Angelina's Tawdy to the Pawdy

You have heard, of course, that Angelina Jolie is following in my footsteps?  She is a bit late in her arrival but with all those kids and that gorgeous husband we will forgive her.  (Can you imagine trying to care for all those children and trying to stare at your husband all the time, too?  How does she get anything done?  And doesn't the drool interfere with things?  I shopped with Mr. Hotty at Big Lots once and then he took me for ice cream at Baskin Robbins afterwards and I sure couldn't eat.  Ha - now we know how she keeps her gorgeous body...but I digress...and yes, that's true - Big Lots and Baskin Robbins right here in Metry!  Okay so he didn't exactly take me there and maybe I was sort of stalking him once I saw him, but my memory is fuzzy...)

So let's move on from Sigourney Weaver to Angelina...what do she and I have in common?  When I heard her interview, she answered the way any caring mother would.  The answer that comes from a mother's heart and is the reason that we do so much of what we do.  Why would you go through all of that/this/whatever if you didn't have to?  The answer is so simple - I want to be here for my kids as long as possible.  (Sorry, Brad, she didn't even mention you.  But I bet your mother would.) 

When I first heard my diagnosis, the only thing that scared me out of my mind was the possibility that my children would grow up without me.  Without a mom at those recitals, school plays, graduations.  Without a mom's input for life's important decisions.  Drawing a line of symmetry in their lives...that was before/after my mom died.  First dates, vacations, sweet sixteens.  I thought back to a friend who died of cancer whose only desire was to sew the wedding dress for her teenager that she would never see her wear.  So me and Angie...yep, we're tight like that. 

Happy Belated Mother's Day to all my friends who are in sync with me and Angie.   Here's a gift for you, but I have a disclaimer.  Before I had children this poem used to make me sad.  I honestly didn't get it.  But I do now.  Yes, I will die and leave my children one day.  But in a perfect world, I will be old, wrinkly, and have a very full head of gray hair.  I will leave knowing that I left the world a better place simply by bringing these two amazing beings into the world.  And through them I will touch the future.    

On Children
 Kahlil Gibran
Your children are not your children.
They are the sons and daughters of Life's longing for itself.
They come through you but not from you,
And though they are with you yet they belong not to you.
You may give them your love but not your thoughts,
For they have their own thoughts.
You may house their bodies but not their souls,
For their souls dwell in the house of tomorrow,
which you cannot visit, not even in your dreams.
You may strive to be like them,
but seek not to make them like you.
For life goes not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
You are the bows from which your children
as living arrows are sent forth.
The archer sees the mark upon the path of the infinite,
and He bends you with His might
that His arrows may go swift and far.
Let your bending in the archer's hand be for gladness;
For even as He loves the arrow that flies,
so He loves also the bow that is stable.

Friday Update

If you noticed that I missed a Friday Update, that would be because I was in a chemo haze that was the worst yet.  Not only did I feel terrible but I was unable to sleep, which meant there was no escape.  Thank goodness it ended and I was able to return to the land of the living this week. 

Yesterday's blood work looked great and we are on track for the last round of cocktails for this phase of the journey.  The great news is that this is it - one more and I will be celebrating.  The not-so-great  news is that there are still many more drugs to come; however, that has a silver lining in that the phase 2 cocktails are not supposed to make me feel as bad as the phase 1 cocktails.  Stay tuned!