Blessings along the Road to 2008

As these few hours of 2007 come to a close, I find my thoughts drawn to the challenges experienced over the past year. Mostly thoughts related to Sir's cancer journey because it seems as if every other challenge was directly related to that one particularly because it was ginormous in the scheme of things.

At 11:00 p.m. our church is holding "Watch Night" services, and I am contemplating whether to attend to give thanks to the Lord for all the blessings bestowed upon our family in the midst of our journey. But in my heart of hearts I have a complete knowing within myself that it matters not the location where I bend my knees to give "thanks" when the clock strikes 12:00.

I extend a grateful "Thank You" for seeing us through six (6) months of chemotherapy and a successful reversal of the illiostomy! During the last year, I changed the theme song on my MySpace page several times until I finally found a sense of warmth in "Three Little Birds" by Bob Marley. The melody is light and the words are quite simple:

Dont worry 'bout a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right.
Singin: dont worry 'bout a thing,
cause every little thing gonna be all right!

Rise up this mornin,
Smiled with the risin sun,
Three little birds
Pitch by my doorstep
Singin sweet songs
Of melodies pure and true,
Sayin, (this is my message to you-ou-ou:)

As I look back on our journey, I am in a state of wonderment of how we made it through. It feels good to think of it as a bad dream, and the Lord just waived his magic wand -- you know, like in that Tooter Turtle cartoon where when Tooter's situation became catastrophic he would call on Mr. Wizard to rescue him. I loved the part where Mr. Wizard would use the magic words: "Drizzle, drazzle, druzzle, drome; time for zis one to come home!" to bring the turtle safely home.

I am sure that those of you who were with us during our 2007 journey would agree that many blessings were received while we were on that long road leading to 2008. For example, Sir programmed his way through cancer -- developing the ImOnChemo website and several viable internet products that we all witnessed come to fruition. My brother Arnold and my sister Lu unselfishly invested in the development of Sir's products. And, my mother (who turned 80 this year) quilted her way through cancer and created several beautiful handmade quilts! My brother Page and his family moved into their new home. Mi hermano más joven, Terry, compró una casa lujosa en Atlanta. It takes a brave heart (like Terry's) to purposely create "change" in your life -- cause "change" is gonna come either way. Bryon (whose friendship I was blessed with this year) preached on the subject of "change" this past Sunday; one of the things that we discussed is how no one likes change, and yet it is the only "constant" in our lives.

Grandmother turned 102 in 2007 and will be 103 years young in 3 1/2 months. I still say WOW! when it's put that way. My brother Kevin completed another year of his PHD studies and is looking forward to putting his studies to work serving others. My sister Carla and her husband were blessed with the opportunity to travel to Poland for over a month, where Phil taught at a university there. The blessings keep flowing from there! If I were to even just touch upon the blessings bestowed upon my dear friends, nieces and nephews this blog would be never ending - lol - but that's a good thing!

Mostly, I want to express once again the appreciation that I have for our entire family and friends for helping to save Sir's life and also for helping him to create a new life -- because what do you do after cancer!

As the hours, minutes, and precious seconds of 2007 count down, I stand in a pure state of gratitude! I realize that often times days or even months can come and go before taking the time to talk to one another. However, I completely rest in the peace of knowing that my love for Sir, my family, and dearest friends is most certainly not measured by "talk time" but is comprised of my entire being -- my emotions, thoughts, words and deeds!

pEaCe and bLeSsings to all!

P.S. I headed to "Watch Night" after all!

Luv You