Casting Crumbs

Mom has had her ups and downs since her chemo treatment on October 21st. The chemo hit her really hard the first few days and then she began to feel better. She is easily tired, but tries to get out and enjoy life, friends and this gorgeous weather we have been having.

Here’s a picture of Mom and Dad at a local Mexican restaurant. We went there last Friday. Doesn’t she look well!

Tonight she came over to my house to watch the kids with my Dad while I went to court. She was wearing a bandana because her hair is starting to come out. I know that it is discouraging to pull on your hair and tufts to come out. She said she may have me come over and cut her hair off tomorrow. Pray for us!

Next Tuesday she will have a surgical procedure done to put in her Port – Catheter. This is a device that is put into her chest that sits up against her ribs. It is a catheter that they can give her chemo in, take blood from and is much easier than using her veins. Chemo is very hard on the veins, so this will keep her from messing with IV’s every time she has blood drawn or chemo given.

Then Wednesday she will have her next treatment of chemo. They will also do a blood draw to check to see how the chemo is affecting her cancer. I am not sure how long that takes to get results. I will let you know.

Also, her bladder thing is still there. She found out that it is not uncommon for women on chemo to have bladder infections. So she gave a sample and they will be testing it to find out if it is a normal infection for a chemo patient or if it’s something else. If it is, they will refer her to an oncologist.

So to pray. . .
Pray for the Lord to be the lifter of her head, her healer, her strength.
Pray for the bladder thing to be normal.
Pray for the port-cath procedure Tuesday
Pray for the chemo treatment Wednesday.
Pray for GOOD results from the blood work – that it is having an affect on the cancer!

I know that you have all been waiting in suspense for the outcome of my ticket, so here it is.

When I arrived at the courtroom, it was full. I sat down and waited while the judge explained how the evening would progress. He would take all the plea bargain cases that were represented by the lawyers followed by requests for continuance. Then the guilty pleas - that’s me, and finally all the not-guilty pleas.

When the guilty pleas came up, I headed over to the table where you told the officer your name, he would pull out your paper work and then you would take it to the judge. He would state the charge and you would plead guilty. He asked everyone to state their reason for the charge and gave a chance to defend yourself.

When I got to the table, I gave the officer my name and he rifled through all the envelopes but couldn’t find mine. So he had me sit down next to him and went and told the lady beside the judge that my paperwork was not there. She went back to the prosecutors office to locate my paperwork. After a considerable amount of time had passed she came back and told me to have a seat in the courtroom with all the other people that were waiting.

Everyone was done and the not-guilty pleas were about to begin and there I sat wondering what in the world was going on. Pretty soon the prosecutor came and got me and took me to his office. I sat down and he began to explain that an officer from up North had called and asked that the charges be dismissed. He said evidently I had helped this officer with something and he wanted them to consider dropping the charge. He told me the Chief of Police was not there that night and he could either wait to ask him or just drop the charge. He decided to drop the charge!!!!

I left a free woman, no points, no fines, no driving school. NO NOTHING!!!!

How is that for an All-powerful, Loving, Caring, Just and Awesome Advocate!!! He was with me! He went before me, He hemmed me in from behind. His name is a strong tower and the righteous can run into it and be safe!! I praise HIS name for being my advocate tonight!

What do you think of that!!??

This is an embarassing admition from me, but I’m going to write about this anyway.

Right about the time we found out about Mom’s cancer, I was on my way home from their house. I had two fussy, tired kids and was trying to get home quickly. I was headed up Bynum in L.J. and got to the top of the hill only to be met by Officer Friendly himself. I was even fortunate to see his pretty lights come on and saw him point my direction to pull over. So I did. I knew that I was going over the posted speed limit of 25.

He told me he clocked me going 48!!!!! I can honestly say that I was speeding, but I was NOT going 48. The baby was crying, I was worn out and I just didn’t argue and graciously accepted my little yellow ticket and said “I’m sorry.”

Needless to say I have been staring at this ticket on my fridge for two months now. Tomorrow is the big court day. Tom had all along wanted me to get a lawyer so that it doesn’t go on my record, my insurance and have a hefty fine. However, I have felt as though this were a test of my faith.

