Hello everyone! I hope this finds you happy and well and that you are able to enjoy and appreciate this beautiful fall weather! I am not a fan of the cold as you know but fall in New England is truly one of God’s masterpieces that I am so grateful to experience. The colors are incredible and to think that God designed all of this to happen for our enjoyment is sometimes overwhelming for me to think about. It just shows how much He loves each and every one of us and wants us to delight in His creation. Well it sure is pretty here and we are enjoying it! The kids love to see the leaves changing and falling and, of course, jumping in them later!
My bike ride for my cancer hospital last month was wonderful! Thank you to all again so much who supported Chris and I in this, we truly do appreciate it. It was terrific to see all of the riders and actually be a part of it this year and ride alongside some of my very own doctors and nurses. They all care so much at Smilow and it is evident in so many ways. I will say it again, I am so blessed to have this cancer hospital here and be treated by them, and to give back a little felt amazing. We ended up raising 2.2 million dollars this year!! And every penny of it goes to care, research and treatment right at Smilow! That is amazing to me! So again, thank you.
We had an amazing time in Florida and going to Disney World for the first time together as a family a few weeks ago! It was just so awesome to see the smiles on our girls’ faces and to watch their excitement as the characters would walk by and they would stand in line to meet them and get their autographs! I felt like I was re-living it again now as I did when I was a kid there myself 20 something years ago! And to have their grandparents see their faces when they were so excited was truly so special, we are so thankful we got to share this opportunity for memory -making with so many loved ones. We have some terrific pictures and memories that will last a lifetime and I am just so humbled and grateful that God allowed us to do this 2 years after my diagnosis when I was not even supposed to be here. God is soo good! One of my favorite pictures was all 10 of us meeting Mickey and Minnie at Animal Kingdom and my 3 girls meeting their favorite princesses; Anna and Elsa. Those images will never get old. And one of my favorite memories from the trip is of Faith, Savannah Grace and Bella decorating a sign made for me that said “mommy has no more cancer!” and march in the parking lot and parade around with it. They were so excited and knew that we were celebrating “no more cancer” and we were just all so happy. They loved the plane rides and playing with their baby cousin each day and playing in the pool at our condo, going on the rides and even some roller-coasters at Disney and just enjoyed every second of all of us being together. It really was truly “magical”, said in pure Disney spirit! So many things we will all treasure for a long, long time.
The girls are loving school and have had another wonderful transition to school again this year. Bella is doing so terrific, a little tired but still so great! She loves to be with her “sissies” and partake in all that they do, and she is just growing up so fast. They all are, and Chris and I just want to stop and freeze time right here. Sometimes we look at each other and can’t get over that God gave us these children to love and raise, and see grow and change right before our eyes. It is both humbling and amazing at the same time. It is such an amazing journey to be a part of. (But there are still days where we look at each other and want to just sleep- we are human, right?!)
I have my next scan coming up on November 3rd, followed by my tri-weekly treatment. All of your prayers are so greatly appreciated because we know what an amazing miracle we have been given and pray that it just keeps continuing. I will go every 6 months forever probably if the scans keep turning up clear, which we are believing they will. But even with faith it is still difficult to be in that spot again, so please just pray for peace for Chris and I while we go through this again on Tuesday. And, then on Wednesday I will go back for more surgery to fix some things from my big surgery in January. It was just too long for him to complete everything and my doctor had to stop, so we knew there would be follow-up surgeries after that because of this. So this is another one, and hopefully only one more left after this. Chris will be home with me and to take care of the kids, so pray for him too! Please pray for the surgeons wisdom and care and for all to go well. I thank you from the bottom of my heart and know how much of a difference prayer makes.
October is always a tough month because not only is it when I was diagnosed 2 years ago but it is also breast cancer awareness month, as many of you know. So it is always all around us this month and some days are just harder than others when facing it. I know I am healed, and keep believing that, but since I am still going for active treatment every 3 weeks it is still a very real thing for me. I am still in this battle but I also know that Jesus is fighting it for me. That being said it is still difficult at times to see and hear so much, and it is sad to my heart that there still is no cure for my disease. I am healed only through the love and grace and mercy of my Savior Jesus Christ, but there are many who have what I have-metastatic breast cancer- that are not. I do not know or understand why, but I do know that more research and time needs to be devoted to this killer of women with breast cancer, metastatic breast cancer. It is wonderful that there is a cure for breast cancer that has not spread, but up to 1/3 of women (and some men) will get metatstatic breast cancer after being diagnosed with breast cancer, and there still is no cure. Many organizations do not even put their time and dollars to this, because it is only “a small percent” (10%) of breast cancer patients who get this, but we are still 10 percent, and in God’s eyes even ONE matters, so please keep encouraging companies and organizations to donate and support Metastatic breast cancer research, and pray that one day hopefully not far off in the future there will be a cure for this, and no more of us will have to die of this terrible disease.
Thank you, thank you for your constant love and support of us. We are so grateful for this and so humbled to have your prayers for us. Our girls don’t quite realize yet the magnitude of the awesome God we serve and healing power of Jesus but one day they will. And they will know what a difference prayers makes in all of our lives. May you feel Jesus’ grace and peace with all of you, and enjoy His bountiful love and blessings. Love and God bless, April, Chris, Faith, Savannah Grace and Bella (:
Help For April 