I just received a sweet, sweet note from dear friends and neighbors just now.\u00a0 It read:<\/p>\n
Words.<\/em><\/p>\n Wish I knew some.<\/em><\/p>\n I have been diagnosed with breast cancer, officially today, and as bluntly as that sounds, it shocks no less stated differently.\u00a0 It’s how I was told yesterday, point blank, holding the hands of a stranger, lying alone on a paper covered table in a dimly lit exam room.\u00a0 I received the call with the biopsy results just an hour ago, confirming what my gut and Dr. Cupples already knew.<\/p>\n I can’t say that I’m angry.\u00a0 Or sad.\u00a0 Yet.\u00a0 I have, a few times in the past 24 hours, questioned God.\u00a0 What else?\u00a0 Why now?\u00a0 But for the other 23.5 hours in the day, I’ve played with the girls, cleaned house and I’m doing what I do.\u00a0 Today, however, I’m savoring those little mundane tasks a bit more than I might otherwise.\u00a0 I drove to Wal-Mart to buy Pledge and thoroughly enjoyed my coffee and the beautiful morning drive.\u00a0 I made grilled cheese and chicken noodle soup for lunch and asked McCanless to say her own prayer so I could hear her sweet voice and personal requests.\u00a0 I had the girls nap-and they did so quite easily for once- so I could quietly blog, vent, enjoy the hum of the den ceiling fan alone.\u00a0 I’ve often thanked God today, something that I should do everyday despite the circumstances.\u00a0 I’m living.\u00a0 I’m learning.<\/p>\n It comes as no surprise to my family that I’m being nonchalant about it all. Although, I’m not really trying to be.\u00a0 Ironically as it sounds, I’ve never been much of a talker or worrier, for that matter.\u00a0 I can easily pour my heart and soul out on my blog somehow though.\u00a0 This is where they see a small window into my brain.\u00a0 I truly wish I was better at it in person, but I’m not.\u00a0 So I blog.<\/p>\n It’s odd.\u00a0 I feel like only women over 40 get breast cancer.\u00a0 I do still have 6 more years to go!<\/em> Yesterday, I could only think of my dear friend, Betsy, who lost her mother to breast cancer when we were in elementary school.\u00a0 First grade, I think.\u00a0 She left behind Betsy’s older brother and my curly haired friend at such tender ages.\u00a0 I always ached for Betsy, but never with the understanding as I do now.\u00a0 I always thought of Betsy.\u00a0 Yesterday, every ounce of my being and my every thought was with her mother and how painful it was knowing she was leaving her babies behind.<\/p>\n Yesterday, Mel and I ate and laughed and ate some more to deal with the news.\u00a0 Mel is definitely a stress-eater.\u00a0 I was simply along for the ride, but we couldn’t help but laugh together.\u00a0 It’s what we<\/em> do.\u00a0 In fact, he’s already designed our “Relay for Life” t-shirts to read:\u00a0 Half-a-heart, half-a-boob and half-a-brain.\u00a0 (We’re still working on a “half” nickname for McCanless.)<\/p>\n I’m certainly not the first to fight this battle and I’m not the only one.\u00a0 I know I’ll beat this.\u00a0 I have no doubt in my mind.\u00a0 It’s just another bump in the road that forces us to stop dead in our tracks and realize that we aren’t in control.<\/p>\n There are no words to explain how I feel right now.\u00a0 There aren’t enough words to explain how thankful I am for my life and everyone in it.\u00a0 Just like Bec’s note, I’m not sure of what to say or how to say it. I do know we have so many on our side and if my MC can beat the odds and make it through three open-heart surgeries and Epilepsy with her tiny half-heart, this will be a piece of cake for me.\u00a0 Pink<\/em> cake!<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I just received a sweet, sweet note from dear friends and neighbors just now.\u00a0 It read: Words. Wish I knew some. I have been diagnosed with breast cancer, officially today, and as bluntly as that sounds, it shocks no less stated differently.\u00a0 It’s how I was told yesterday, point blank, holding the hands of a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6335"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6339,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6335\/revisions\/6339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}