So where have I been?!??!

Oh my goodness how has it been 3 months! I guess that is what happens when you take an
already filled life (in a good way ) and some tough stuff to it…in the end things have turned out amazing and I am oh so thankful…but let’s start at the very beginning…as we know from Sound of Music…is a very good place to start.

August:

This month allowed us to celebrate Justin’s 30th birthday! YEAH! Blake got to got to go 2
baseball games in the span of 1 week and at both “caught” a foul ball and ran the bases. Claire turned 1.5 in August and I can’t believe we are closer to 2 now! We went on some fun hikes, picked berries, swam in the pool, and enjoyed the little bit of sun that Seattle offered us this summer-which was not much! I helped out with a few trainings and started a contract with Kent School District.

September:

This month began with a wonderful ladies trip for me and my college girlfriends-we went to San Francisco for 4 days and it was such a great time! Blake started preschool 2 mornings
a week and Claire and I were getting used to having a ton of fun during our time together (missing Blake was part of the equation for both of us though). Middle of September we got to
celebrate my mom turning 55…this is when the craziness began. On September 21st I was getting ready to take my parents to the airport when I received a phone call that they would not be going on their birthday trip…the reason…my mom was diagnosed with Stage 3 “Ovarian Cancer” (you will find out why the quotes if you keep reading). This was obviously tough news to take and threw our world a little upside down.

October:

October brought my parents to TX for 2 ½ weeks-they flew to Houston so that my mom could receive treatment at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Mama had a feeling that is where she should go-and as her story continued it became clear it was the right choice, and I am convinced that God speaks to us in feelings and nudges and it was Him who told her to go there. During this time her diagnosis changed to Stage 3 “Peritoneal Cancer”. During this time we kept busy at home, I helped to facilitate our church’s youth fall retreat, we went to pumpkin patches,
celebrated Halloween with a turtle and pumpkin and the end of October ironically brought our family of 4 to TX-Austin-to visit some good friends of ours and have a little vacation. Oddly
enough this trip was planned well before we knew about my mom, and they got home about 2 days before we left! October also brought us our new niece Isley (Pronounced: Eyes-Lee) Louise Ellington-born on 10/25-this makes it so ALL of the girl cousins on Justin’s side have been born on the 25th of the month-fun little fact.

November:

November began with a BANG! We found out that my mom now had “Appendix Cancer” so she flew out Halloween evening (after celebrating) for a new intensive surgery called HIPEC.
So the day after my 31st Birthday she had surgery-for 14 hours!-itwent AMAZING and they got ALL of the tumors! Praise God! We kept busy with life-I had my first craft show, a few baby showers, going to our church’s Fall Retreat for adults, a trip over the mountain pass to pick up the kiddos and me flying BACK to TX to surprise my mama over Thanksgiving weekend. My mom is a fighter and she is doing really well-walking and laughing. It was really good to hang out with her and my dad over the weekend and I am so thankful for the opportunity to go made possible by my uncle.

Why the “” around the diagnosis??

Currently, after my mom FINAL appointment with the Dr. TODAY they are clueless of the origin of her cancer…CRAZY! So the journey continues-even though visually her cancer # is 0, because they don’t know where it all started, she may have to get chemo sometime in the early spring…in the midst of it all I am convinced of two facts-#1-Our God is Good and #2-I have been blessed with one amazing woman to call my mom…

December:
As we enter into one of the busiest months for lots of people, myself included (with a 4 year old to celebrate soon! YIKES!), I am actually looking forward to the normalcy that is entering into our lives soon. Not much planned on the weekends, getting to go to church at our home church, and anticipating the birth of Jesus…sounds like a perfect end to a rough fall.