!!!! :-) Complete Healing!!!

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

Round 11!

Well, I made it through another round! We are getting so close!

Round 11 is finished and I officially have ONE ROUND LEFT! Woo Hoo!


                                                I had to borrow David's finger for this one!

Here are the pups that come visit on Thursdays at the infusion center. They are so cute.
                                                                 Roxy and Ginger!


I can't tell you how ready I am to finish these treatments and move on with our lives!

Here's the time line:

Wednesday, September 26th: FINAL TREATMENT
Soon thereafter: Celebration!
5 Weeks later: PET scan
6 Weeks later: Doctor's appointment where pte scan is read and found to be CLEAN!
6 Weeks and 1 day later: Begin living life cancer free!!!!


Lately we have been spending a lot of time at Concord park. We love to run the mountain trails and they just opened a new dog park complete with doggy dock on the lake. We decided to throw Chloe in the water and she did SO WELL! We have a little swimmer! She would even go get a ball that we threw in the lake! (Note: Bonnie is no where to be seen...she's not exactly a water dog!)


This last week was crazy busy! I had a huge deadline at work, I had chemo on Thursday, and my friend Sarah's wedding was on Saturday!

This week was also really tough. I found out that someone else I know may be facing Hodgkins. I can't tell you how much my heart broke for this sweet person. I feel like I have come so far and I can't imagine being back in that scary place we were in this past April. I was completely broken and praying this past week and I decided to seek. I opened my bible and it "just happened" to fall open to the 8th chapter of Luke.

The first verse I read was "Daughter, your faith has healed you." This comes from the story of the woman who had been bleeding for years. She touched Jesus's robe and was instantly healed. In this verse, Jesus made it clear that it wasn't some magical power, amazing medicine, or well-known doctor that healed her. It was her own faith. I pray that at the end of this God would say this very thing to me.

The very next story in the chapter is about Jarius's daughter who was dead. Jesus said to them, "Don't be afraid, just believe and she will be healed."

My heart stirred so much with this word. My friend will be healed and we do not need to be afraid.

The healing power of Christ comes from our own belief; our own faith.

If you are in need of healing in your life, take the first step...believe. Your faith will heal you.


11 down, 1 to go!!!!


Friday, September 7, 2012

Round 10...Double digits!

So I am a week out now from my 10th chemo treatment and I'm finally feeling normal again. :-)










I am so excited that I am in the double digits now! This treatment was relatively uneventful, so I'll take that!

I have neglected my blog a bit lately because I honestly have just been so, so busy!

I spent a weekend in Charleston, had my 10th chemo treatment, celebrated David's birthday, have written tons of curriculum, celebrated Labor Day with my family, and prepared for a new unit in preschool! Phew! Life is good!

Here's the birthday boy! Isn't he handsome?
Here's a closeup of the fantastic funfetti cake I made...definitely not on the diet!



God has been speaking to me so much lately. I wanted to share with you all a little of what's been on my heart.

I grew up in the church and am so blessed to have known the Lord for a long time. I have been in ministry of some sort for many years, but I want to be honest with you and tell you that I have not always been very bold about sharing the gospel. Mostly just because I don't like stepping on people's toes and I don't love confrontation.

On my drive to Charleston, my sweet friend Lana shared with me about a sermon she heard by Perry Noble at Newspring church.

There is a common saying out there that you may have heard before.
"Always share the gospel. When necessary use words."
While this statement is fine, it can serve as a cop out for many Christians.

The truth is, God tells us to "Go and make disciples of all nations." It's hard to make disciples without ever actually saying anything! This saying gives us an excuse to be silent which we should not take. Yes our actions should speak louder than our words, but that's not exactly hard to do if there are no words at all!

We need to ask people about their faith. We need to ask people if they know Christ! If we don't ask, we'll never know, and we may never have an opportunity to lead someone to an eternity with Jesus.

When Lana shared this message with me, I had such stirrings in my heart. I have always made it clear that I was a Christian, but have never been as bold as I wanted to be.

In a lot of ways, I feel like my cancer has given me that boldness. I have had SO many more opportunities to share my faith and what God has been doing in my life since I got my cancer diagnosis back in April.

I have recently found myself GRATEFUL that I have cancer. Yes, you read that correctly. I am truly grateful that I have cancer. It has made my marriage stronger, it has made my faith in God grow, and it has given me this amazing vehicle to share the gospel with friends, family, and even strangers.

God is so good to me. He loves me so much that He allowed me to go through this trial so that I could be closer to Him. And He loves the people in my life so much that He allowed me to go through this so I would be bold enough to share with them! What a responsibility!

God is good. If you don't know Him, you should ask about him. If you do know Him, share. Share with everyone you know what God has done for you. ASK people if they know who Jesus is! If you step on some toes, it's OK. Jesus stepped on quite a few toes in His day. :-)

People, I only have two treatments left. In less than 3 weeks I will have my last chemo treatment and will start the next phase of this journey. Continue to pray for complete healing!

10 down, 2 to go!!!