The C Word

So what's the sassy little stilletto for?

The answer in part is that Mother, the one we affectionately refer to as our "Maternal Person", has breast cancer.


Breast cancer.


The C word.


Boy, that word just knocks the wind right out of you. What on earth are you supposed to do with a cancer diagnosis?! It's terrifying! What if this? And what if that?

FEAR! Fear is overwhelming and immobilizing! The Bible commands us over and over "Fear not!"

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart

and lean not upon your own understanding" Prov 3:5

I suppose that's why it's called a "leap of faith". You have to look across a yawning abyss of the unknown and what if's and jump over that menacing blackness to a place of trust and peace... That means it's not easy. It takes guts, and strength, and chutzpah to have faith. Didn't God tell us to believe in and pray for miracles? How can we learn to operate that way automatically unless we are tested with real live, scary, challenging, painful struggles that require us to have cajones enough to trust God to intervene? The C Word (cancer, not cajones) requires a leap of faith, faith in action, not being immobilized by fear, leaning into God's immeasurable strength and power, and relying upon His ever-sufficient grace.

Of course, that doesn't mean that you don't deal with fear at all. It means that when something rattles you all the way down to your core, you CHOOSE to trust in Jesus, place that issue into God's hands fully willing to submit to His Will no matter what it may be, and you choose to push fear away and say "NO!" to it.

It's one of the essencial challenges in the Christian walk... learning to "Fear Not!" and trust God through the really scary stuff.

Like cancer.

Now, Maternal Person, she's a rock. She's a Jesus-following-veteran who's learned to rest in God's Will. Scripture says, "Fear not" and so she does not! Really. She has not worrying about the "what if's" down cold. She's a brick. She's more worried about how everyone else is doing, Poppy and us kids and grands. See what a mean? A brick!

She's choosing faith, and rejoicing in what great things the Lord will do through this experience, and deciding to live through it with JOY! Shoot, I wish that was an ability that could be passed down genetically. Like a love of really rockin' shoes.

A few details: Her prognosis looks good since her lymph nodes appear to be clear. We'll know more after the MRI results come in. We're confident that she is going to be OK, but treatment will include lumpectomy and radiation, possibly mastectomy and chemo. No fun.

An added bonus is that she's spent the last 2 1/2 months in a wheelchair and then finally a walker because a couple of days before Thanksgiving she tripped and fell and broke her leg! For real... no sassy shoes for her in months and months... just a big cumbersome brace.

We were joking that she's going to have to walk into the hospital for boobie surgery leaning on a cane because of her broken leg! That's a real knee slapper, don't you think?! Oops, not a knee slapper for her, though... Ouch! It's a wonderful thing that our mama has a wicked sense of humor. She never lets the tough stuff get her down.

So, I know you're waiting for the second part of the answer to the question above. Well, you'd just have to know our mama to get how much she would loooove these kickin' pumps.

So, if the breast cancer pink ribbon shoe fits...


and for now you have to wear it...


it might as well be smokin' hot!

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea,
though the waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging."
Ps 46:1-3 (italics mine)