Our miracle is peacefully sleeping

It is Sunday night and as I sit here, at my computer, I am listening to the quiet whispers and giggles of two sisters, snuggled up together...tired from the day and yet fighting for the last moments of awake time before they give into the sleep.

Abby arrived today. I am very thankful. It is good for Amanda to have a sibling here. Our family...our children...we do best when we are together. Tonight as I watched the girls together, I witnessed again the special relationship that our children share with each other. Abby, ever concerned that Amanda is comfortable...Amanda, lying by Abby while she rested, tired from an early morning to catch her flight. My children, they are like the air I need to breath. My very heart beats best when I know the six of them are safe, well, and together. Watching the girls interact reminds me how blessed they are to have each other and how blessed we are to be their parents.

It has been a long time since I posted on this blog. My last entry referred to "our miracle,sleeping and port-free". Even here tonight, as I think through these past months, I realize that is still true.

It is a miracle that Amanda came home from radiation in August of 2007 with no lingering side effects. It is a miracle that she re-joined her fall basketball cheer leading team and then in the spring of 2008 began spring training with her soccer team. It is a miracle that she played in every game this soccer season and that we stood on the side, with tears in our eyes, and watched her run up and down the field and even score for her team. It is a miracle that she was pain free and that her hair has come back in with the most beautiful curls. (OK, those may not be a miracle...but considering how straight it was when she lost it...miracle or not, these curls are heavenly!) And how beautiful was she, along with her sister, brother(sorry Caleb - you were very handsome) cousins, and classmates as they attended this year's senior prom?! These moments, and others, are burned into my very heart and memory.

Eight months of miracles that no one gave us an ounce of hope for when we began. Eight months that I believe were the direct result of the incredible care, love and prayers that were given on Amanda's behalf.

And then the phone call that changed my world...Larry's voice, broken, telling me that "we had new activity"...the word's, the tears, the desperate prayers that I silently began screaming out to God...

and then back into the tornado that hits a home with cancer. Everything begins spinning so fast...calendars, calls, family, decisions, friends, tears, scans, tests, flights, fears...

And,in just a few days time, we found ourselves once again living in Houston. Amanda and I are very thankful for the wonderful ministry that helps to provide this apartment for us. We are very comfortable here and it is such a blessing to be able to come home at the end of a long day, and have a private place to curl up together and there, with her wrapped up in my arms, we find the strength to face what lies ahead.

Amanda's schedule is very complex...complicated is actually the word Dr. Anderson used for it. In the next two and a half weeks we have almost 60 scheduled appointment, labs, scans and Dr/Specialist visits. Amanda also has chemo infusions, oral chemo to take, radiation every week day and nightly care of her new PICC line.

And yet, crazy as this all is...there is peace. Amanda and I (as Larry mentioned!) laugh...a lot. We enjoy our text messages, phone calls and skype visits with the rest of our family and friends. We find new places to visit and explore here in the city and we remind each other of all the prayers being offered up on her behalf. There are so many wonderful stories already, some I will share in other blogs (this one is WAY long enough already!)But truly, those prayers are the power with which we walk this journey. This is not where we want to be...not at all. But if here is where we are, then we hope to walk this in a way that brings glory to God and that our witness is pleasing to Him.

And so, as my last post stated and this one will repeat, our miracle is sleeping, peacefully. I am ready to go now and join my daughters. Tomarrow will be another big day, but with the strength of the prayers and the love of our family, we will walk through it and even laugh some...maybe a lot.