"I Hope this is the Worst Thing that Happens in Your Day Today"

As we enter this Memorial Day weekend and spend time with friends and family enjoying time off from work, take some time to reflect on what is important. Rett, Emma and I hope that cleaning up a spilled counter aisle display at the grocery store will truly be the worst thing that happens in your day.

As many of you know, my dear friend Jodi's breast cancer has returned and she is fighting for her life with Stage 4 cancer. Please keep her and her precious family in your prayers. Below is her post from this week.

Happy birthday, Mia!
Love,
Jenna

Let the diaper fiasco be the worst!

Written 8 hours ago by Jodi Allen

It is the eve of my sweet Mia’s birthday and I am thanking God that I get to be a special part of watching her joyfully turn 5 tomorrow.  It will be a busy day as we celebrate Emily’s last day of school at the all school mass and picnic and then follow that with Mia’s birthday party at the gymnastics studio with 10 little friends.  On Saturday morning we plan to sneak out early and head to Bella Vista, AR to meet up with my family for some Holiday weekend fun – that means golf for Jim and hanging by the pool or on a boat on the lake for me.  And the girls will be excitedly soaking up the start of summer with their cousins.
As you know I returned from Disney and hit it first thing that Monday back at chemo.  We brightened up the infusion center that day with a garden tea party complete with big hats, tea, and boxes of Girl Scout cookies.  We had lots of happy patients when they were given a whole box of cookies!  We also gave out a Tea with God reflection poem that ends with…”God warms His hands at a woman’s heart when she prays.”  Pretty neat image, huh.  That was my first rough week. I had a bad case of chemo yucks.  Wednesday I woke in the middle of the night with gushing nose bleeds and vomiting.  The episode really scared me and more than anything emotionally knocked me down.  After such a Disney week high it was the sad reminder of the disease I am fighting. Luckily prayers kicked in big time and I quickly turned around and felt better.  I think a whole lot of it was exhaustion and a bit of depression from returning from the perfect trip.
This past Sunday my dear friend DeeDee flew in to town and lifted my spirits.  She just radiates joy!  She is one of my Texas friends so of course on Monday at chemo we “Gave cancer the boot!” Complete with cowboy boots, hats, bandanas, a stick horse and Texas chocolate brownies!  One gentleman receiving chemo quickly lit up as we was a former bull rider (now what are the odds!)  “Some trust in horses, but WE TRUST in the name of the LORD our God.” Psalm 20:7
So I was a bit anxious this week to see if the yucks were going to set in again and praise God they did not.  I have felt good all week.  Yesterday I had a funny experience & for some reason it just really spoke to me.  I think it was one of those God Winks (those moments God gets your attention in a very interesting way).  I was at the grocery store and my “helpful” four year old decided to push the cart. As I was grabbing the avocados she decided to round the aisle and proceeded to knock over the diaper display on the end cap.  Of course I did the frustrated mom huff and then headed over to start picking them up.  An older gentleman beat me there and was helping to stack diapers.  I told him it was unnecessary and since it was our fault I would take care of it.  He smiled and kept picking up and said..”I hope this is the worst thing that happens in your day today and that you don’t have anything else to worry about today.” Hmm, my first thought was, are you kidding me, this is the least of my problems buddy.  I am fighting frickin stage four cancer and I might not be alive 6 months from now, my nose might just drip blood on my groceries any second, I may vomit when I get to the car from this week’s meds, etc,etc, etc    But then his words just rung in my head and I thought what  if I decided that the diaper fiasco was going to be the worst thing that happened today.  The other things weren’t for sure going to happen and sure enough they didn’t happen that day. They were more things I was wondering if they would ruin my day but they hadn’t even happened yet.  God reminded me that so many of my “worst parts of the day” don’t even happen that day.  That is the ugly word fear! Fear is useless  - what I need to do is trust.  So easy to type – so hard to do! 
So thank you Jesus for the diaper display being the worst thing that day and for reminding me to keep turning to you over and over and over and over and over again and trusting you.
I ask for special prayers for a new experimental drug that my oncologist has approved for me to take privately. It is not FDA approved but has shown promise in a few clinical phase 2 trials.  We are in the process of finalizing access to it, dosing, etc.  And despite insurance not covering this costly drug I trust God has absolutely lead me to it and He has it all as a part of His almighty, miraculous healing plan.
Enjoy your weekend, thank God for our men and women who protect and serve our country, and may little things be your only “worsts” but also the things that remind you to trust almighty God always!
And happy birthday sweet Mia Rose!