Friday night we enjoyed another hockey game with some of our fantastic cancer friends from the Children’s Cancer Center. I can honestly say that I never wanted cancer, I wish every day that it was gone from our lives and that we could forget it ever happened. However, it happened, it’s a part of us and we are so blessed to have met amazing friends, been involved in tremendous events and have had our lives changed forever for the better.
With Thanksgiving around the corner, people are encouraged to make these grand sweeping lists of what they’re thankful for. What some don’t realize is that when you’re touched by disease, when life truly becomes a precious gift, you don’t have to wait until Thanksgiving to really understand what to be thankful for. It comes down to this: We are thankful for the good because we can never have enough good moments in life and we are thankful for the bad because it means we are still here. God has shown us over the past 16 months that through the bad you can find the greatest joy. Maybe because it breaks you down that you can really appreciate what’s important. All of a sudden the things that were so important become trivial and happiness becomes the simple. Who cares if you don’t have the nicest house, the newest car, the up and coming techno-gadget…these things become so inconsequential in the face of knowing that just breathing, loving and God’s greatness is the ultimate gift.
Speaking of thankfulness, I was sitting on the floor of the garage, sorting out my 500 lbs of laundry and it hit me that most people wouldn’t consider doing laundry a reason to be thankful. Well, those folks haven’t had the joy of turning the knob on their washer and NOTHING happening! When our washing machine died it was a sad day, and it was just one of those things that felt monumental and overwhelming. I mean, this sort of define my job…I do laundry, lots and lots of laundry…it might be something in my Asian genes, but laundry is very important to me! <—- ok that might have been totally un-PC, but I couldn’t help it.
The Brandon Foundation swooped into our lives and unleashed a barrage of blessings on us that started with our washing machine getting fixed, our AC getting worked on and ended with a beautiful new deck in our back yard. Ok…yeah….WOW! We went to the Evening of Hope fundraiser benefiting the Brandon Foundation tonight and had the chance to see what happens when a community gets involved and allows every person the opportunity to make a difference. It was just phenomenal to see friends there, to be reunited with the compassionate business owners that came to our rescue, to be able to give them a little bit of thanks for the way they affected us.
Can I just share with you that I totally enabled Peyton’s butter eating tendancies tonight? I’ve never encouraged it and was mildly repulsed when I found out she was doing it, but when I was sitting there with my piece of cheesecake and she pointed to the little cup of butter with that look on her face….well, could a pat of butter really be any worse than the 4000 calories of cream cheese I was about to ingest?? Yeah, I think not. Soooo, I totally handed that ball of butter over and watched her stick her finger in it. The look of bliss on her face was priceless, I can only hope I enjoy winning the lottery with so much joy!
Peyton has also become completely spoiled to expect a gift or goodie whenever we go to one of these things. There was a bag at our seats when we made our way in for dinner and she was all “open it, open it, open it!” Fully expecting a ball of gold or an entire family of playdough producing fairies to pop out of it, she was a little disappointed to find stuff like coffee mugs and pens in it. She finally snatched the bag out of my hands and shoved her arm in all the way to her armpit. For a few seconds, all you could hear was the crinkling of tissue paper and her sad desperation to find a toy in that bag. Alas, no….no toy….she threw the bag on the floor as if to say “This whole event is obviously crap if they can’t even get me a freaking polly pocket!”
Then Rachael picks up the bag and notices the closest thing to a toy….the shiny silver pen.
“Hey, look! A pen.”
Peyton made this Herculean leap for it and yells “It’s mine!”
In other words, it’s complete crap unless someone else wants it and then it might as well be diamonds.
f.r.o.G….fully relying on God
–Anissa
