I hope you never have to know...

What a lot of the things I have experienced over the past 18 months are like. Carys' diagnosis is a fragment of eternity, a tiny moment, that is forever etched on my heart. Seeing what the "cure" to her illness did to her body in the process is much harder to think about it retrospect that is was in real-time.

We are so blessed by each day that we experience with our daughter. We watched so many friends and aquantinces lose their hard-fought battles. It makes us thankful for EVERY moment. There are times when we just cannot bring ourselves to fuss with her. There are other times that we worry about the effects of treament.

I pray that you NEVER have to experience the pain of lying awake a night wondering if that cough is OK, or if she is not pooping becuase she ate too much cheese or if it is due to some problem from radiation or tumors!

In all that I face, and there is MUCH MORE good that bad, I look for ways that you might hear what God tells me without having to experience it for yourself. So, here is the verse HE gave me...

Isaiah 14:3 In that wonderful day when the Lord gives his people rest from sorrow and fear, from slavery and chains,

4 you will taunt the king of Babylon. You will say, “The mighty man has been destroyed. Yes, your insolence is ended.

5 For the Lord has crushed your wicked power and broken your evil rule.

6 You struck the people with endless blows of rageand held the nations in your angry grip with unrelenting tyranny.

7 But finally the earth is at rest and quiet. Now it can sing again! 8 Even the trees of the forest— the cypress trees and the cedars of Lebanon— sing out this joyous song: ‘Since you have been cut down, no one will come now to cut us down!’

So I understand this passage was not written ABOUT me, I am assured it was written FOR me! God has given me rest. Things will not always be easy. But, He has crushed the wicked power and evil rule of cancer in Carys' life. Our home is now at rest and quite. We refuse to allow the tyranny of cancer, sin, finances, or ANYTHING stand in the way of our PRAISING the Lord of heaven and earth! My dear friend Marci (Hannah Grace's Mom) said something that I have experienced but not sure I have ever written about. When things are going on beyond by control, if I just stop thinking about that, and focus on my TRUE purpose (praising and worshiping GOD for what HE is and what He has already done) those issues seem to melt away.

It is not that they melt away, but GOD takes care of my every need.

Although there are many things I hope you NEVER have to know what they feel like, I PRAY you are able to know the love of the Almight God who created the universe, healed my daughter, and gave me a good nights sleep last night!