thankful

tonight i am thankful for many things. at this moment i'm abundantly grateful that peter and i get to get away from it all for the rest of the month and go lie on a beach and swim in the ocean. i'm exhausted from trying to get ready for the past few days - and from trying to stay up later purposefully in order to (hopefully) not be as jet-lagged when we get to hawaii. five hours is a big difference...

today a woman from church - a friend and the mother of some of the youth i've worked with - had major surgery. about six months ago she received a stage IV breast cancer diagnosis, and thus far despite her diagnosis, she has "amazed" the doctors with how well she has responded to the chemo, and the surgery went well. next she has to go through radiation treatments.

watching this whole process has shown me amazing things. it has inspired me, and reminded me who is really in control.

peter and i didn't know when we planned the vacation we're about to go on that things would be how they are right now. we couldn't know what would happen. and yet both of us are sucking wind just trying to push through the rat race to get there. to take a breath of fresh air away from everything else that's happening.

don't get me wrong - we've received many blessings. right now the wind has just died down, and we feel a bit stuck. so, we're both extremely grateful that chris lives in hawaii, and that we have the means to go and visit him.

in the words of sheryl crow:

iiiiiiiii'm gonna soak up the sun,

gonna tell everyone to liiighteenn uuup.

see you in march!

hopefully with a nice tan...