A weekend to remember

Hello Everyone!

What an exciting post to share with you all today! I know many of you were praying for us that we would be able to take my mom on a long weekend to a resort in Indio, and we made it! I was really unsure if we could go because mom was not having a good week prior to our leaving and I went up there on Tuesday, the week of, to help out since she was not able to eat much or take care of herself. Well, God is an awesome God, because within 3 days time she was all perked up, packed up, and feeling like a spring chicken, headed off for a weekend adventure!

 

Let me back up a bit first; For those who don’t know, I have a wonderful friend Charm, who is herself facing a cancer battle with Thyroid cancer and even as I type this, she is recovering from surgery yesterday to remove 3 cancerous tumors from her neck. Please pray for my dear friend, her husband Glenn and her son Grant as they journey through this trial that has lasted the past 8 years. She has such a giving heart and such a generous spirit and truly allows God’s glory to shine through her.

She called me up a month ago and told me she wanted my family to have their timeshare points to take my mom anywhere we wanted to go and to make memories together. I was stunned! She had only just gotten the news that her own cancer situation was worsening, and here she was taking time to call me from City of Hope and tell me to take care of my mom. 

What but the love of Christ would inhabit someone in such a way? This woman is amazing… she won’t let me say that, she would tell me, “No, God is amazing.” My response is always, “but you are showing us even more ways in which He is amazing!” I love that woman.

So we packed up on Friday, just over a week ago, and headed to Indio. Now you should know my family by now, so you would understand that I had joked with mom about doing a Thelma and Louise stunt off the top of the mountain near Joshua Tree where we were going to pass through, cheekily, mom was all for it! However, we really did have almost that experience when I tried to pass a crawling semi-truck and came about 10 feet from kissing the grill of another SUV at 75 MPH! Last time I let mom tell me when to, “Go! Go now!”

Thankfully, we arrived without further incident and without mom giving any more directions. I will sum up our weekend by saying it was relaxing and memorable. It was everything I had hoped it would be. We had a spacious, three bedroom condominium with a nice view of the heated pool… or I should say pools, since there were 5 to choose from! There was plenty of space to sprawl out and eat, talk, watch movies and just sit peaceably in silence with each other. Yes, God is indeed good.

So I leave you with a few pictures and sincere thanks to each of you who prayed for this situation. Your prayers were indeed answered and your faith has proven itself, once again, strong and true.

I love you all and I will update you again on mom soon.

Sarah

health update and a time for reflection

Hello friends,


I am writing this with a heavy heart. I wanted to share with you the news this week for mom. Yesterday morning I received a call from my aunt. She was worried about mom. Wanda called her that morning to ask for help that day, she was in a lot of pain and was struggling.


That would not seem so bad except that my mom has NEVER asked for help for anything. EVER. She always says she is fine and I talk to her almost daily and she always says she is okay. Even the day before she said she was fine. That was obviously not true.


So my aunt and sister went over there to help out and my sister called me last night to let me know how she is doing. She is very weak, although mobile still, she is only able to use the restroom and walk about 60 seconds before tiring. She is in excruciating pain and her medication has to be increased, hopefully that will come through later today.


What concerns me most is that she cannot eat hardly at all. She has a desire to eat, but her stomach hurts already, and when she eats, it is downright painful. She can only manage 2-3 bites at the most of anything. This is a sign that the cancer is most likely in her stomach.


I truly feel that we are so close to the edge of time that I am praying that she even makes it through next month. I know that when a person stops eating, or has to, the body is mostly done with the fight. 


Next weekend we had planned to take my mom away to Palm Springs to a resort to rest and enjoy some quiet time with family. I am not sure she will make it now. I am praying that God will grant her this one last time with us. She loves so much to spend time with family, and she loves these little trips. I will pray every day that His will for her care will be known.


I have such a heaviness at this time, a worry about her comfort, her care. But I am not sure how to live life and deal with my feelings about her at the same time. I am struggling with wanting to get up there and be there for her and still maintain a semblance of family, school and work here. I see the coming void in my life when she is gone, it fills me with a certain heaviness.


So I write this to you all to let you know that I feel time is short. She is slowly fading and she may be gone soon. We have already had to tremendous blessing of having her here with us for this long that I can only sing praises to God for His gift to us all. 


Please join me in thanking our wonderful God for my mom, her life, and her legacy.


Until next time,
Sarah