To all who will read this...

...Life IS good in 2010! And nearing the end of this year I can say this will all surity. Early in the year I was diagnosed with breast cancer just two weeks before a close friend lost her battle with cancer. We spent her last night in the hospice center and the next night in the birthing center for an emergency c-section and the birth of our fourth beautiful and healthy granddaughter. Just a few weeks later, the day before going in the hospital for a masectomy, our neice passed away taking most of my family out of state for services the day after my surgery. Shortly after they returned complications from a rare blood disorder reared its ugly head that kept me in the hospital the better part of three months including ICU. Doctors actually gave up on me and asked our pastor to prepare my family for my death but God and I had other plans and here I am. While in ICU our oldest son (father of the newborn) was deployed to Iraq. We are very proud of him but miss him a whole lot and long for the day he is home safely in our arms. Now when I went in the hospital I was the only one in my family with cancer but while still in the hospital my father was diagnosed with stage 3 cancer. He has now completed chemo and surgery and is now in the radiation phase of his recovery for which the prognosis is very good. But then just before I got out of the hospital my mother-in-law had a stroke, was put in the hospice hospital, and finally passsed away the week I came home. I was not able to make the trip to her funeral either and my husband barely made it because during that same week he fell and broke a rib at work. His sister was not able to make it because she was in another hospital out of state preparing for a lung transplant. Today my husband is back at work after being out for six weeks and several surgeries later I am home but still not back at work; I still have a couple of more surgeries to go. Both out of work at the same time, minus six months salary and with numerous extra medical expenses when I saw a Life is Good in 2010 t-shirt in the hospital gift shop...I just had to have it. No matter what, I really believe and want to declare to all that Life was good in 2010!

By the grace of God I have beat breast cancer, a blood disorder, obesity, and some say death itself; my husband has his health back; we are the parents of a safe soldier; we have a beautiful new grandchild (with another on the way!); my dad is on his way to health; we still have hope for my sister-in-law; we hold precious memories of our friend, our neice, and our Mom; and...I am the proud owner of a t-shirt that states, "Life is Good in 2010!"