Cancer, College, and Choices

.This past month, our lives have been both beautiful and broken ... and bursting with opportunity to trust a very good God!   Here is the short text version:  Blair had a benign tumor removed from her thyroid. Britt chose UT and God so showed up for him.  And this month marks my one-year anniversary since being diagnosed with cancer.  My Love & Gratitude to each one of you!  The rest is just details...

• Blair Faces Surgery...Met Blair in Dallas last week to have a rather large tumor removed from her thyroid. My nephew found the best surgical oncologist! He had some help!!  The Great Physician was in that operating room.  And, it could not have gone any better although the incision on her neck is much larger than we anticipated.  And what a great attitude Blair chose to have about that!  He removed half of her thyroid as well. The full pathology report came back yesterday and it is benign! We camped at my sister's house and God provided peace unbelievable!  When you watch your child suffer, there are no words.  Blair faced this with such courage and trust in a very good God.  She flew back to D.C. yesterday and went back to work today.  So grateful!!!!  Am I more concerned about being rescued from our pain or rescued from the domain of darkness?  Col 1:11-12
• Britt Chooses UT...Britt ran his last track meet EVER this weekend. I have so LOVED being this kid's mom!  In just a few weeks, God will close the chapter of SCHOOL DAYS!  Britt graduates from high school on May 28th.  He will make the decision FINAL tonight that he is headed to the University of Texas.  A Longhorn---the team we always cheered against.  We even cheered for any team playing against UT, even if we didn't know them.  So, this one's a surprise.  We just want Britt to be where God wants him to be...our hands are open to Him.  Where does Britt's little life fall into the "Great Story of God's Mission"?? C.J.H.W. Praying for him to find a beautiful God at UT.
• God Provides for Britt...Financial Peace is a course we worked on last year...we found out all the stuff we had done wrong.  Kind of hard to correct a lifetime of mistakes.  Grateful to a Gigantic God Who intervenes.  Our home has gone back to foreclosure again.  Trusting Him!  Meanwhile, Britt just interviewed with the Terry Foundation and was named a Terry Scholar.  This unbelievable philanthropist provides ginormous scholarships through the UT admission application process.  Little did we know that God was providing all along for Britt to be financed through his four years of college.  Plus, he has won some smaller scholarships---he has done well!   
• God Carries Me Through Cancer...April marked my one year anniversary having cancer.  And, yes, I still say the word because my tumor markers show that it is still there.  And yes, I am asking HIM to say the Word and I will be healed! And, YES, I am doing very well!  But there is an evil greater than cancer within me.  If I choose to live for myself and to get my own way and make my life work...it's called selfishness, greed, arrogance.  A friend of mine calls it:  "courtesy without connection, laughter without love, weeping without worship."  Having cancer has been one of the best things that could happen to me as far as my relationship with God goes.  I'm not saying that I would ever want to go through it again.  I am saying that nothing has engaged me in the real battle in my soul like suffering has.  I just finished reading the story of Solomon in I Kings and in 66 Love Letters.  I think a quote from that book captures for me some thoughts deep from my heart.  "The lesson to be learned from the wisest of men [Solomon] who became the greatest of fools is this:                     Leadership without a priority concern for personal holiness over effective management at best produces only outward success."  Life is not about faring the up's and down's.  The rejections and acceptances do not define who we are. We are His and HE is committed to our holiness!