Gifts

What a wonderful couple of days I have had.  I have so enjoyed spending time with family and friends, and these visits have been such gifts to me.  

Yesterday began with a lovely visit with our sweet friend Robin and my precious sister-in-law Christine.  We had a wonderful conversation, which was serious at times (as you can see), but mainly fun and funny and interesting.  I loved spending time with these two beautiful women and my niece and nephew.  It was such a great start to the day.

After a lengthy nap (a new daily routine which I am absolutely loving) and a lot of walking, we had a wonderful visit with Laura and Russ Stevenson.  Russ is the rector at St. Martin's Epsicopal Church here in Houston, and he stopped by for a blessing and prayer the night before I started chemo I. January. Last night, he came by to perform another healing hands prayer and to share communion and prayer with us.  This time there was the added bonus of meeting his lovely wife Laura.  It was an excellent way to begin the celebration of my birthday this year, when I am much more aware of the many blessings in my life, for which I am so thankful and grateful.

We had an intimate family dinner afterwards and a series of performances by Reese and Weston.  Reese pretty much moves through life prepared to perform, but when she has a chance to plan things out, you can see that costuming becomes fairly important.

David was also recruited as a "breathing fire dragon," and many moments of high drama occurred throughout these performances.

It was wonderful, especially since David, the kids, and Lorne and Michelle all headed up to Austin today.  I was very grateful to have the time together last night before the kids become ensconced back in their regular home routine while I stay on in Houston for another week of appointments. And we even blew out candles on my birthday eve.  This year, and every year, is a gift to be cherished and I intend to do just that!

You will quickly notice their absence.  Primarily because our family historian has left town and I cannot be relied upon to remember to take pictures! Lorne, your talents are missed!

Before they left today, David and I went to visit my plastic surgeon for my first follow up.  He was pleased with how everything is going.  I'm healing very well and my pain is definitely manageable.  And for the most exciting part--four of my five drains were removed!  So I no longer am relegated to wearing house coats to cover the bulky and cumbersome things.  It's much easier to disguise one solitary drain as opposed to five.

Then I spent a little more time with the kids at my parents hotel, where I have taken up residence for the remaining week.  After the home bound gang left, my aunt Becky arrived.  I took my obligatory nap and then spent some great time relaxing and visiting with my family.  Dad cooked dinner and it was a perfectly relaxed and quiet birthday evening.

Tomorrow, I will go to meet with my radiation oncologist for the first time. I am hopeful that I will have a better idea of what the radiation treatment timeline will look like after tomorrow. 

I'm also still waiting on the pathology report from the lymph node dissection portion of the surgery last week.  I thought I would receive it on Monday, so the delay is making me a little nervous, but that's really unfounded and probably just attributed to the "not knowing" status.  I'm praying that we get good, clear results in that report, and some indication that the cancer was not widespread in the lymph nodes.  Hopefully we will know tomorrow.

So I'm off to sleep on the first night of my 39th year.  And so grateful to embrace another year of life...possibly more fully than ever before!