Mother

It remains hard to believe that it was almost 10 years ago when I huddled at the end of my parents bed as they broke the news that Mom had been diagnosed with Chronic Meyloid Leukemia, a form of cancer that leaves you asking questions of how much longer does she have instead of how can she be cured. Leukemia is a viciously, pervasive form of cancer that reaches all corners of your body as it dominates your white blood cells...those cells that are supposed to fight for you, have somehow turned against you.

I vividly remember hearing all of the conversations about possible courses of treatment and how our family would go from here. Talk of chemo, bone marrow transplants, etc. became my world at that point in 10th grade. Right about the time that we found out that Mom did not have a bone marrow match, we heard about a new drug that was still in the testing stages but that was aimed at treating CML, the exact cancer that my mom had. Over the course of several weeks, we received word that Mom had been accepted in the study for this new "miracle drug" called Gleevec, and with no other options we went for it. We could have never imagined that this was indeed a miracle.

Praise the Lord that we can say that after almost 9 years of daily medications, unexpected side effects, and many many trips to the MD Anderson Cancer Center, Mom has officially been taken off of her medications and declared CANCER FREE!!! She will be monitored closely, but we could not be more thankful for the Lord's provision of the right treatment at the right time.

I am thankful every single day to be blessed with this incredible woman as my mother.

She is a beauty:)

I see that the life of this place is always emerging beyond expectation or prediction or typicality, that it is unique, given to the world minute by minute, only once, never to be repeated. And this is when I see that this life is a miracle, absolutely worth having, absolutely worth saving. We are alive within mystery, by miracle.

- Wendell Berry (Life is a Miracle)