Cancer

Kara’s Collection: Ramblings of a Broken-Hearted Mama

Kara’s Collection: Ramblings of a Broken-Hearted Mama

from an article originally posted September 7, 2014…  

I had my first big chemo, we took pictures, then ran away for a week. It was a hard pill to swallow seeing me meet that bottom again. But we know how to manage it. But who really wants to be managing awful? We want to be living! On the day my big chemo started, they started my 2-week cycle of oral chemo. I had learned to live through the haze of their yuck, but on top of the giant chemo, well, I met my bottom. Jason and I know this dance. I fight for good moments on bad days. Often, I don’t remember the good moments and need reminding of them. And my people are gracious to remind me.

Kara’s Collection: Living Well Within Limitations

Kara’s Collection: Living Well Within Limitations

from an article originally posted September 5, 2014…  

Each day presents each of us living with a choice. It is often hard to choose well. We are so regularly caught in the flow of our going, we fail to see the choices presented to each of us in our living. Most of our choices consist of attitude choices, living choices, choices to live in a hardened, bitter state or a grateful, soft state. If we are honest the battle for these attitudes is fierce.

Kara’s Collection: Met—Always Met—in Love

Kara’s Collection: Met—Always Met—in Love

from an article originally posted August 31, 2014…

I’m back to the face-down days I knew 2 years ago. It hurts to lose moments, memories, sweet tender times in the haze of drugs. My dear neighbor came over and reminded me of our conversation, which had vanished from my mind. Blaaaaaa

I quietly rested my head beside my guy last night and whispered my fears to him, What if all this hard isn’t working? His face mirrored my fears. This battle is so painful. We long, long, long to know all this hard is working.

Kara’s Collection: It’s Here! It’s Here!

Kara’s Collection: It’s Here! It’s Here!

from an article originally posted August 27, 2014…

This morning I will be heading into a minor surgery to get my port placed again. A port is an amazing medical device set within my arteries to deliver the healing poison to my body and protect my veins. I wept over this having to return to my body. They feel foreign, uncomfortable, and just remind me constantly that I’m sick. The use of the port has grown to be hard for me. Accessing it and flushing it with heparin often causes me to vomit. But these are the steps we take to extend my days, fight this beast, and hopefully destroy the cancer that is so aggressive in my body.

Kara’s Collection: Grace for the Moment

Kara’s Collection: Grace for the Moment

from an article originally posted August 25, 2014…  

One of the hardest aspects of disease is the unbalanced priority it places on the one that is sick. It’s an impossible balance to face. As a mama, one wants to be the platform from which your children spring into the heights and depths of life. I have always wanted to be the safe landing place, the bright spring board, the solid place from which my children leap into the very best of life. As a mama, I’m their living example of goodness in faith. I point, pray, prepare my children to leap from the safety of my faith and jump into a walk with Jesus all their own. It is my joy, my high calling, and my delight to live the truth of faith before my children.