www.cancermonster.net

We hung back this morning . . . How do I say this? We hung at the KOA this morning, giving God a little more time to work. Lol

The thing I didn’t want to tell you last night was that when we finally got on the internet and checked our PayPal account there was $10.25 in it. We have about $60 in cash. We can’t use our phones to call for help and we have 1,408 miles to go. HaHa HaHa HaHa

What sane person wouldn’t just flip out? Who in their right mind would set off again with 1/3 tank of gas and no way to fill it?

A Crazy Christian family with more faith than common sense. That’s who. We are now on Hwy 290 heading east.

This last campground was the best we have seen for a while. There is some landscaping here!  While the phones are still on roaming, the internet was swift. We were able to IM Anita and let her know what’s going on. She had some really good news to give us. (read her comment to day 146’s post) We just have to get there and everything is going to be Ok for my family while I get treatment.

This park was on a river! And the kids had a playground to whirl about on. We also picked up pecans and had fun trying to crack them with rocks. The trick is not to use too big a rock!

The water was good here too. We each had a shower and we filled our water tank before shoving off. We got on the road about 9:00a.

I was just daydreaming about getting my hands dirty with clay. Forming something from dirt and water into something beautiful. I sold most of my ceramics equipment, but there is still some things back in a storage unit in Oregon. I can see in my mind the molds I could use to form my pieces. That is my comfort place. Hands covered in wet clay.

12:00p

We are circling Austin City Limits. This is a bittersweet time for us. Austin is the town we thought we were heading towards back at the beginning of the summer. I wish it were an ugly city. It would be easier.

We are also looking for a Walmart. Some amazing people that I love with all my heart, yet have never met have sent some re-enforcements through Walmart’s network. Love sent from Arkansas, picked up in Texas. Amazing.

2:30

My girls and I have been singing prayers to heaven. What a comfort my faith is to me. I wonder how a person would get through something like this without faith.

Family and friends and friends of family and family of friends. Don’t ever let anyone tell you that people don’t care about others anymore.

I know that people are praying that my pain would be managed. I am not “in pain” today. Thank you!

Back in the summer, when I would hike to the back of the river park to call again and again, begging for someone to care . . . For someone to say, “Yes, we will help you.” I would have never believed things could happen this way. Anita reminded me about that last week. She said, “Treese, for as long as I live I promise you will never feel like no one cares again.”

I believe her.

And that is what keeps us driving on.

It’s good to be back on the phone line! We have been on the phone with Dan’s mom a lot today. She has been a huge source of help and inspiration.

4:30p

We are now almost to Tomball, Texas, and my Dear Aunt Shirley. She had young children the first time her CancerMonster reared his head. They gave her a year to live and told her to find homes for her children. She and her kids thumbed their noses at every nay-sayer and proved them wrong. I love this woman. I just can’t wait to hug her neck!

7:00p CST (and I add the Central time for my own benefit. . .)

I am sitting here at Aunt Shirley’s dining room table. She made us a feast. It is wonderful to once again be on solid, unmoving ground. And it is a special treat to be here with my Aunt. We have so much in common.

Then in walks my cousin, Gary. I haven’t seen Gary in 30 years. Funny how time speeds beyond all recognition. And why do we let these things happen? How can you go thirty years without seeing your cousin. We sat and talked a bit. I stared at him until I was seeing through him into our childhood. Playing in Gramma Nora’s humongous yard outside her humongous house. Gary tells me he drove past Gramma’s house a few years past and somehow it must have shrunk. Fancy that.

Huge childhood memories . . . Makes me, once again, wonder how my kids will remember this year of their lives?

We planned to have dinner here with Aunt Shirley and then climb back in the motorhome and drive a couple hundred more miles. Guess what? Lol We are TIRED! And it is very comfortable here. New Plan: We are leaving at the crack of the crack of dawn. (That’s earlier than dawn, you see?) and we will drive on and on and on. We have to make it to SW Florida as early on Sunday as possible. I want to see MY HOUSE for my self!

Anita and the crew in Florida have been working overtime. They picked up the keys to our house today. OUR HOUSE! And they are going to be busy filling it up. My Lord, I don’t know how I deserve any of this. I am really not that great. Just your run of the mill, middle aged mother.

A mother. A wife. A sister. Daughter, niece, and cousin. A Friend.

And that is the ticket I guess.