Making progress

Two milestones today!  The first one is my pain has significantly reduced and my energy improved so I got to drive Ephraim to preschool today!  I even got to drive to a friend's house for lunch and pick up her son to go to the same preschool.  It felt SO good and was a blessing from the Lord to have some time before chemo starts next week that I can help with my kids and get out a little.  As hard as things have been lately I'm SO grateful for how it has taught me to appreciate the little things and to enjoy my relationships so much more.  My family has become precious to me.  Each giggle or hug or connection made is treasured in a deeper way than before.
     The other milestone today was something my mom said that was an answer to prayer.  Like I've said in previous posts, Kelly and I have fervently prayed about whether to do the alternative or medical route to treat this cancer.  Though I always like to try alternative first before depending on western medicine we both received strong answers from the Lord that we needed to incorporate both the alternative and the medical route.  It may be for more reasons than just physical but for our circumstance this is what the Lord has led us to do.  It was hard, at first, to accept this because it meant losing my hair and dealing with a myriad of other possible side effects.  It was also hard because my mom wasn't on board with the medical route simply because she saw how my grandfather suffered and passed away from the effects of chemo rather than the cancer itself.  She said she couldn't bare to watch me suffer through this if there could be a possible alternative.  There have been people that she has met or heard of (as well as I) that have cured their cancer from alternative options and diet and she really wanted me to do the same.  I double-checked with the Lord a couple of times to make sure this truly was the best choice for our family and each time I've still felt we needed to go this path.  It still made it hard that my mom struggled with it though and I was beginning to get nervous about starting chemo next week with her here and having a hard time with it.  I've been praying the last few days that my mom could have peace about our decision so that we could go into it with full support.  Today that prayer was answered when my mom came up to me this morning and said she felt peace about the chemo.  She said she can now see the chemo as pruning a tree...there will be branches cut back and taken away which could seem painful but in the end it will make that tree stronger than it ever was before.  That line right there amazed me because it was the very analogy my holistic doctor used yesterday to help explain the need for chemotherapy used along with holistic medicine/therapy.  What a beautiful and direct way the Lord answered my prayer!