Finding the right words

By now I think most of Sahara's regular readers know I'm a writer in real life. In real life, it is fairly easy to come up with the right words to share something with feeling, to give it life and breath and color. It comes naturally to me, just as Sahara's ability to dribble a ball or gravitate towards the strongest athlete in the room. I don't even try to explain it, I just accept that it's my gift from God and that I have an obligation to do something more with it than write trivial crap.

But that's not always so easy. I'm sitting in my home office watching the sun come up, drinking warm, flat, watered down Diet Coke, and my fingers don't want to move on the keys. I got up to visit the bathroom around 4 this morning (thank you, four iced teas I had at dinner, for that) and stumbled in here to check my messages. And I've been fighting this blogbit ever since.

Amy asked me to dress this up, but I just can't.

Our nightmarish journey to Houston is over. The ice and snow storm in St. Louis were only the beginning of a trip none of us wanted to make. I will say this, however...the people at Southwest Airlines are absolutely wonderful, and I can't say enough about how much they all went out of their way to help us.

They told us at the beginning, when Sahara first got sick, that this was going to be hard. A truer statement was never spoken. Our greatest fears became reality yesterday, when we got Sahara's MRI results. The tumor has not shrunk any more, and has in fact grown since her last MRI on October 30. We knew by the way she's been acting and feeling for the last week that something was not right, and now we know why. We have been given some new options, which we are going to be considering this week. Our prayer is that we will choose the right one, and that God will send us in the direction that we are supposed to follow.

Sahara is feeling a bit better, remarkably, even though she has been through hell these last couple of days. Her steroid dosage has been increased, which helps a lot with everything. She's just glad to be back home, as we all are. And she's looking SO forward to Rick coming in on Friday - it is going to be a such a wonderful time in the middle of the storm we are facing.

We ask for your continued prayers, because we know the power that they hold. As we mull over our options this week, please keep us in your thoughts. As we told Sahara last night, we will never, EVER give up.

With love,
Amy