A New Outlook

Today has been a great day. 1st off my emotions have been on a bit of a roller coaster with the quick turn around from vacation to radiation. I was nervous about getting all of the ducks in a row in preparation for the 1st week of school with sports physicals, dance registrations, new teachers and a new school for my youngest. All of the normal stuff but I am 2.5 hours from the homefront and have done all that I can to prepare everything and now just get to trust that anything that I missed will just work itself out. I didn’t realize how much it was bothering me until I got here and cried for the 1st two days. But today, today was a good day. Ok it’s only 3:30pm but up till now it has been good.

I began the day with my 45 minute drive into town (I am staying with my best childhood girlfriend, Heidi and her family who pastor a little church just north of Eugene.)

Besties since age 12…

I got in early for my radiation appt. And by the way if you ever have to have radiation in Eugene, Oregon (which I pray with all my heart that you don’t), but if you do you need to have Jeff, Morgan and Ritchie be your radiation team. Pretty much the nicest people ever. And it’s good to like your radiation team because you have to get half naked for them 5 days a week for 6.5 weeks. So liking them is a bonus.

When we finished I called up my friend Christy (gomomgoeugene) and Bridger and I headed over to her house to hang out for a bit before they headed off to swimming lessons.

Christy n me 2001

The Rice’s and the Olson’s have a long standing Thanksgiving tradition going that began before Christy and Brooks were even dating. I hadn’t seen her since last November and catching up was so fun. Christy, Brooks, Rod and I all lived together in a college house at the University of Oregon. The house is called The Onyx House. It is  a Christian co-op that houses 60 college kids. Rod and I weren’t exactly college kids, he helped run the place and I worked at the church as an assistant to the college pastor. As I sat there chatting with Christy I was reminded of this whole other life that I had lived. It was a great life with lots of great people and more sweet memories than I can even begin to count.

A few hours later Bridger and I were walking along the river and ran into two amazing women from that same period in my life, Kathy and Vickie. They walked along the river with us for a bit and as we were walking I was thinking back to ladies worship evenings, youth camps and various other events where these  as well as a few other women helped shape my life without even knowing it.

Mr. Wonderful and I have created a whole new life for ourselves down here in The Coos. It’s a great life and we love it. But those years lived in Eugene brought me back “home” again. I came back to Christ and built a foundation from which to launch into the next season of life. I have stayed in contact with several people from those years and now that I am thinking about it maybe my weeks spent in Eugene are to be spent reshoring up that foundation. Reconnecting with people that I love and gaining the strength and confidence to launch into yet another new season of life. A life post cancer that is filled with new hopes and new dreams.

With all my fretting and worrying, I never even considered that God just might have a plan for these weeks in Eugene outside of radiation.

On our way back to Heidi’s I called up my “other mom” Jean who I have known ever since I can remember.  Her and her husband Dennis live in Phoenix now and coincidently scheduled their month long stay in Eugene to be the exact month that I am here for radiation. (Hooray for me!!) Bridge and I popped over there, she fed us lunch (which by the way was not my intention but that’s just what moms do). So all that to say is that my heart, my belly and my life is full.