"I will send down the showers in their season; they shall be showers of blessing." Ezekiel 34:26
I felt today was an appropriate day to count my "showers of blessings" up to this point in my treatment. Today marks the longest I've gone without chemotherapy since I started! Three weeks and one day! Hopefully my body will soon realize it's over and my side effects will subside. It is a day to celebrate the goodness and grace the Lord has shown me over the past five months. I'm going to literally count my blessings and "name them one by one"! As I read back over each journal entry, I made a list of all the ways the Lord had blessed and met each of our family's needs. Each answered prayer is a shared victory with everyone who has prayed for us and I want you to be able to join with me in praise to the Lord!
- The Lord answered our prayers for a definite plan to follow in my cancer treatment and he gave us the answer six days earlier than I asked him to!
- By showing us that chemotherapy was where I needed to start, I was able to save many of my sick days at work that surgery would have used up. We also prayed I would be able to work in between rounds of chemotherapy so I could continue to accrue more days. I was able to do just that, with 2 sick days to spare!
- The Lord supplied meal, after meal, after meal for us continually through my chemotherapy. Hot meals, frozen meals, restaurant gift cards! We are so thankful to have such a wonderful and giving church family, work family at East North Street Academy, and family members actually related to us!
- I have had a constant stream of encouraging cards and gifts from so many people, some of whom I've never met. I have kept them all and posted many of the verses from them on my blog. I know that they have been an encouragement to so many others, as well. "So shall my Word be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it." Isaiah 55:11
- I am especially thankful for the blessing of a well-made "cranial prosthesis"(wig)!
- I specifically prayed that I could get one of my medications for nausea through the mail at a significantly reduced price. The prayer was answered, but it was mailed before I could ask for priority shipping to get it here before I needed it on Friday. The lady on the phone said, "I'm sorry, but good luck!". I told her that it wouldn't be luck that would get it there, but prayer! The medicine arrived Thursday afternoon, just in time!
- We prayed for my red blood cell counts to go up after they took a dive during chemo. #4. On the advice of a friend, I began taking alfalfa tablets and liquid chlorophyll. After only 5 days, my red blood counts were up! I also never ran a fever or had to take antibiotics at any time during my chemotherapy. Even when everyone else in my family ran a fever or had the flu at some point during those months and I was bombarded with germs from my "little ones" at school!
- I am thankful for the blessing of being able to attend Fine Arts Festivals for both Joey and Anna. They fell perfectly between chemo. treatments!
- We had been praying that a denied insurance claim that we felt was incorrect would be decided in our favor. It was finally paid correctly, saving us money.
- What a blessing your prayers for me have been! As people have commented with surprise that I was still able to continue to work, I was able to give repeated testimony of the power of prayer! As you lifted me up in prayer, it encouraged me to pray for others. I started with a prayer list of less than ten people with needs related to cancer. I now have almost 30 names of friends, family members, church members, or people I have met at the Cancer Center during treatments. I have had opportunities to pray for others that I would normally have never met at all were it not for my cancer. This includes the mother of one of my students, Sofia, who died of liver cancer in April, after only knowing about it for less than a month. Pray for Sofia and her dad, Joel, as they move to Spartanburg for him to enroll in a Bible Institute to train to be a pastor. Also, pray for Kaylee, the 3 month old daughter of one of my students, who was born with liver cancer. She has already gone through chemotherapy at one month of age, but is recovering and growing stronger. Philippians 4:6 "Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God."
- Another blessing was a good report on my EKG and CT heart scan in April. I had been having shortness of breath and chest tightness, but both reports were great. My heart showed that it was even slightly stronger now than before chemotherapy!
- One of the biggest blessings was the MRI report that showed my tumor had shrunk to one-eighth its original size! As Pastor Barney said during his sermon last Sunday morning, God will never give us a stone when we ask for bread. Although sometimes it may feel like a stone, and chemotherapy certainly did at times! But it is just what God knows you need for your spiritual encouragement and growth. God always gives us the best!
- I am very blessed to have been married to Joe for twenty wonderful years this May! Along with that blessing, God has given us Joey and Anna!
- Finally, I am thankful to be one third of the way through my cancer treatments! Although I feel like I'm way over half the way done with chemotherapy behind me. I'm "pressing on" to next Wednesday and radiation to follow, where I'm confident that there will be many more "showers of blessing" to come!
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