My mommy

My mom is the best mom ever. She has always been there for us; she has always been loving and supportive. She is the best. I have always been able to count on her for everything, if I have questions about anything I can call her and get a great answer. She raised 3 children as a single mom and never EVER never even once made any of us feel like a burden in any way. She did her absolute best to teach us right from wrong, to encourage us to excel in whatever we tried, to always be there for us. She is the best. If I can even be half as good of a mom to my sweet children as my mom has been, they will be truly blessed. My mom is a woman of tremendous faith and with the capacity to love more than anyone I know. She is a rock in so many people's lives. She is amazing. She is strong. She is faithful.

And so, on March 16 when I sat in a room with a gynecological oncologist and 3 nurses and heard them tell my sweet, strong, amazing mother that she has cancer, I felt like I had to be the strong one for her. But I went in the bathroom and bawled and bawled and was so so so scared for my mom and for all of the people who need her in their lives and I prayed harder than I've prayed for anything before in my life that she would make it through and be ok.

Fast forward to today, May 31. Its been 2 1/2 months since that day and these have been some of the best and worst days of our family's life. Good in that we have seen how many people love and support my mom. We have had so many prayers and fasts and just a tremendous outpouring of love from everyone who knows her...and we all thank all of you for that. She had a pretty crazy intense surgey on April 2. But she came out with flying colors, after the initial icu scare. She has stage 3c ovarian cancer and stage 1 uterine cancer, technically 3 primary cancers so its crazy how well she is actually doing. It had spread pretty far but miraculously did not get inside any of her vital organs, but she sure had a lot of non-essential organs removed. It is a testament to me that prayers work that none of her vital organs had to be removed...as the surgeon was fairly certain there were be a lot of that done. (One of her tumors alone was estimated to be 7 lbs and she had multiple tumors and they seemed to have gotten them all).She has had a rough recovery, I won't go into details because she wouldn't appreciate that, but its been rough. Its been rough on her and its been rough on all of us who have been helping take care of her. But again, a blessing to see how much love and support there is out there. I know that Heavenly Father is mindful of her and he is blessing her with strength and perseverance.

She is not yet healed completely from surgery, but after 8 weeks they decided to go ahead and start her crazy crazy chemo last week anyway. She has day 1: 4 hours iv chemo in a clinic (which ended up taking over 7 hours) and day 2: 8 hours intraperitoneal chemo inpatient hospital (which we were actually there for about 12 hours), and day 8: 4 more hours in the hospital. That will happen in 2 days. Then on day 22 it starts all over again, for 6 cycles. Its a pretty intense and grueling chemo treatment, but their studies show that it gives and average extended life expectancy of 16 months. So far she is doing pretty ok with the side effects. We knew it would be rough, so we've expected that. But she is doing ok. She is strong. She is awesome. I love her so much and am grateful for every day that Heavenly Father allows her to stay on this earth and bless the lives of others. She is an inspiration to me and watching her go through this has been hard, but its just another example of strength and faith that she has shown. She still has a long, hard stretch ahead of her, but she can do it and I believe that she will be ok. :)

Every prayer that Aspen and Mia say includes "please bless grandma will feel better." Sweet girls. They must take after my sweet, sweet mommy.