Saturday, December 4, 2010

Chemo Boxes

Sometime on Tuesday when we were at the doctor my kids got their chemo boxes. They had nice letters and small items to peruse. We just used the same boxes my aunt made for surgery, because they were so nice and fancy. The boxes are clear plastic with their names in fancy computer graphic writing on top. Their cousins are great about sending letters. The CA cousins are thoughtful and cute. The UT cousins' letters make us laugh with their promises of childhood secrets about my husband. NV cousins are fun too.

My mom, the pre-school teacher that she is, put together a packet of activities based on President Hinckley's book "Way to Be" with the nine be-s. She made these to go with the chemo boxes. Each one has a picture, scriptures, activity, song, and a gift. She did this to give the kids something they could do to build their coping skills/spiritual strength. So they would not just feel like they were powerless.

The first one was Be Prayerful. They got pictures of Esther and Daniel. We read the stories from the scriptures and talked about them. My mother-in-law pointed out that those of other faiths prayed for Daniel, and that is also happening for us. I was glad my mom included those two stories, because in both despite the fervent prayers the trial is not taken away, they are just given the resources to get through it. L and C have had experiences where they pray and then find the missing book or whatever. This trial, like most of life, is not that simple. It is not going away, but we are given the resources to get through it. Though I must say it often does not feel that way at the time. If they can begin to learn that at their age instead of however old I was when I started realizing that, then I'll send my mom to Hawaii. Maybe not, but I will be super happy for them.

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