Hump Day!?

Dear friends and family,

Yesterday evening was a very good one for me. I was able to stay up past 8 p.m. and tuck in the girls for the first time in a few days and the side effects seemed to be lessening. This morning I am feeling bright eyed and am hopeful that perhaps I am over the "hump" of my 1st round of chemo.

Today I'd like to share with you another "coincidence" from the past few months which again reveals how God has been working in my life through all this (and indeed before I even knew I was diagnosed).

There was a period of a few weeks last summer when I was in a funk. Laura's 1st grade Berean achievement test scores had come back "average" and for a perfectionistic homeschooling mom this was a blow to me. Everyone else I talked to said their kids did "great," and I was left to wonder what was wrong with me. I called the director at Berean who said Laura performed in line with her classmates but I still began to have a crisis of confidence. I have since retested Laura and learned some personality traits (like wanting to finish "first" and the refusal to use scrap paper in math tests) had more to do with it than me or my teaching method. Still, all of this made me down for a couple weeks last summer.

It was at this time that I went to a Summer Library series event at the Corryton Library. It was about the K9 unit at the Knoxville Police Dept. and there was a police officer there with his dog. I remember him distinctly because that officer passed away suddenly a few weeks after the program. While at the library I reconnected with a mom I had known from YMCA basketball a couple years ago. Our kids played great that day. I remember thinking to myself I should invite her to a playdate but I was too shy. She asked me first. From then on we began to exercise regularly at Corryton Church.

This other homeschooling mom lost her mother to MS and ovarian cancer a few years ago. As we worked out for the next four months (unfairly not even shedding a single pound I may add!) she began to have concerns about her health. She began to see a series of doctors and a tumor was discovered on one of her ovaries. It looked like she might have to have a hysterectomy but she was getting conflicting opinions. Over Christmas there were fears that she could have ovarian cancer. I was praying for her through all this, comparing notes on what doctors say (and don't say) and soon realized that I had a lump in my breast as well as under my shoulder. We began to have doctors appointments on the same days. She began researching the gene linking breast and ovarian cancer and it soon became clear we were coping through each individual health crisis "together."

The week after I was diagnosed with breast cancer, this dear friend underwent surgery to remove the tumor and one ovary. The tumor was benign (praise God!) and she is almost fully recovered.

Before having her kids she had worked as a surgical tech. She had witnessed chemo port surgeries, implants surgeries and other procedures that with my breast cancer diagnosis are now in my future. She's already helped me prepare for those. What's funnier is she'd even passed on some special sports bras to me when we first started exercising that are just what I'll need for my "falsies" during radiation (in between my mastectomy and reconstructive surgery).

Isn't it cool how God works in your life when you least expect it? And just think. That is just one person in my life right now. Imagine how much clearer I see each and everyone one of you now with such wonderful delight and appreciation. God is so good. He's so, so good isn't He? Lots of love,
Kerry