The Byrum Family

The boys have been sick with really bad colds for the last week. They started to get sick last Friday, the day Uncle Bobby and Auntie Stace were coming into town. Kaden had to miss his little friends birthday party. I wasn't sure if I should just not say anything and hope he didn't remember, or if I should break the news to him. I thought it would be better to just tell him the truth. He had been looking forward to this birthday party for weeks. He was devastated that he was going to miss it, but I just told him that we couldn't risk him getting anyone else sick or him getting sicker. I think he really understood the reason behind it, because after that he was just ok with it. He has really been doing a lot of deep thinking lately. He asked Mike the other day if we were going to live forever. So sweet, complex and innocent of him. I just love hearing his questions and trying our best to answer them. Luckily Mike got that one. :) He has been asking tons of questions about God, I can tell that it really fascinates him to think of all the possibilities and just figuring things out. He is very smart, I can't get anything past him these days.

I have gone back to work 2 nights a week and I love it. It is so great having some time to contribute to the family, and also to just have time away from all the craziness. It has made me feel so refreshed.

My Mom has completed her 4th chemo treatment. She had it yesterday and it all went well. The good news is, her CA-125 blood test, which is a cancer marker blood test they do for ovarian cancer, has gone down from 51 to 11. The doctor was happy with that because the fact that the # is going down means that the chemo is doing its job. The not so good news is she will most likely have to complete all 6 treatments. Due to the type of cancer she has, they are treating it rather aggressively. When they did her surgery, the first thing they did was an abdominal wash. They basically squirt saline solution in there and suck it back up and send that sample off to the lab to determine whether there were cancerous cells floating around. Some cancer cells are really easy to spot and others aren't. She has clear cell carcinoma, which means that some of those cancerous cells look a lot like any other healthy cells. So it is really hard to spot those cells and distinguish them from any other healthy cell. This type of cancer, if not treated properly will often times come back. We are hoping and praying that 6 treatments is enough to knock this out and just be done with it for good. While talking to my Mom yesterday about how her treatment went, she mentioned how eye opening it is being in a place like that. She said she is shocked at how many young people she has seen in there being treated for cancer. It is really has no boundries and it affects the young and the old. It is crazy and so scary. This makes me really appreciate everyday, to love my family more, to just look at even the simplest things differently. It is so cliche to say "live each day like it was your last", but it's so true. Going through something like this with my Mom has really opened my eyes to how fragile life is. To live each day to the fullest and truly appreciate the things we have. To find the good in even a bad situation. I remember back to my Mom was in the hospital after she had had her surgery. She was pretty drugged up and whoozy and I don't even know if she would even remember that day if she tried. We were all pretty upset about the news, it was the evening we found out that it was indeed ovarian cancer. We were all trying our hardest to be strong for her, to not let her see the tears that wanted so bad to drain from our eyes. She looked at us all and reassured us that everything would be ok. She mentioned this verse in the bible....

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." Romans 8:28

She believed that then and she still believes that now. I truly believe that is what gets her up everyday and out of bed, when she doesn't even feel like she can. She is amazing in more ways than I could ever write on here. If you know her already, you know this. There is not one person that meets her that doesn't love her. I remember when i was young, she would make friends in the line at the grocery store. I would come up to her and she would introduce me to someone and I would be like oh how do you know them, and she would say I just met them in the line. You can't meet her and forget her, she is just special and you can see it right away. I love her dearly and she has taught me so many things throughout my life, more things than she probably even knows. I know that she is the reason that I have so much love inside me for others, that I am a great mother to our boys, that I can sympathize and be sensitive to others. Thank you Mom for the gifts that you have given me, for they are truly invaluable.