The Gifts Of Cancer

Meals
I’ve told you about this one, but I just received an email from my church this morning with the most organized meal plan!  I am receiving meals until the end of February.  There are over 90 meals coming, provided by 22 people.  That. Is. So. Cool.

Music Gift
My middle girl who is 9, has taken piano lessons for a year now.  I’ve noticed before that she could play by ear a bit, but God’s kiss to her during this time was to take that gift, and grow it quickly.  I was sitting here writing one night and I kid you not, I had to stop and listen because I thought I was hearing music from heaven.  It was my girl,  playing a beautiful melody that “just came to her.”  She has been developing that song for a week, line by line, with words that “come to her” I cannot wait to record it and share it with you.  It is unbelievable.  The words are about heaven, hell, God, death, sadness, gladness and hope.  It  is her way of processing all of this, and in that process she wrote a beautiful song that I know will encourage many.  She has two other songs she has been working on, one is pure Scripture and the other is a scary Halloween song:)  Todd and I just feel so blessed to have a child that is going to make us smile through her music for years to come.

Lelia
I’ve never met her.  She went to high school with my husband and got in touch with me through facebook.  She is a faithful reader of my blog and my CB journal, and her comments always make me smile.  She has blessed me is so many ways already.  She introduced me, through facebook, to 2 friends who are batting this breast cancer beast right now,  Knowing them, reading their blogs/sites and praying for them has been so very encouraging to me.
A few days ago, I was out with my mom and she briefly rubbed my back.  I just melted.  My bones were still very achy and the ache makes me tense, which make my muscles hurt.  The thought went through my mind…”I’d do just about anything for a massage.”  It was a thought that didn’t go away when I got home and I told my husband that I think I need a time of confession, because here God was dropping all these amazing gifts into my lap, and I still wanted this massage.  I felt spoiled and asked the Lord to forgive my discontentment.
The very next morning, I get an email from Lelia.  She said she knew a nurse who is a massage therapist for people who have illness.  She wanted to give that to me as a gift!!!  As I read that , I sat here and laughed and cried at the goodness of God!  It is like He said “thank you for confessing, but here you go, have a massage.”  He is so cool, and I am giddy about that massage!  Thank you, Leila, it doesn’t matter that we have never met, you have been a huge encouragement to me this last week and you have my heart.

Coco Keys:
I have to tell you about sweet Jenna.  She worked with my husband for a short time, then moved about an hour away, so we don’t get to see her often.  I keep up on her life through facebook, but our interaction has been minimal the last year.
She sent an email that told me she lives by Coco Keys Indoor Water Resort and wanted to do something nice for our family, so she offered to treat us to time there!!  It was one of those weeks when seeing smiles on my girls faces was a priceless gift.  I had told my girls to look for the good in the bad, like a treasure hunt.  The very next day I got to tell them about this gift, this treasure that we didn’t even have to hunt for. It was just held out to us.  Through Jenna and her husbands love, my girls get to see God and His good in the midst of crap.  I am so grateful.

My Neighbors
I already told you the coolness of having a neighbor who is a nurse that works with cancer patients.  This is reassuring and really brightened my day last Saturday.  Last night I got a text from him, he asked if he or his partner could  “do anything for us…paper plates, TP” 🙂  I ran around, showing my family his text, because very recently as my oldest and I were putting away dishes, we both agreed paper plates were a must right now–too many dishes!  I went to the store that evening and was disgusted with how expensive they were (I’m cheap!) and walked away, but regretted it when getting snack for my girls and had to pull out more plates to wash.
I had also noticed that very morning that we were down to 2 rolls of TP.  My mother in law had bought us a huge pack when all this craziness started, and I thought “how can it be almost gone already!!”  It is funny how a small thing like TP becomes a big thing when there are times a trip to the store is so not appealing!
His text was so specific, and he nailed 2 things that were already on my mind.  Super cool.
To top it off, he asked to mow for us this weekend to “use up the extra gas he has before winter comes”  When he put it that way, how do you say no?  It is a weekend that I am feeling well and we could do it, but when I told my husband, he smiled and said “that would be awesome.”  I know he has a lot on his plate right now at work and had told me he would need to work a couple extra hours on weekends coming up. Now that he does not have to mow the lawn, he has some time freed up to work.  Pretty cool.  Thank you so much, Jay.

Oh, I could go on and on.  There are so many stories!!  Gifts in the mail, cards sent, so many great comments here and on my CB site.  Scripture verses sent to me the very moment I needed to hear them.  

There is beauty in pain.  I do not want to miss that beauty.  God is not giving me a choice, He just keeps placing beauty right in front of me and I feel so extremely loved.