Leaving and necklace

Bill and Pam came for my last surgery and stayed two weeks! It was so great to have them here to help out with everything. They left Saturday evening. We were all sad they were leaving. I even was crying a little. Pam gave me her gold necklace that she had in Iran called the Quarter Pahlavi.  Matt says it's her staple necklace that she always wore when he was growing up. She said she wore it on the flight home from Iran when they had to evacuate the country in the middle of the night and always associates it with strength. She wanted to give it to me because of all the strength I have shown through this journey. It was a very sentimental moment. Pam and I were crying and Bill was tearing up also. I'm am so grateful! I love them!

Last surgery

I had my final surgery on Tuesday, August 12th at 7:30am. Matt and I had to be there at 5:30am. Once again, I was so calm and just slept while we waited. Amazing! I can feel friend's prayers! I have the best surgeons in Atlanta. Dr Yap did the hysterectomy. She is a gynecologist oncologist and is amazing at what she does. She did my hysterectomy with the robotic machine. I have five small insessions on my abdomin. I was originally going to use my regular gynecologist for the surgery, but last winter I had a dream (from God) telling me to get a second opinion. In the dream, the doctor was Asian. I asked my regular oncologist if she knew of anyone and she recommended Dr Yap. When I met Dr Yap, she was a short Asian lady just like in my dream. It was a no-brainer that I was to use her! God is so cool!

Dr Chang, my plastic surgeon, is one of the best in Atlanta also. She did great with my implant exchange. 

Matt's mom stayed with me that night in the hospital. We had some bonding times. At one point, we stayed up for an hour just talking at 2am. I love my in-laws so much. I went home the next day. With plenty of pain medicine, I'm doing great! Praise The Lord that everything looked good and there was no pre-cancer in my reproductive area. I am finished!!!!  I have gripped onto my faith in Jesus Christ throughout this entire process. He will never fail me!  I'm so grateful to all my family and friends for their support. 

First day of Kindergarten!

Roman's first day of Kindergaren was on Thursday, August 7th.  He was so exctied!  I was so happy for him.  I woke him up at 6:15am and made him pancakes like he requested.  All the neighbors on the street met outside at 6:40am for photos.  Roman got on the bus at 6:50am.  Just like that, my baby boy was grown up and gone to school!!  The mom's of our street went for lunch and a margarita to celebrate school starting.  We live in such a great community.  Roman is going to have a great year!  When we picked him up for the bus stop, he was so excited and couldn't wait to tell us about school.  He's usually not that good at telling us details, but he was so excited.  Matt and I are so happy for our big boy!

Roman, Cohen, and Luke (the Kindergartners on the street)

Roman and Zaber

Here comes the bus!

Bye bye big boy!!

The elementary kids all ready for school!

Nighty night

These three can be so tough, but there is something so rewarding to sneak in and watch them peacefully sleeping and pray over them at night. I am so grateful to God for my three babies!

getaway

Our amazing friends, Ashley and Mark, sat us down a couple of weeks ago and told us that they booked a 2 night getaway for us at Brasstown Valley in the Georgia mountains and would watch Roman.  They asked our other friends, the Tuckers, to watch Carmen and my mom watched Hudson.  It was amazing!  Who does that?!!

 

We enjoyed having three days of kid free fun.  We stopped off at the winery and enjoyed the beautiful views.  Once we got to the resort, we hung out by the pool and then enjoyed a great dinner.  The next morning, we slept in until 10am and then went on a four mile hike.  It was beautiful!  Afterwards, we went for massages and then drove 15 minutes to North Carolina for an amazing dinner at The Copper Door.  It was such a great trip!!  I can never repay our friends back for their amazing selflessness and generosity!

 

Enjoying some wine and cheese at Frogtown cellars

Our favorite lookout point at the resort

Meema's birthday

We celebrated my mom's birthday on June 28th.  It was a crazy, loud time of steak and cake.  Our kids are so loud and difficult in the dinner hour.  I don't know what we were thinking of expecting a quiet, calm birthday.  She loved it just the same!  We love her so much!

 

 

11 years

Today marks eleven years since my dad passed away.  I remember parts of those last few days so vividly.  I stayed the night with him in the nursing home and helped him before he passed the next morning.  It was so terrible to see and experience, but I wouldn't change it for anything.  I love my dad so much!  I used to have terrible dreams of carrying around his skeleton.  I suppose it was a haunting part of my grieving process.  I haven't had those terrible dreams or felt that deep void in a long time.  I still miss him so much, but I don't feel that overwhelming emptiness anymore.  I almost feel guilty for not having those feelings.  Then I remembered that when Lisa, Rachael, and Judy prayed over me for complete healing shortly after my cancer diagnosis, they also prayed for my deep, dark grieving to cease.  It's not that I don't miss my dad anymore, it's that the void has been filled with Jesus.  I turned on my phone this morning while still laying in bed and my bible app's verse for the day was this:

"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.  The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective." James 5:16

I truly believe that righteous people prayed for me in the name of Jesus and it was powerful and effective.  We can't deny God's power and might.  Trials in this life will come, but we can not lose heart! This affliction is momentary compared to eternity.  Every millisecond of our pain from the fallen nature of man is totally meaningful.  In the path of obedience, it is producing a glory we will get in heaven.  Whether it is my cancer or my dad's death, it wasn't meaningless.  I choose to look at what is unseen and eternal.  I choose to take these truths and day by day focus on them. I am grateful for the twenty-two years that I got to spend with my dad.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal." 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

This song has helped me so much through my trials.

 Though you Slay Me