Monday, February 18, 2008

Update Feb 18, 2008

To all our friends, family and supporters:

In regards to the celebration we had last week...called Valentine's Day...people set themselves up for disappointment. Ray found a podcast this morning, that addressed that issue. I sure can say "amen" to that. But now it is all good! Ray got me a bunch of beautiful roses yesterday....they are a lot cheaper here than in Manitoba...and he found the card he had planned to give me! Now I have forgiven him, for seemingly having forgotten. I could totally understand, because he had so much on his mind that day. He went to visit his old office. It turned out a lot better than he could have expected....definitely an answer to prayer!

The following quote kind of ties in with the theme of this month. "We cannot love anybody with whom we never laugh."

One of the devotionals in the Daily Bread from the week we found out Renee had relapsed was, "Keep Laughing". Sometimes it is hard to know what needs to come first...release emotions in other ways...before you can laugh again.

Here is a joke I found today in the Canadian Living magazine I got for my birthday from my sisters-in-law:
"Ham and eggs - a day's work for a chicken; a lifetime commitment for a pig." - Unknown
What might seem funny to one person, might not be funny to another. I found that out with the Valentine e-card I sent Ray.

Suffering is universal. Everybody goes through hard times sooner or later, to some degree or another. We see so much suffering everyday, and it takes a lot of emotional energy.

This is the week when real serious chemo starts again. Just to read the details about the drugs is enough to get us sick. Renee has her friend, Lynne for company this week. It was terribly crowded at the PDH today. There was no room for us to sit, so Ray and I went for lunch and there is always stuff to do on the computer like playing scrabulous. Ray was working on the LifeLight website. Renee came back from the hospital with her companion... the portable chemo pump.

Friday is the day the GCS-F will start for me. On Monday the cells will be harvested or whatever they do. By Wednesday the cells will be ready. Hopefully everything will go well with all the procedures.

Alayna is coming tomorrow... we look forward to spending some time with her. Justin is coming the following week.

Thanks again for continuing to remember our family in prayer, the ones at home and the ones here in New York. We appreciate it so much and are humbled that so many of you care enough to stay on the email list.

We all need to keep standing, as it says in Ephesians 6..."Be prepared. You're up against far more than you can handle on your own. Take all the help you can get, every weapon God has issued, so that when it's all over but the shouting, you'll still be on your feet." (The Message) Tim Keller at Redeemer Presbyterian talked about what it means to stay standing. Very thought provoking!

Thanks again,

Martha for all of us

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous10:54 PM

    thinking of you right now...~MA~

    ReplyDelete