Really lucky

I received some bad news yesterday afternoon that pretty much knocked the breath out of me. One of my dear sweet friends from college shared with me that her cancer is back with a vengeance. She's only 33. thirty three. And she has been battling this for the past 5 years. five years. Let me give you some background on sweet Jennifer. We met at UNT, and it was an instant friendship. Funny thing is, we both went to MSU the previous year, and saw each other, but never introduced ourselves. God made sure we did at UNT and I am so humbly grateful for that. She is super smart, loves math & numbers, was very responsible in college, she always made time for me and her other friends, and she remained steadfast in her faith. I on the other hand, have some smarts to me but didn't utilize them as much as I should have in college, I loved having a good time and hanging out with people, I wasn't very responsible, but I was steadfast in my faith. She was born and raised Baptist, and I am a cradle Catholic. Neither one of us had any desire to learn more about each other's religion, but we did share the desire to learn more about the bible and to strengthen our personal relationship with Jesus Christ. SO - we found an amazing non-denominational church called Denton Bible Church that had an incredible College ministry to go to together.....to learn together and to grow in together. We would attend services at our own churches, but we would never miss going to DBC together. We went our separate ways after college (she eventually went back and earned her Masters & a teaching certificate), but we still kept in touch. Jennifer is also a runner, and I can not begin to tell you how many 5Ks, 10Ks, half marathons and marathons she has under her belt. She is the one who encouraged and inspired me to pick up running in 2002/2003, and over the next few years I would travel to DFW a couple of times a summer to run in races with her. My last race with her was January 2005 and we went to the Houston Half-Marathon. She was concerned about beating her previous time from her last half, and all I wanted was to get one of those plastic FINISHER medals. We both succeeded.

I got married, had a baby, and pretty much gave up on running. She kept plugging away and got her dad to start running with her. She also stayed strong in her faith knowing that God had a special plan for her, and he would send her someone special for her to spend the rest of her life with when He was ready to. God brought Jen and Eric together, and she knew from the beginning he was the one. It wasn't long after they met that Jennifer found out she had lymphoma, and had to have surgery to have some lymph nodes removed. She also went through some radiation, and had to give herself shots every week as part of her cancer treatment. Guess who offered to give her shots to her. yup - Eric. When she finished her treatments he proposed, & they got married on a beautiful summer afternoon in June, but when they got back from their honeymoon Eric got laid off from his job so they had to move to the Houston area. Jennifer almost had clearance from the doctor to start to trying to conceive, when they found a spot on her lung. Her lung??!?!?!?!! She has never smoked a cigarette in her life! She runs MARATHONS! But alas, that is where it was so after surgery and radiation, she was good. She remained in remission, until this past December when during a routine checkup, they found another spot on her lung. She had some treatments, and I guess the doctors wanted to monitor it these past few months to see if the treatments worked. It didn't. Not only did the tumor on one of her lungs double in size, the cancer spread to her other lung (multiple spots), her liver (multiple spots) and her lymph nodes. She starts chemo next week & if that doesn't work then she has to be admitted to the hospital a week at a time to have biochemo. I have no idea what that is, but it sounds absolutely dreadful.

You know, when I first heard the news my initial reaction was to go crawl in a closet at work and cry. Then I wanted to ask God "Why? Haven't you put her and her family through enough?" (I forgot to mention that Jennifer's mom was diagnosed with breast cancer in January). I realized that is not what I am supposed to do either. I realized that God loves Jennifer so much that He knows she is worthy of this. He knows her strengths, He knows her limits, He knows her better than anyone, and He chose her to go through this. Someone has to right? God chose her to endure this pain, this suffering, these grueling treatments not out of spite, but because she is so special to Him, and He knows that she is so strong in her faith that she can handle this. If that doesn't say a lot about Jen then I don't know what else to say.

I ended my day with a night out with two of my favorite girlfriends. We celebrated a new house for Lauren, and weight loss for all of us despite the "broken" scales at Weight Watchers yesterday. We talked and laughed and talked and laughed and it was just what I needed to end my work week. Knowing Jennifer's story, & listening to their stories of some challenges they are facing in their personal lives reconfirmed my belief that the really lucky people in life don't necessarily have the best of everything. They are the ones that make the most of whatever God throws at them. I am so humbly grateful to have some really lucky people as my friends. Thank you for continually inspiring me to be a better friend, a better mother, a better sister, a better daughter, a better person and most importantly a better child of God.

Remember: The will of God will never take you where the grace of God does not protect you.

Please keep my sweet friend Jennifer in your prayers.

xoxo
sf