5 Days

5 days left until Erin's one year mark!

Today I am thankful for

Acts of Kindness

During Erin's cancer there were many acts of kindness shown our family.  I first think of my dear sweet elderly neighbor who watered my flower boxes everyday.  Miraculously I had planted my flowers early, which ended up being a week or two before Erin was diagnosed with cancer.  My thoughtful neighbor trekked over to our house every day and watered all the flowers in the boxes attached to the front of the house.  My flowers had never looked so beautiful and they haven't looked that beautiful since.  I'm sure it was all because of the love and devotion she showed them.  If it wasn't for her simple act of love I'm sure I would have come home from the long stays at the hospital to a bunch of dead flowers.  Those beautiful flowers were a welcome sight every time I came home.

There were many times that we found surprises our doorstep.  The kids were especially thankful for some cookies that were door-bell ditched.  I just felt bad for whomever it was because they had to run through our sprinklers to get to the front door.

Last Christmas we were the recipients of some serious Christmas love.  For each of the twelve days leading up to Christmas we found a surprise waiting for us on our doorstep.  The kids, John, and I would get so excited each day, and we looked forward in great anticipation to each new surprise.  This act of kindness helped us pass some of the longest days when we were waiting for Erin's counts to come up so we could bring her home and finally be all together with our family.

A few months into Erin's treatment the routine really started to wear on us.  John and I were seeing less and less of each other.  I will always remember my post Two Ships Passing in the Night as John and I passed each other on the freeway during the 2 hour drive from home/hospital when we swapped places.  It was only a month later that John and I weren't able to celebrate our wedding anniversary together.  Some of our close friends threw together a big anniversary surprise for us.  Every detail was well thought out, even down to substitute babysitters for Erin while were away.  We never learned who the generous people were who donated to make our surprise possible, but you can see how happy we were in Our Anniversary Surprise post and know that we are still forever thankful for your thoughtfulness.

Just three days before Erin's second birthday and only 17 days into her first stay at Primary Children's we had a surprise visit from Belle.  I guess there was a patient in ICS that wanted to see Belle and so someone arranged for her to come visit that patient.  While she was in ICS she graciously gave of her time to visit not just that patients room, but she visited almost every other patient in ICS.  There are 24 rooms in ICS and she was there for several hours.  We were the last room in ICS and we were the last family she visited.  She was so beautiful, so kind, and she spent nearly 20 minutes playing with Erin.  She read her books and they chatted about their favorite things.  This Belle was the best princess I've ever seen, and we saw a lot of princesses at DisneyWorld.  I wish there was some way to locate her and tell her how grateful we were for her visit.  She was so thoughtful to spend so much time with Erin.

In the first weeks of Erin's cancer we were given a large amount of cash by a few friends.  It was such a miracle and a blessing because the amount of cash we were given matched (to the dollar) the amount of money we needed to fix our van so we could transport our family to/from the hospital.

I am forever grateful for the many acts of kindness that were shown our family.

"When ye are in the service of your fellow beings, 

ye are only in the service of your God."

(Mosiah 2:17)