A Very Unique Christmas Gift

This post is #149 in a year-long series ... Through this series of posts I plan to share our family's experiences during our 17-year-old daughter's year-long battle with brain cancer, which began in February of 2008. My desire is to process through the events of that year from the perspective that a decade of time has brought ... for myself, really. But if you'd like to follow along, you're welcome to join me.

December 19, 2008

As Christmas 2008 approached, we found ourselves in a very surreal position ... Profoundly grateful for the fact that Hannah was still with us, yet fully aware that without a miraculous intervention from God (and we absolutely believed that was possible), this would be our last Christmas with her.  We could already sense her gradually slipping away from us bit by bit.  That resulted in a very unique Christmas gift ... the awareness and appreciation of every moment we had together.  Most families never get that.  I am still thankful for that gift today.

My email from ten years ago today ...

We are sitting in the infusion room at Children's Hospital waiting for Hannah's platelets to be sent up. It always takes awhile to get the bloodwork done, get the results, get the platelets ordered, get them sent up from the blood bank, and finally to infuse them. Hannah hasn't had any apparent side effects from her chemo treatment on Wednesday, and we are thankful for that. She continues to have problems with occasional nausea and mild headaches, but now that we know these problems are not being caused by anything neurological, they are a little easier to deal with. Overall, she feels pretty good most of the time, and for that we are so thankful.

We feel that we have been given a very unique gift during this Christmas season, and that gift is a new appreciation of all of God's many blessings. We've always enjoyed the time we spend with our immediate and extended family during the holidays, but I think many times we have taken each other for granted. This year, more than any other, I believe we will treasure our time together. God's gift of His Son is also more meaningful than ever to us this year, as we ponder the sacrifice He made for our salvation.

We probably will not update again until after Christmas, because we are anticipating a relatively uneventful week ahead medically speaking.  We consider all of you one of God's greatest blessings to our family, and we are so appreciative of the time you spend in prayer for us. God has given us such peace, and He truly is good, all the time!

Jill and Brad