So I didn’t exactly sleep much last night. The steroids were keeping me up. I’ve had steroids for bronchitis before and had the same issue! My heart was pounding a little too hard and I just wasn’t sleepy. I went to the basement to sleep on the sectional, and ended up reading for awhile from a book that one of my soapmaking friends sent to me: “God Will Carry You Through” by Max Lucado. He weaves together the story of Joseph from the book of Genesis with testimonials of contemporary people who learned to trust God through their difficult times. Here’s the quote that jumped off the page at me:

If you see your troubles as nothing more than isolated hassles and hurts, you’ll grow bitter and angry. Yet if you see your troubles as tests used by God for his glory and your maturity, then even the smallest of incidents takes on significance.

God Will Carry You Through by Max Lucado, pg 67

This is exactly what God has been teaching me lately!!

I got up around 7:30 to get breakfast – yes, I was actually hungry! My digestive system just feels a bit “off” today. Some of it from the treatments, I’m sure and some from just lack of sleep. I had to take 2 more steroid pills with breakfast, and that made me feel all jittery again. My mouth has felt extra dry, which makes me drink the water I need! The roof of my mouth and my tongue are starting to feel like they’ve been burned on hot pizza (which is ironic since I haven’t been able to eat pizza for at least a year now due to food allergies!). My friend who just came through treatments told me this is how her mouth felt. Fortunately, food doesn’t seem to taste any different just yet. Flavors just aren’t quite as strong.

My mother-in-law has been staying in town with Kent’s brother, and she came over to have lunch with us and go with me and Kent to my diagnostic mammogram appointment this afternoon. It was great to spend a little time with her! After lunch, my tummy was feeling a little bit “off” so I decided to take an anti-nausea pill just to be safe since I was headed to my appointment soon. The good news is that it not only helped my tummy, but it was counteracting the jittery feeling from the steroids!

The diagnostic mammogram was to determine what had come up on my MRI on the left side from December 13. They had already done a follow-up ultrasound and couldn’t find anything. I had an excellent tech who did my mammograms – I think we started with 3 or 4 images and they were looking at a spot that was right up into my armpit, so it was pretty tight up in there! She ended up calling me back 2 more times, different angles each time, but we finally got the images that the breast specialist radiologist was looking for. She sees some very tiny calcium clusters and believes this is what the MRI was showing. I will be scheduling another needle biopsy with her after the new year – hoping that this will be benign just like it was the last time they biopsied some calcium clusters very near this site of clusters in 2014.

After we got home, I was definitely feeling drowsy enough for a nap, so I took a good one!! Kent woke me up an hour and a half later for dinner, and my tummy again felt a bit “off” after eating, but I just chewed a piece of gum and it settled back down.

We are very fortunate that our church broadcasts their services online, so we were able to watch the 7:00pm Christmas Eve candlelight service from home and light our own candles!

Tara joined us for the service, Kylie was sleeping – she hasn’t been feeling well. šŸ™

I loved hearing about the different Christmas stories from each of the gospels! All four depict Jesus differently and focus on different aspects of his character and who He is. Matthew declares him as KING. This is the only gospel where you will find the story of the wise men (also known as the Three Kings) who come in search of Jesus, the baby born King of the Jews (Matthew 2:1-3). Mark shows him as SERVANT. He opens his gospel with the story of Jesus submitting to His Father’s will for him to be baptized. When the Father calls Him away from his career as a carpenter to start his ministry, Jesus goes. (Mark 1:14) Luke is where you find the original birth story. He reveals Jesus’ HUMANITY. Born of a virgin, but without sin. He was tempted as we are, knows our trials, knows what it feels like to be human! Finally, John’s gospel is all about knowing that Jesus is GOD. It opens with the creation story – Jesus was there from the beginning, He was with God and he IS God (John 1:1-5). In fact, John says he wrote this book so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name (John 20:31).

Praying you are as blessed as I am this Christmas season!! I’m so very humbled by the outpouring of love and prayers from so many from all over the world! Grateful to the Lord for bringing each one of you into my life for such a time as this. Side effects are definitely minimal so far – thank you for your continued prayers!!