In February we always celebrate our first grandbaby’s birthday! We celebrate the engagement of my son and daughter-in-love. The month of hearts and love is always a time of celebration at our place. I love this season of life and as is obvious whenever I’m around my grandbabies, …I fully intend to cling tight to each one of them and rock, coo, cuddle, play, make silly faces, and love, love, love them for hours and hours…or at least for the youngest, until their diapers need changing…hahaha.
I take it as my God-given perogative…no, responsibility to totally spoil any grandbabies that come into the family! I’ve told everyone I’m going to be the “cool” grandma. It is not meant as a slight on Matt’s mom or on my daughter-in-law’s mom. I have to be the “cool” grandma because Chandler’s Mom is the “hostess with the mostess” and Grandma Rollings has the undisputed title of best baker, cook and domestic goddess. I bow to their expertise.
Me? I don’t have many domestic skills…none actually. The thing I do best for dinner is make reservations! No, I’ve decided I’ll have to take up riding a Harley or something, maybe get a tattoo,… something to edge in the “cool factor”. (I can just hear my kids rolling on the floor laughing hysterically. “Mom ride a Harley?…get a tattoo?…yeah, right??!!” ) Okay, enough sarcasm, I guess I won’t be that cool!
On Feb. 20, 2011 as we waited expectantly for our new grandbaby to arrive on the scene, I also celebrated the 10th anniversary of my breast cancer diagnosis. Now I ask you…how “cool” is that??
If someone had told me on that day that ten years later I would be looking forward to holding my first grandbaby in my arms, I wouldn’t have believed them. If someone had said on that day in the next ten years you would be hired as Children’s Minister at your church, you would go to seminary to get your Masters, you would see your daughter married and graduate from university, and you would publish not one but three books; I would have laughed bitterly and then shook my head because on that day I did not think I had a future or a hope. All I thought of on that day was that I had cancer and it was a death sentence.
I came across this video and invite you to watch it as it describes exactly the emotions I felt on that day!
On the day I discovered I had breast cancer I felt knocked out. It was all I could do to pick myself off the canvas and fight back. On my own strength I suppose I would have been “down for the count” but I did not rely on my strength. My strength comes from the Lord and on that day as I wept before the Lord, He gave me this scripture:
10 I said, “In the prime of my life
must I go through the gates of death
and be robbed of the rest of my years?”11 I said, “I will not again see the LORD,
the LORD, in the land of the living;
no longer will I look on mankind,
or be with those who now dwell in this world.12 Like a shepherd’s tent my house
has been pulled down and taken from me.
Like a weaver I have rolled up my life,
and he has cut me off from the loom;
day and night you made an end of me.13 I waited patiently till dawn,
but like a lion he broke all my bones;
day and night you made an end of me.14 I cried like a swift or thrush,
I moaned like a mourning dove.
My eyes grew weak as I looked to the heavens.
I am troubled; O Lord, come to my aid!”15 But what can I say?
He has spoken to me, and he himself has done this.
I will walk humbly all my years
because of this anguish of my soul.16 Lord, by such things men live;
and my spirit finds life in them too.
You restored me to health
and let me live.17 Surely it was for my benefit
that I suffered such anguish.
In your love you kept me
from the pit of destruction;
you have put all my sins
behind your back.18 For the grave cannot praise you,
death cannot sing your praise;
those who go down to the pit
cannot hope for your faithfulness.19 The living, the living—they praise you,
as I am doing today;
fathers tell their children
about your faithfulness.20 The LORD will save me,
and we will sing with stringed instruments
all the days of our lives
in the temple of the LORD.Isaiah 38:10-20
So for our family February seems to be a stellar month. It is my “milestone” month and a time to rejoice that I’ve been able to praise God another year. The fact that it is “The living, the living – they praise You, as I am doing today; [grandmother] tell your [grandbabies] about Your faithfulness…” (vs. 19)
Now that is what I call pretty cool ! Oh, and in case anyone was wondering…I’m celebrating being cancer-free since 2001!
God is good!
Lynn Dove's Journey Thoughts 