Hallelujah, we’re home!   With grateful hearts, our family has returned to Nome more than six weeks after we first left for Anchorage.   So much has happened!   I feel so humbled by the realization that our friends and family have truly carried through this valley.  Often I have felt too weary to “face” it all, too weary to pray with passion over situations we were facing, and then someone would call or write and share that they had been praying for us, facing our situation head on and bringing it to the Lord in our behalf.   Thank you for not being weary with our load, but for carrying us along!  

It seemed this last week in Anchorage that we would never get home.   Every day brought some new medical complication... quirks from the chemo that have to be worked through.   The last problem came just before we were supposed to be leaving for the airport on Friday.   It seems that my arm is swelling on the side where I had two lymph nodes removed.  

An ultrasound showed that there are no blood clots, which is good.   The swelling however is not good, it’s a sign of lymphedema, something that I have dreaded from the start of all of this.   I’ve been talking to all my doctors to see if there is any way to save my remaining lymph nodes, rather than having them all removed as is planned.   My concern is lymphedema, a irreversible swelling that results when those lymph nodes aren’t there to keep fluids moving.   It seems like my body is facing this with only two lymph nodes gone. 

My doc was out of town, and her fill-in was not in the office for the day, so I haven’t been able to see a doctor about it yet.   I do now have a compression glove and sleeve that I wear to help keep the fluids moving, and I am doing lots of praying.   Praying that the Lord will help the remaining lymph nodes to work, and that this beginning of swelling will also be the end of swelling.

I have often thought of the how Job said that what he feared had come upon him... someone once challenged me to not live with fear, but to turn my fears into godly desires.   So, that’s what I’m doing.  I don’t know if it’s exactly a godly desire to not want to live the rest of my life with lymphedema, or if it’s just wimpiness!   Nevertheless, I am pleading with the Lord to intervene in this situation... but I’m realizing that deeper than all of that is my desire that He be glorified through my life.   I trust Him.   I don’t know how this all fits into his good plan, but I also know that Eternal Eyes have a much better perspective on it than mine.  

It was so joyous to be in church today.   I love my church!   The dear friends there have been so kind to us long before my cancer diagnosis, and this has only proven what true gold they are.   I love my church most of all because when I walk in there, I sense the Spirit of God, moving and living in that congregation.   May we all live that fully on the days in between Sunday!

I’m off to bed again.. that middle of the night feeding comes too soon!   I think it’s time for Caleb to start sleeping through the night. :)    By the way, Caleb is the best little baby ever, and he is starting to smile!   His cheeks are intensely kissable, and you can’t stop once you start!   He also has the cutest little fat thighs in the world!    What a blessed Mommy I am!