Blessed With Grandparents

My sister forwarded these two pictures to me from Abby's birthday.

Looking at them, I was once again reminded of how great it is to for a child to grow up knowing his/her grandparents.   They are an incredible resource of wisdom, love, support, and encouragement for a child.  They are also the ones who cut your child slack and spoil them crazy when you get too caught up with discipline and rules.  My kids are blessed to have known two set of grandparents and one set of gran grandparents.  That is a lot of loving going their way!  And a lot of answered prayers...

Update on mom:

The news about her health are up from worst to bad.  The doctor said that her liver and some other parts of her body have a mass growing on them.  They will do a liver biopsy to figure out where the cancer is coming from.  Though there is still a lot of unknowns, the doctor confirmed the cancer is not in her pancreas.  This was a huge relief to us.  Though we are still very worried now, we've got more hope.

Difficult Year Ahead...

So we had a really great December.  I was off for two and a half weeks and Peter's job was slow enough that we managed to spend quite a bit of time as a family.   In addition we had a few birthday parties including my mom's surprise 50th which was a blast.    We let our kids stay up late to welcome the New Year and sip sparkling cider with us.  I wish I wrote about December in December because right now our spirit has hit a low point and non of December seems to matter.

Last Thursday, right before we were to leave to the cabin, we were told that my dear mom-in-law probably has a pancreatic cancer which has spread to the liver.   The doctors are supposed to confirm this on Tuesday through a more thorough scan.  Those of you who know about this cancer know that it is pretty ruthless and  takes lives of 95%  diagnosed.  This is because by the time things begin to hurt and one goes to the doctor's office, doctors can do little.

We have cried and cried and cried the last few days.  Just last night all 15 of my husband's siblings and their families who live here gathered together to make peace with each other.    Tension, grief, sorrow, hurt, forgiveness, repented souls, promises to God-- all were witnessed and made yesterday.  Maybe I will write more about some things that were revealed to me yesterday later.

Right now, I ask that you keep our family and especially mama Galya in your prayers.  This woman battled colon cancer mere six years ago.  To say that she has suffered much would be an understatement. 

We had a lot of great things to look forward to this year including my turning 30 and finishing up my master's degree, my husband's and mine 10th year anniversary, and mama Galya's and papa Kolya's 50th....Now, I don't know if any of these celebrations will occur, I just know that the year will be far from festive.