Christmas Gift

I hope that all of you reading this, had a merry Christmas. Don and I and the kids made it down to see my mom and spend Christmas day and night at her house. By the grace of God I was given the best Christmas gift I could have ever asked for, my Mom, my REAL Mom. The one I had when I was 7 or 8 years old. This year, my mom spent the day before Christmas baking pies from scratch and chocolate chip cookies and brownies. She hasn't done all of that since I was a little girl. Then yesterday, it was just a simple day, not fancy, but perfect! She watched the kids unwrap their gifts and Greysen watch the train go round and round. We had a nice dinner that she helped cook and played games with the kids and then we all sat down and watched A Christmas Story. She was happy, no fighting, just happy. We slept over and had to get up early to get to the city for work. She got up at 6:00am before us and I went down stairs (she was in the bathroom) I found 2 cups with tea bags next to them on the counter, plates set out and english muffins in the toaster ready to toast.   This may seem really simple or trivial, but it brought tears to my eyes and a smile to my face. This was a glimpse of the mom I had years ago that woke up with me in the morning and cooked me breakfast, that played board games with me, that sat on the couch with me at night and watched Nature. It was the best gift and I can only hope that God is gracious enough to allow me to experience it for a little bit longer.

As far as my mom's health goes, she had a Dr.'s appointment today with the Oncologist. He said that her Kidney function numbers have came down quite a bit since her last visit and are looking much better. She is going to begin getting a different type of chemo on Jan. 2nd, 3rd and 4th. This type of chemo is not supposed to effect her kidneys. She will get a CAT scan sometime after this round or the next tocheck things out. For now, based on how she looks and is feeling, the doctor believes it is doing its job. She is in great spirits, it is so bitter sweet to listen to her talk. She is fighting this cancer with her body, heart and most importantly her mind. She has such a positive attitude.  The Dr.'s are all suprised that she remains pain free. They asked her today if she was taking pain killers and she said, "No, I told you I am not in any pain." I thank God everyday for that.
It really has meant a lot to her to receive your phone calls and visits, she always mentions it with happiness in her voice. I am sure that it has a lot to do with her positive attitude, which is really helping her to get through this. She actually drove herself into Pine Bush twice this week to the store.  Please keep the phone calls and visits coming if you can.

Thanks again to all of you and Merry Christmas!!