Updates...

OKAY... well for those of you so sacrificially prayed for me- WE MADE IT! I got through the week of four test. I took a much needed five our nap yesterday. I operate in list form so forgive me for the need of structure.

David Gilbert: This is my new friend and brother David. He was diagnosed with cancer this last summer and is back in treatments. He, from what I hear, is feeling pretty ill from the chemo he is receiving. Katie Bentel told me he just received a "prayer pager" and whenever someone is praying for him they call and it buzzes. There really is something to not feeling alone. I bet it buzzes so much it annoys him : ) (that is what I hope anyways) My heart obviously hurts for him in ways that it never could prior to walking through the disease with my daddy. I want you all to be so encouraged by David's great faith. He never complains or ask why? He often is the one who encourages others, funny how that happens sometimes. Let us keep his family in mind as well.

Amanda Cox: This is part of an e-mail her sister Erin sent me... "Amanda went to the doctor yesterday for her follow up. They removed some of the stitches from her neck. Her cut is about 8" along her collar -bone.
They informed her that the right lobe of her thyroid was completely ate up
with cancer and it had spread to the left lobe. THANK GOD they decided to
remove the whole thyroid because the original plan was to just remove the
right side. There are a few lympnodes that have cancerous cells in them
that they did not get. HOPEFULLY the radiation will kill what is left in
her little body. She is staying strong." We are HOPING and PRAYING that every single cancerous cell will be taken away!!!!

As I pray about these two individuals, I am once again faced with my mortality. Amanda and David are both so young, so courageous, so full of life, and I can't help but to think, even now, how I sometimes feel so removed from these things... like this could never happen to me. The Lord is abundantly patient with me and my limited human mind. I run around like I am in control and calling the shots all to often. Both of their stories stop me in my tracks, point me towards the cross, and cause me to walk confidently in my Jesus rather than in "Kim". We are his workmanship, his craft, made to do his work, and to LOVE & KNOW him deeply. That is all that matters in the end and now anyways. In the last month that my dad was here on this earth, he would start talking to me about "the office" or "work" and then he just stopped and looked at me and would say things like... "Oh, it is all going to be taken care of and go on without me...they really have been for a long time anyways. All that matters now and ever really should have mattered is that I love my God and that He loves me." Isn't it nice how simple life becomes when we look at the cross. I long to gaze upon the cross and the life and love that it brings into every single detail of the time the Lord has us dwelling in these earthly tents. The simplicity of the cross that breeds a life, death, and love that I can never grasp the depths of, covers me, moves me, and makes me whole. We are doing well. God is good, too good for these things called words. I am two finals and one paper away from the semester that I didn't want to be apart of in the first place. God knew that I could do it because He knew that He would do it and so here we are today. Thanks again for the prayers. I feel them everyday inside of me. I love you little family... Kimmy