Email 1/5/10

Hi!

Wow, I'm not often at a loss for words but I am trying to find the right ones at the moment. The past 5 days have been incredibly rough on my body. From surgery to infection to bad side effects from medication, it's a week I'm more than ready to put in the books. The results of the pathology report came back and it was a mixed bag. Good news: uterine cancer contained. Good news: The uterine cancer and having a hysterectomy was God's way of pointing out that I have ovarian cancer that they never would have found in time enough to treat otherwise. Bad news: The specific cancer cells involved in the ovarian cancer are particularly bad so even though it was caught early chemotherapy will be required. It will occur over a period of months and has an incredibly good success rate.

Admittedly this is not exactly the news I'd wanted to hear. Nor is it the worst news I could have heard. My trials of the last 4 years of illness and especially the past month have certainly not been fun but if anything they have confirmed my belief in the Scriptures and the God Who authored them. Not one thing that has happened to me falls outside the parameters of what He said... sin brought with it great brokenness, Christians are not immune to pain, and a Savior came and died my death and rose from the grave to give me eternal life. I still wouldn't trade Jesus for anything.

Thanks for praying for and loving me. Though I have been too sick to respond to most of the texts and emails, they encourage me more than you know. Please keep praying. Though I am assured of Christ's presence the next few months, I am not promised ease and I want more than anything in the world to stand before Him faithful on the final day. Your prayers are a key part of that fueling that quest for me. And please keep praying for my doctor and friend Kent as he battles his cancer too. Thanks.

Love,
Kathy