Let me explain. . .
Now, I am known to overspiritualize everything in my life, but I just really felt this down deep. I know that the Word says that Jesus resides with me. He is my advocate in heaven. He intercedes for me all the time. So why wouldn’t he go with me to this court date? Couldn’t he cause the judge to have mercy on me? Couldn’t he take care of this big deal in my life and make it very simple? Yes, Yes, and Yes. That’s what I think. So I have chosen to skip the lawyer and rely on HIM.

So as an act of faith, I am putting this on here and I am going to believe that Christ is with me and that He will not fail me even in this matter. I was breaking the law and I do deserve to have some sort of judgement. However, I hope that it would be light. So I will let you know what happens tomorrow night. . .

Sorry to keep you in suspense.

Please pray that the Judge will have mercy on me. I know that he could throw the book at me.

Because of numerous requests to see the pictures of poor Julian’s teeth, here they are!

If you are easily grossed out, please don’t look. I warned you
–
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-

Toothless!

Here are the big pieces of Julian’s teeth that were pulled. They didn’t bother giving me the little pieces of his teeth and bone.

And the picture you have all been waiting for. . ..

Keep in mind, this is 3 days old. His gums are looking pretty good at this point!

You can see his stitches here. He will get them out on Thursday. He is a little concerned that they will hurt. He came home from school yesterday and it looked like something white was peeking out of his gums. He said “Looky, Mom, a tooth is coming in!” I told him we would ask Dr. Bruce next week if it is. He turned really sullen and said “Is he gonna yank it out?” I told him an emphatic “No!”. He looked at me funny and said “Can we call him right now and find out?”

Hee Hee.

Today was a very happy day filled with some sadness!

I know you all have had days like that before.

The good first. . .Mom had a very good day! She felt much stronger. A couple of friends came over and even took her to lunch. She said that her bladder problem was even better today. She said it is not completely gone, but it was very encouraging to her. I think she will wait a little while longer before going to the Dr.

She even felt good enough to drive over this afternoon to see Julian. That was her first driving trip since before surgery!

She came over to see Julian because of the SAD part of the day. Today Julian was on the teeter totter at school and a boy jumped off and “bumped” him. He hit his mouth on this bar that is there to hold onto. It jammed all of his four front teeth up into his mouth and they splintered. He broke the bone there, too.

I rushed him to the dentist and they had to pull the four teeth out (what was left) and the splinters of bone. They sutured him up and now he is here resting with gauze in his mouth. He was truly a very brave little boy!! They won’t know how it affected his permanent teeth until they come in, which may not be for quite awhile. I am just thankful to God that it was only teeth and not something worse. I am glad I prayed for his safety today. It could have been worse!

I feel very sad because I mourn for his little smile full of teeth. It’s different when they fall out on their own – it’s cute. However, seeing the dentist pull them out ahead of time is NOT the same.

I have that song in my head “You take the good, you take the bad, you take it all and there you have the facts of life. The facts of life!” (I think that is how it went) So I have felt the facts of life today. God is still so good.

I will post pictures of his teeth if anyone is curious. Just didn’t want to gross anyone out, so I will have to have a request from you all.

The tooth fairy should have a hayday with four teeth tonight! Hee Hee.

October 31st has always been one of those days that is filled with wonder for the little kids. Getting to dress up and get a giant bucket of candy. . .what more could a kid want!

Julian had an early release day at school, so when he got home we began the punkin’ carving. After trying to talk him into a cute little face, we settled on a bat to go with his Batman costume. I enjoyed hearing all the “ooh gross!” comments as we scooped the seeds and muck out of the pumpkin. Even Jaden started saying “oooooh Gross!”

It actually looked like a bat!

After Tom got home from work, we dressed the kids in their costumes and headed for my Parent’s church for a Trunk or Treat. They have a really great outreach ministry to the community each year. All the cars were lined up and you walked the rows and received candy from people out of their trunks. They served popcorn, hotdogs, nachos and pop, too!

After that, we went to Grandma and Grandpa Henderson’s and then to Mom and Dad’s.

Punkin’ Kisses!

We stumbled back home tired and very full of sugar. It was fun!