A prayer request

Life is so entangled with beauty and tragedy.  Earlier in the week, I granted my senior's request to go to the beach with her friends. This meant driving four hours each way.  Selfishly, I wanted a day at the beach also, so I took her and four friends and our nine year old to Port Aransas on the Gulf Coast.  It was a long drive, but the hours flew by listening to the girls and daydreaming about the future - my constant indulgence.  Sinces temperatures have been over 100 degrees every day for weeks, I keep thinking about where we could move.  We don't have an intentional plan, even though we talk about different options for the future - farm life? A mountain or beach house? A small home in a small city and then travel? Where do we want to be in ten year where the kids will want to come and visit us? Should we find someplace central, someplace easy to travel to, or live close to one kid or another or our parents? It's hard to know when they are scattered.  

The drive was worth it - the oceanfront was cooler, and the water was refreshing, although choppy and brown and some tar was on the beach (remnants of the Deepwater Horizon oil spill that was happening when we lived in Mississippi, or from some other oil rig?).  We went into the town for ice cream and tourist shopping (tshirts and hermit crabs, anyone?), went back to the beach for more waterplay, and then got more food for dinner before heading back. The youngest and I went to a birding area while the older girls shopped. It was a restorative day.

But now I have news of a tragedy. My good friend from college has lost her fourteen year old son in a random, freak accident, a mother's worst fear.  A Jeep exiting a car wash went out of control and hit him as he was walking on the other side of the street.  Tragically, she was driving to meet him and saw the accident. We were all praying for several days while he was on life support that he would survive, but he never recovered brain activity. Their family is shattered. I can't even comprehend the depths of their grief, and yet I sit here imagining it. I have lay awake nights fearing these kinds of accidents, plotting ways to keep my kids safe. And yet there is no way to prevent every accident. No way to predict all the ways life can end.  A reminder that all our plans for the future may come to nothing and all that worrying is for naught. 

While we were praying for the miracle that my friend's son would live, now we pray for the miracle of healing for their hearts.  

Prayer Request

I don't often share requests for prayers out of respect for privacy, but I recently found out that a dear friend has bone marrow cancer, and she reached out asking for prayers from our family. This seems the kind of situation that calls for a barrage of prayers, for being the squeaky wheel in God's ear. Right now the type and severity of the cancer are being determined, but her diagnosis is something of a miracle. And the fact that she is seeing some of the best cancer doctors in the world also seems to suggest that God has opened doors.

This friend is no stranger to suffering. Years ago, she lost her first baby, a little girl who died shortly after birth. The baby's death was unexpected; she was a healthy baby, but something happened during delivery, and she only lived a handful of hours.

Then just a couple years ago, my friend's mother-in-law was hit by a car while she was on her early morning walk. The sun was just rising and blinded the driver.  She died at the scene. The driver came to the funeral to apologize and to tell them she smiled when she died as he held her hand. I remember my friend saying she was just so glad her mother-in-law was not alone. When she told me about this latest cross, I told her that God must trust her strength to give her so many valleys to wander through.

We have known this family since our kids were tiny. This is the third time we've had overlapping orders, so they are like family now. They are part of what makes military life so unique and meaningful. They are a warm and loving family of four, all of them nice and smiley. My friend is the kind of person who always remembers your birthday and brings small gifts. She brings hostess gifts. She is a perfect hostess who thinks of small details without seeming to stress about having fifty people over. She has been very involved with military support groups and spouse mentorship programs and works tirelessly as a volunteer. At the same time, she is always available for her kids. Her son wrestles on the junior national team, and her daughter is a top soccer player.

This diagnosis is a surprise, but also a warning. She had been feeling sick all year, tired and forgetful and just not herself.  The doctor told her to take it easy. She went back and asked for blood work, thinking maybe something was wrong with her thyroid. They gave her B12 vitamins. Then finally a doctor ordered some expensive but thorough blood tests, just to rule out leukemia.  The blood work revealed the cancer. The type was originally misdiagnosed, but in the midst of all of this, the family had to move from San Diego to DC. The new doctors at Johns Hopkins ran more tests and rediagnosed the type of cancer.

In the middle of a time of intense stress and anxiety, my friend was pointing out the way she has seen the hand of God in all of this. She said she is not dying of cancer, but living with a diagnosis of cancer. She is openly asking for prayers and already experiencing an outpouring of grace and gratitude.

Prayer request

A dear friend of mine just emailed me with news that she has terminal cancer. What started as renal cell carcinoma last May has become liver cancer.  She is married with 5 children at home and one in Heaven.  Our kids match up in age, and used to go to school together when we lived in Illinois, but we both started homeschooling at about the same time after we moved.  They are still homeschooling with the help of a tutor - a gift to have the kids close at this time.

They asking for the intercession of John Paul II using this prayer:

O Holy Trinity,
we thank you for having given to the Church
Pope John Paul II,
and for having made him shine with your fatherly tenderness,
the glory of the Cross of Christ and the splendor of the Spirit of love


He, trusting completely in your infinite mercy
and in the maternal intercession of Mary, has shown himself
in the likeness of Jesus the Good Shepherd
and has pointed out to us holiness
as the path to reach eternal communion with You.


Grant us, through his intercession,
according to your will, the grace that we implore,
in the hope that he will soon be numbered among your saints.

Amen.

That he may seek a miracle for KH