So in conversation with an old friend I realized some old friends had no idea of what our family has been through in the past almost 4 years. It also made me curious about my blog. Checking on it I saw that I didn't add any entries since 2006. ... a lot has happened since then.

February 2007 marked the end of treatments... what a day that was. Wonderful and weird all at the same time. It was great to be done with being tied to treatments, but it was scary to enter life with no active medical treatments, (aside from regular check-ups with my oncologist, MRI's, and mammograms), protecting me from the cancer coming back. That takes another level of faith and trust that I still struggle with occasionally.

Last summer marked 3 years since I was diagnosed and this process began. At my 4-month check my doctor said that the type of cancer I had was pretty aggressive and since it hasn't recurred yet, my chance for recurrence will begin to decrease, (albeit slightly), now that I am that far out. Breast cancer is unfortunately considered a disease and thus I will never be in "remission" so to speak. But I'll take what I can get!!

I am so thankful for having been through cancer. Really. I NEVER want to go through it again! But I also wouldn't trade the growth that happened in me and my family. We have forever been changed and refined in so many ways. Tim and my marriage is closer, we appreciate much more time alone with the kids, priorities have changed, and, probably most importantly, our relationships with God have also deepened.

The challenge now is that my sweet kiddos, (especially Mikayla), are starting to voice memories of things like visiting me in the hospital, (unfortunately on one of my worst days there), and the time when mommy wore a wig. We never hid what was going on, but we also never made our lives centered around the cancer. How do you explain cancer to 9-year-old that has a tendency to worry and get obsessive over has happened, is happening or may, possibly happen? Praying for wisdom on that one.

Anyway... life is good. We are all healthy, doing well and anxious to see what adventure God has for us next... (hopefully it won't involve hospitals, doctors, chemo, :) !!). The purpose of this blog has been to document some of the emails I used to communicate with friends and family. There are SO many things that happened that clearly showed us our cancer was God's timing, maybe I'll add those sometime. I pray that God uses this to glorify Himself yet again through my cancer.