Empty Me

This post is #144 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.

Early December 2008

Hannah had gotten her driver's license about four months before she was diagnosed with cancer.  She would probably agree with me when I say that she was not the world's greatest driver.  In fact, I'm not sure her driver's ed teacher really wanted to give her a passing grade, but he did!  Knowing what we know now, it could be that her rather poor driving skills were an early manifestation of the tumor growing in her brain.  Thankfully, she never had an accident or even a fender bender, but she did make us nervous sometimes!

Her brain cancer diagnosis did not legally preclude her from driving, but we all agreed it was best that she not drive during her treatments.  So I ended up driving her around a lot during that year, including those days she returned to school in early December of 2008.

One day as I drove her home from school, one of her favorite songs came on K-LOVE radio -- "Empty Me" by American Idol contestant Chris Sligh.  And Hannah, who only rarely shared the deepest parts of her heart with us over the course of her cancer journey, told me that the loss of her hair had helped her empty herself of her pride before God and she was thankful for that.

What a kid.  I'm still learning from her. 

You can hear the song and see the lyrics by clicking the link below. (If you receive these updates via email, you may have to click through to the blog to hear it.)