Day 100: Sad News

I had a feeling it was dangerous to post about how nice and boring everything was.  I wrote the previous post a little past midnight this morning, then woke up to find my mom packing to fly back to Oklahoma. My dad had returned to their home a couple weeks ago and was not doing well. We both had deep peace and felt strongly that this was the right thing to do, so I got dressed and packed the kids in the car to bring Nana to the airport. She was able to make the only morning flight available, just in the nick of time. My dad had several important doctor appointments today, and she just called with the news.  His lymphoma has spread significantly. A port will be put into his chest on Tuesday and he begins chemotherapy Wednesday.  My heart fell to the floor.  Cancer. Chemotherapy. Ports and catheters...this all sounds way too familiar.  

My heart is aching to be there, to support him like he has supported us. Or at least a fraction of it. My dad seriously spoiled us with his love. He even slept in the lazy boy chair next to Fiona's crib most of the night, so that he could say "go back to sleep Fiona, everything's ok" whenever she would start to fuss. Usually she would then roll right back to sleep. You can only imagine how many precious hours of rest his loving sacrifice gave me. I don't know if we could have survived with him, but I'm sure we wouldn't have been able to thrive as we did.  So many sweet times with Grandpa here, so many precious and priceless moments.

So while you pray for Ian, would you please, please also say a prayer for my dad? Please pray this new treatment for lymphoma is successful and we can all rejoice together at the end of this...