Friday

I promised Bonnie last night that my post would be short and quick and well….it wasn’t. Tonight will be short and comprised of milestones and answered prayer.

First and foremost, the blood lab reports came back today around noon and the Blast cells (the leukemia cells) were 0% of Bonnie’s remaining WBC. Yeah! That was certainly good news and what we wanted to hear. This was the objective of the chemo treatment and the objective was accomplished. Obviously this is an answer to prayer. It’s funny (in an odd way) as I sit here and think about it, it’s so easy to say “this is an answer to prayer” when it goes the way we desire in our heart. Our prayer for Tuesday at 9:00 is that the bone marrow biopsy shows no Blast cells. What if there are Blast cells and it’s not the way we desire? Do we say this isn’t an answer to prayer? I need to remind myself that God answers prayer, but not always in my timing or even what I sometime desire, therefore I need to trust that He knows better than I. Does that mean I cease from crying out to God for complete healing for Bonnie? No, but it gives me a peace and comfort approaching Him knowing that His answer will be far greater than I will ever fully comprehend, including those answers I don’t particularly care for. It’s at this point I usually find myself quoting what I quoted a few posts earlier in the blog……Romans 11:33:

O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways.

Some of you who know me (you know who you are), know that I use this verse as a crutch quite frequently when I get in discussions where I can’t come close to understanding or comprehending an infinite holy God with a finite mind.

Okay, moving on. Bonnie, her mom and I sat in the oncology conference room (that the staff has reserved for us throughout the extended weekend) and watch two hours of live video/audio feed from South Church on the graduation commencement rehearsal. When we went to the room to set up the computer and hook it up to the hospital’s powerpoint projector, we found a room all decorated with “congratulations graduate”, “class of 2009”, balloons, table cloth, etc….Needless to say, that one took both Bonnie and I over the edge emotionally. So tomorrow (Saturday), Bonnie and her mom will be able to sit in this private “decorated” conference room and watch Cassandra’s commencement enlarged on the big screen. What a blessing for Bonnie.

The last bag of this initial round of chemo was finished at 3:00 this afternoon. A milestone. Bonnie did require another unit of platelets as her levels don’t stay in the range the doctors would like to see, but this is common with chemo patients. Her hemoglobin has been stable for several days now. Tonight she has a low grade fever that they are watching. Again, she has all of 12 good WBC in her body to fight off any infection, so they even keep a close eye on even small rashes and blemishes. This weekend is supposed to be boring for Bonnie, however we have been told that the lingering chemo and low cell count will cause fatigue.

I will close with this. When you are in the middle of a storm or crisis, yet able to experience God’s abundant peace, your perspective on things become three dimensional instead of two. I am amazed at how many things that have occurred that one might label as a coincidence. Being in the three dimensional state, you see God’s hand all over everything. I could type up three more pages and only scratch the surface of the number of things we have observed this past week and a half that God has orchestrated. One minor example and then I’m done, as I’ve gone to the second page (again!). Recently I (Steve) was diagnosed with arthritis in my tail bone. For the past few months I find myself ending up in our reclining rocker in the middle of the night because of the discomfort in my own bed. Well, the little couch that extends to a narrow, very firm…rather hard, bed, has yet to cause me an ounce of discomfort for the past 10 nights. We are thankful to God for all things, including the relief on my back which enables me to attend to Bonnie’s needs.

Have a great holiday weekend!