This Says It All

When you have a minute, take a look at this roughly three minute You Tube video made by a woman who has been living with metastatic breast cancer for 17 years (!).

She is trying to educate people who don't understand that metastatic cancer is quite different from Stage I-III cancer, and she covers it very nicely.

Lots of people ask me if I am in remission and it is hard to explain that I can never really be done with treatment.  It kind of deflates people who are enthusiastic about beating this disease.  So, I offer you Holley Kitchen to explain how it is.

Holley is a great example of someone like me who is living a fairly normal life with metastatic cancer.  She, like me, fights for her kids.  And they are SO worth it!

How Do I Do It?

People ask me this question a lot.  They ask me when they learn I have seven children.  Then they REALLY ask me when they hear I have seven children AND Stage IV cancer.

My response is more or less always the same:  I don't do it well all the time, I rely on God's grace to do anything well at all, and what else can I do when I have a family that needs me besides soldier on?  Then I tell them that they would do the same if they were me.  

That always makes them stop and think for a minute.  The response I usually get at the end of the pause is something to the effect of:  Well, I guess you're right.  What else can you do?

Some people go so far as to say that I am some sort of saint.  Hardly!  I struggle just like everyone else does.  Yes, I want to be a saint and I want my children to be saints (hence the name raisingsaints), but working toward that every day does not mean that I have or ever will reach that goal on earth.

I know a few real saints-to-be here on earth, and I am not that.  Try as I might, I get crabby with my kids and snap at my husband from time to time without real cause.  I am quite lazy and like to sleep as much as possible.  I tend to put off my work until the last minute which is not saint-like at all!  I forget to think outside of my family some days and have a hard time saying no to foods I like.  I could go on and on...

I write this because I want everyone to know that I am a regular person just like all of you are and the only remarkable think about me is that I have survived Stage IV cancer and its treatments for 5 and a half years, and you must know this has been completely out of my control!  God has been very good to me and my faith in him is strong.  I worry about very little and trust anything that is out of my control to him, and that is working well for me.

Some days I do well, but only because of the energy I have prayed for.  Some days not so well.  But every day I try and try again to be what God wants me to be and as long as I keep trying I am doing alright.

So, in a nutshell...THAT'S how I do it!  And you can do it too.