Childhood Cancer Awareness Month--Or The REST of the Story

I have very mixed feelings about cancer. I mean yes, it is bad. But I cannot say, "Cancer Sucks!" and leave it at that like some people...it changed me, it changed my life, it changed the perspective of our family, it allowed God to move in surprising ways. We saw miracles...

Elise had AML, a form of leukemia. She is a survivor. She proved to so very many people that the "flaw" in her genetic make-up did not make her weak. For whatever "imperfection" it brought, it also brought with it some surprises.

I know that I have mentioned this before. I will bring it up again in the future, because it still awes me. The fragility of the cells is accused with the responsibility of why so many children with Downs are diagnosed with cancer. Bizarrely enough, it is also why their cells respond so positively to the chemo. Because the cells are fragile with their bonus chromosome built in, they are changed more significantly, killing the cancer, with less chemo. The actual numbers stand at kids diagnosed with AML who are "typical" have a less than 30% survival rate, kids with Downs have a better than 98% survival rate at 5 years.

Chemo, the side effects, the living at the hospital, the changes that have to go down in your family to survive, the fear, the darkness, the loss, no matter how it comes...it is all hard, bad, awful. But in the moments, there is still life to be lived...and it is the sweetest...

This month...I plan to blog about one sweet thing about cancer once a week....or more if they come... Yes, you totally heard me right. It took me a long time to find the truly sweet...to see through the purifying aspect of it.

For the first several years, I thought that the experience of just getting to the other side, to survival, was the sweet part of Elise's story...but the more I look back on it, the more I see that there was so much MORE to the story....

So tune back in...you may find yourself surprised...