It feels like a year has gone by but I know in reality  it has only been a little over 4 months.  A lot can happen in a short amount of time.  Life is so funny that way sometimes.  When last I left you lovely readers, I was attending the National Barbie Convention in Nashville.  It was a trip filled with wonderful friends( old and new) and good memories not to mention fabulous Barbie purchases and gifts.  I was on such a high.  That high ended abruptly Sunday morning after convention. 

We all have friends in our lives.  Some of us are blessed to have close friends.  A small number of us are truly blessed to have what I like to call a “sister friend”.  I was not blessed with close familial sister bonds so these “sister friend’s” in my life have become my family.  On the last evening of convention, during the final banquet actually, I received a call from my friend Carole.  She is and always will be my sister by another mother.  She had been admitted to the hospital with what she thought were complications from pneumonia.  By Sunday morning, the doctors were using words like, “mass” and “abnormal” and “Lymphoma”. 

Carole was diagnosed with an unusual T-cell non Hodgkin’s lymphoma the week after convention and an aggressive regime of chemotherapy was recommended.  She would have to quit her job for the next 8 months to undergo treatment and she was going to need help.  When your family needs help, you help.  The past four months have a been a journey of discovery.  It has been a process of three steps forward then two steps back.  New words have entered my every day vocabulary “ Neutropenic”, “Chemo protectant”, “Nadir” and “Petechiae” .  It was a lot to take in and deal with so I needed to give it a large chunk of my time and effort.  The blog took a back seat and I thank everyone for understanding that.

After four months of treatment, I am happy to announce that Carole is doing well in treatment. She is responding beautifully to the chemotherapy regime.  I am in awe every single day by her grace, strength and resilience in the face of so much.  Her faith sustains her.  It always has and it is so inspiring to see and feel that.  I feel privileged to be part of a team of family and friends who have and continue to care for her in this journey.  The journey will continue on for the next couple of months and beyond.  It will continue to require my time and energy.  I am hopeful though that I will be able to carve out some time to pick the blog back up.

You will see sporadic posts at first while I start to get back into the swing of things ( and Nutcracker season ends) and I hope to be back to posting on a somewhat more regular basis by January.  A big “Thank You” to everyone who has commented, emailed, prayed and offered encouragement.  It means more than you will ever know.  Another big “Thank You” to everyone for being patient and for being the best blog readers in the world.

-Rebecca

I believe the title says it best for this one.  In my last post I explained that I needed to take a short break to deal with some “curve balls” life had thrown my way.  More like, wicked, MLB curve balls served right over the plate at about 90 mph.  I wrote that blog post mainly to hang up my “Gone Fishing” sign and let readers know I would be gone for a bit.  The comments, support, encouragement and honest human caring that came my way after that post has completely humbled me.  You are all amazing and you have my gratitude.  Your support has really helped me through these hard last couple of weeks.  You have been a rainbow in my cloud .

-Rebecca

“Try to be a rainbow in someone’s cloud” – Maya Angelou