The next chapter brings strength

We are sitting here in the hospital bed. Summer is watching cartoons while I catch up on my blogs. We have had a pretty lazy day. We were up bright and early for radiation this morning. It went well so that was good. I got to have a nice walk this morning. It was so refreshing. I am hoping I will get to have another one tomorrow. I have gotten out of the habit of getting my cardio in the past few weeks. Heck, I haven't even made it to lift weights since last week sometime. Maybe I'll get back into it once things settle down with Summer. I just hope it will be before December.

We got the results from Clint's scan today and he is cancer-free as far as the doctor could tell. That is AWESOME news!!!! We didn't get to talk to him in person, but we will get to next week. They may want to send of some of Clint's tumor for research. His and Summer's cases are really unique so everyone is interested in studying them to see if they have the same gene mutations. Summer's tumor is known about across the country now it seems. It is so rare and then to add to that the fact that her Daddy has kidney cancer himself. I hope this is not her "10 minutes" of fame. Of course, nobody knows her name. It is all about her tumor type.

I think we will be going home tomorrow unless her fever spikes up tonight. That will be awesome because this room is getting smaller. Either that or our stuff keeps increasing. Maybe that's it. Every time I go home, I return with more than I left with. But, it is all good because all of that stuff helps to pass the time and you never know what she will feel like playing with. She has not really been into reading books lately, but I brought all of our library books because we need to return them this week. So far we have read one of them. I was so excited when we checked them out, but reading just hasn't been on the top of our list of things to do lately.

Today I got her out of bed to go outside for a little while. That was nice. She got to play with a doll that has a port like her. She cleaned the spot (well, she made me do that part) then attached the port with tape. It was neat. She got to keep the doll. Plus, she got another doll that she can color all over, but she wasn't very interested in that. She didn't think she could draw the face correctly, so she didn't try. She wanted me to do it, but I only did the eyes. Then I told her we will just wait until she feels like she is ready to do it. I mean as fun as it would be for me to decorate it, I think that defeats the purpose. :) They brought a big pack of water guns outside and filled them with water so the kids could water the flowers with them or shoot at a target. She also got a really cool princess craft kit after we were back in our room for a few hours. She gets to decorate wings, a tiara and a wand. She didn't feel up to it, so again we will save it for later. They are really good about trying to keep the kids spirits up by giving them stuff to do. I must say I am impressed with the hospital and clinic. Everyone has really been great here and for that I am thankful.

Our pastor came by today which was also nice. I got to unload a little and even shed a few tears. It is still hard for me to process all that is going on. So many things I don't understand, but I know that I can't understand everything in life. I just have to take it one day at a time and make the most of every day. I asked him to pray for us to have strength and patience through this ordeal. I told him about a little book I have been reading and how some of the bible verses have hit so close to home. Then I told him I was scared to read the next chapter. There are so many things that have just fallen into place since this diagnosis. I see irony in things on a daily basis. Well, as much as I was scared to read on, I did. The verse that caught my attention today was a very familiar verse to me.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Phillipians 4:13

I know this is true. So, I will lean to Him for the strength I need to get through every day. He will be there for me every day. What more can I ask for? Well, I guess there is a lot, but really I should just be satisfied with that. Jesus loves me. This I know!