I know, I promised a more upbeat entry this time. I lied.
As some of you may know, my Aunt Pat has been experiencing some major medical problems. After a trip to the emergency room with severe jaunice and fever, a scope was done which showed a mass on her gall bladder that we feared might be a tumor of some sort. This morning, my Aunt had surgery to determine the cause of her symptoms and identify the mass. The news after surgery was the worst case scenario. My aunt pat has gallbladder cancer, which has spread to her small bowel and possibly her liver. The extent of this tumor means that removing it is not an option. Chemotherapy and radiation may help to shrink the tumor to an operable size, but it is unlikely that they will help much, if at all.
At this time, I am asking for your thoughts and especially your prayers. Please keep my Aunt Pat in your prayers, pray for strength and comfort for her. Pray for her family, her husband Charlie and her kids John, Peter and his wife Vicky and their son Nathan, and Katie and her husband Jamie, that they may have the strength to support each other and their wife/mother at this extremely difficult time. And pray for us, her extended family, especially my mom and Aunt Marianne. I know that watching their sister go through this is especially difficult and stressful for them.
If prayer is not your thing, please just keep us in your thoughts.
Your love and prayers are greatly appreciated.
Love,
Meghan
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
Friday, February 1, 2008
A Decaturiffic Snow Day
Yesterday around 2:00, it started to snow. And kept snowing. And snowing. When it finally stopped around noon today, we were left with over 10 inches of the beautiful but messy white stuff. For those of you not living in Central Illinois, its pretty much shut down around here. It takes a lot to get them to shut down the State Farm corporate offices, but thousands of SF'ers got to go back to bed this morning.
Anyway, not the point of the story. While I don't work on Fridays and have been lucky enough to get to cuddle with my kittens while i curl up on the couch in my sweats, Ryan went to work. As we live on a non-essential roadway, we've yet to see a plow. And even with the sandbags in the F150, Ryan had trouble getting out of the driveway and up the street. I heard his tires spinning and peeked outside to check on him and saw our next door neighbor walking out to the truck. Without saying a word, he started pushing, and I watched as he pushed the truck up the worst part of the hill. Once Ryan got going and I settled back inside, I couldn't help but dwell for a little while on how lucky we are to live in such a friendly and wonderful neighborhood. Little did I know...
I confess, my morning included an indulgent little nap. When I woke up, I was still thinking about how great it was for our neighbor to do something nice for someone else, and I decided that it might be nice to shovel the driveway so that Ryan wouldn't have to do it when he got home. I bundled up in my adorable little cherry boots, winter coat and gloves and headed out to shovel. I watched car after car make their way along our snow covered street, each person waving a cheery hello. The snow was heavy and deep, but I was making progress. About half an hour into the shoveling, I saw a tan truck, one of the first that had driven by, pull up and park in front of the neighbor's house. I knew it wasnt the neighbor, but I had no clue who it was. Out of the truck emerged a tall man in tan coveralls. He grabbed a shovel out of his truck, walked over, and asked if he could help. Without waiting for an answer, he started to shovel. We talked as we worked - his name is John, he's currently unemployed, his mother lives in Waukegan and his sister lives down the street from us. She's a schoolteacher with two grown children. John had driven over to take his sister out to buy some salt, as his truck could handle the snow better than her car. He said that the first time he drove by, Jesus said to him of me "she might need some help". When he drove by the second time and I was still out working, he decided to listen and stop. When we had finished, I offered him a warm drink, to buy him lunch, anything I could think of. He refused. I begged him to let me do something for him, and he told me if I would have a wonderful day, that would be enough for him. When I thanked him for his help, he thanked me for letting him help, smiled, shook my hand, and was gone almost as fast as he had appeared.
I came back in the house to warm up and just haven't been able to stop thinking about the kindness of strangers in this town. True, Decatur lacks a lot. A decent mall and bookstore for example. But what it does have is wonderful people, generous and kind. The kind of people you can't find just anywhere. Sometimes I spend so much time wishing for the things that this part of Illinois doesn't have that I overlook the things it does. Maybe when Jesus told John that I "might need some help" he wasn't talking about the snow. Maybe he was talking about my perspective.
Decatur - it isn't all bad. :)
(Won't be so serious on the next one, I promise!)
Anyway, not the point of the story. While I don't work on Fridays and have been lucky enough to get to cuddle with my kittens while i curl up on the couch in my sweats, Ryan went to work. As we live on a non-essential roadway, we've yet to see a plow. And even with the sandbags in the F150, Ryan had trouble getting out of the driveway and up the street. I heard his tires spinning and peeked outside to check on him and saw our next door neighbor walking out to the truck. Without saying a word, he started pushing, and I watched as he pushed the truck up the worst part of the hill. Once Ryan got going and I settled back inside, I couldn't help but dwell for a little while on how lucky we are to live in such a friendly and wonderful neighborhood. Little did I know...
I confess, my morning included an indulgent little nap. When I woke up, I was still thinking about how great it was for our neighbor to do something nice for someone else, and I decided that it might be nice to shovel the driveway so that Ryan wouldn't have to do it when he got home. I bundled up in my adorable little cherry boots, winter coat and gloves and headed out to shovel. I watched car after car make their way along our snow covered street, each person waving a cheery hello. The snow was heavy and deep, but I was making progress. About half an hour into the shoveling, I saw a tan truck, one of the first that had driven by, pull up and park in front of the neighbor's house. I knew it wasnt the neighbor, but I had no clue who it was. Out of the truck emerged a tall man in tan coveralls. He grabbed a shovel out of his truck, walked over, and asked if he could help. Without waiting for an answer, he started to shovel. We talked as we worked - his name is John, he's currently unemployed, his mother lives in Waukegan and his sister lives down the street from us. She's a schoolteacher with two grown children. John had driven over to take his sister out to buy some salt, as his truck could handle the snow better than her car. He said that the first time he drove by, Jesus said to him of me "she might need some help". When he drove by the second time and I was still out working, he decided to listen and stop. When we had finished, I offered him a warm drink, to buy him lunch, anything I could think of. He refused. I begged him to let me do something for him, and he told me if I would have a wonderful day, that would be enough for him. When I thanked him for his help, he thanked me for letting him help, smiled, shook my hand, and was gone almost as fast as he had appeared.
I came back in the house to warm up and just haven't been able to stop thinking about the kindness of strangers in this town. True, Decatur lacks a lot. A decent mall and bookstore for example. But what it does have is wonderful people, generous and kind. The kind of people you can't find just anywhere. Sometimes I spend so much time wishing for the things that this part of Illinois doesn't have that I overlook the things it does. Maybe when Jesus told John that I "might need some help" he wasn't talking about the snow. Maybe he was talking about my perspective.
Decatur - it isn't all bad. :)
(Won't be so serious on the next one, I promise!)
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