Celebration and Sorrow

This is a story of two families that spent many hours together in the heat, the cold, the windy, the rainy and the perfect weather behind the fence surrounding a softball field.  We all knew that this was just a taste of life, watching our daughters play ball.  We knew there was so much still ahead for them to experience, to enjoy, to fulfill their destinies.  This was a team of families that cheered for each player as their own daughter.  Celebrating their success today, anticipating their success tomorrow.

Five years ago, these two families' lives came to a fork in the road that wasn't anticipated, neither was it a desirable twist of curves and cliff edges.  One Friday morning, with both doctors out of the office,  a very nervous nurse had to share what could be a life changing diagnosis and it required urgent treatment.  Interestingly enough, when the sweet nervous nurse said the word 'melanoma', this momma felt a resolve rise from a faith I didn't yet know I had, and this resolve was simply "we will overcome this".  Yes, there was some initial fear but mostly it was a feeling of sadness that my daughter had another medical issue to deal with.

So the phone calls began to schedule surgery to remove a larger portion of the tissue where the melanoma had been located.  Plans were being made to go on with life.  Work this procedure in asap while conducting life as normal.

In the late hours of that Friday, the other family's road hit its curves and cliffs.  The uniformed law officer rang the doorbell in the early morning hours (was he nervous too?) to share that their daughter lost her life in a car accident.  There wasn't a chance for resolve to rise that  'she will survive this'.  There wasn't any phone calls to seek urgent medical treatment.  This life was over.  Period.

The following Thursday this little town saw one of the largest attended funerals in many years, if not in its history.  Christina Lavone "Beaner" Collins touched more lives than she could ever have imagined.  She was one smart, talented, athletic, energetic and honest young lady.  As the funeral came to its close, we rushed off for Jody to have the surgery that would confirm that ALL of the cancerous cells were removed.

One life laid to rest, one life starting a new beginning.  One family learning how to live without a daughter, a sister.  One community learning to live without a friend, a ray of sunlight.  One family learning how to live believing in answered prayer in spite of medicine's shadow of grim prediction.

It's been five years.  Interestingly, God had Jody randomly run into the Collins family on the 5 year mark of the diagnosis and the accident.  Hugs and laughter were exchanged.  You wonder, you hope, that there was some comfort and healing for all in those few minutes together.

Over these last years, further moles have been removed for testing.  The praise worthy news is that before the melanoma, all biopsies came back with dysplatic cells, meaning abnormal with a higher propensity for becoming cancerous.  The last biopsy, and I remember praying as the doctor removed it that this cancer was done and over, came back completely normal!!  It's been five years.  It's the landmark for medicine to declare her cancer free.  But I believe God declared the cancer to be gone five years before as an answer to prayers.

So while my heart celebrates God's goodness in answering this prayer, my heart feels sorrow for the hole left with Christina's death.  There are questions unanswered about her eternal home.  We find hope in knowing she heard the gospel and could have responded at any moment.  It's one of those questions we won't have an answer to until we arrive at our eternal destination as well. 

While I celebrate today and praise Him for the plans He has for Jody, I also pray for the Collins family, that they may feel His comforting presence and embrace the plans He has for them as well.

May the God of your hope so fill you with all joy and peace in believing (through the experience of your faith) that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound and be overflowing (bubbling over) with hope.  Romans 15:13 Amplified Bible