With space for only one parent and knowing that I wasn’t ready to hear the news that could be coming on the other end of that Life Flight, I sent my husband, Randy, with Caden. I numbly watched as they strapped Caden to a too-big gurney, loaded him onto a jet, and delivered us as fast as they could to the hardest trial we have ever known, or could ever imagine.
Since that life-altering day, Caden has endured 246 days of in-Seattle cancer care, 2 recurrences, 3 major surgeries, 5 minor surgeries, 8 Rounds of intense chemotherapy, 1 PET scan, 10 CT scans, and suffered internal/emotional agonies that no mother should ever have to witness— all with dwindling options that could cure him. We have watched our son come to the threshold of death three times. At this point of our “journey,” we have chosen to enjoy more time as a family as we try to stunt the aggressive growth, instead of trying to cure him with intense chemo that separates the family between home and Seattle. He is currently taking an at-home chemo pill for the foreseeable future.
I have been asked many, many times how I have stayed sane during the horrors and hardships of witnessing my child suffer through cancer. My easy answer to that question is: Faith. I have a firm Faith in a loving Heavenly Father that brings us to trials that help us grow into the people we are capable of becoming. I have a firm Faith that we chose to come to this earth to experience life in all its variety- the grand, the hard, the glorious, the extreme ugly, and everything in between. In experiencing this trial, we are living the life we chose in heaven.
I was asked to speak in church the second day of January 2016- just a few days before they found the second 2-pound tumor that started our most recent cancer battle. When I got the call from Brother Hammond, we were actually on vacation on the Oregon Coast. We had heard many great things about the glass blowing that can be found there, so we decided to check it out for ourselves. Little did we know, it would end up being one of the more fun activities that we did. I told the following story during my talk.
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