When it rains, it pours

Well, life has been just amazing for quite a while now. We all know that when that happens, its time to be prepared for hard times. Those times are happening now and they're in full swing. Thankfully, my family is healthy, happy, and thriving beautifully and I am so blessed to say so. However we have 3 friends who's families are not in the same lucky place we are. Here's the short story of it all:

As I've blogged about previously, my special friend, Sandra, has been in declining health for about 6 weeks now. She's been such a light in my life over the last 2 years and I'm sad to say that things just don't look good. She's been in the hospital for a while now and though her husband had arranged for her to be moved to a full-care facility (sounded like a lovely place), they tried twice to move her and each time her blood pressure would be too low and they'd have to reschedule. Bridget and I had signed up to stay with Sandra this morning (her husband is a professor at SMU and had classes in the mornings and some friends and I arranged to be with her during his times away...this, of course, was before she went into the hospital, but we planned to keep the visiting hours for her enjoyment), but Van (her husband) had to cancel because she's been unresponsive for a few days now and has doctor's coming in and out at all hours of the day. I just pray that I can get a chance to see her again and tell her just how special she is.

Secondly, one of my parents' best friends, and a member of what's possibly my favorite family in the world (besides my own!) has taken an unexpected and rapid turn for the worse with his cancer. Mike is one of the most vivacious, hilarious, loving, healthy (he frequented marathons and running events for his whole life and was even in a running magazing), amazing people I've even had the pleasure to know and his family is just the same. His wonderful wife is my mom's BFF and his two sons (one is a year older than me and the other a year younger, so my sisters and I were always very close with them) are so special. It hurts my heart to even mention what they're going through. He was diagnosed a few years ago, but escaped chemo at the time. A couple of months ago, it returned with a vengence and chemo/radiation was necessary. It didn't take well and he now has a tumor in his abdomen that is too dangerous for even exploratory surgery. He was granted hospice care at home and over the next two weeks, he will either get worse (we know what that means at this stage) or better depending on what the blasted tumor decides to do. My parents dropped everything and drove down to Austin two days ago to spend quality time with Mike and offer JCarol (his wife) a much needed distraction. There's a "no tears" policy these days down there (SOOOO Parsons family of them) and Mom and Dad are grateful for the time they got to spend with them all...boys included. The youngest is getting married in August and the wedding has already been but on the accelerated track, but I don't think it can be sped up any more. Bless them all! There's just nothing more to do except trust in God that his plan for Mike and his family will be carried out. We all know that we can't expect answers in these situations but we have to keep faith that everything is for a reason....but, man, can it be hard! Here's a couple of pics from our visit last 4th of July with our regular Southlake group that meets down there (they live in Spicewood, on a cliff overlooking Lake Travis...beautiful!). My mom with precious J Carol:


Mike joking around with Quincy and her mom, Glenda:

I love them all so much!


Lastly, one of Jonathan's good friends that he hasn't even known for too long had surgery yesterday to have a lump removed from his throat. Thankfully, it was benign but when something like this happens to a person who's not even yet 30, its always scary. His surgery went well and he's now resting and getting better so he can meet Jonathan out on the disc golf course as soon as possible! That's been the good news in these last few weeks, and we are grateful for that.

Having my precious little one makes me even more thankful for every moment I have here on Earth. Daily I'm reminded of how all of us need to live for each second and too never take anything for granted. I love life!