courage is....

my mom 

Courage is being afraid but going on anyhow.  ~Dan Rather
~ mom has pushed forward from the beginning and has personally let me know "i am going to put up a pretty darn good fight, is she afraid, why sure, but going on anyhow....

Courage is the power to let go of the familiar.  ~Raymond Lindquist
~ we have let go of whats familiar as mom has a "new" way of life with dos and don't and much greater appreciation of the day to day things and whats really important (she didn't have to tell me that one)

Courage is fear that has said its prayers.  ~Dorothy Bernard
~the only thing in mom's hospital room i noticed she brought with her is her Bible and bible study books...prayers are in abundance

Optimism is the foundation of courage.  ~Nicholas Murray Butler
~you have to look up or you'll fall down... mom is very optimistic of the life she has ahead of her

Courage is never to let your actions be influenced by your fears.  ~Arthur Koestler
~never have i heard mom speak of the many ways her life has changed this year, never would i know, she hides her fear well...

Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.  Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one.  ~Jane Howard



lucky for mom...she has all of the above.  Today is hard, feeling worse than yesterday which i think is par for the major surgery course?  Still dealing with oxygen, still having drain tubes (which come out maybe tomorrow...yippy!), still fighting the pain to move at all, looking forward to coming home on saturday, radiation to start in a month and go on for about 6 weeks or so.... here are some shots from this afternoon (mimi had my brood, i feel for sure she will enjoy some wine and peace tonight)

this angel showed up to pray with us... i think God knew that we all would be there when she came (Mom, Dad, Chris and i prayed hard....)

i just adore this one... look how HARD my brother is praying for mom...eyes are held as tight as possible, hand clasped just right.... he has been by mom's side most of the week and is a great caretaker too (who knew?)

some fellow angels sent these, if you can't enjoy fall outdoors, bring the fall color in and i must say they are a true delight to look at...

i love the bottom quote and am so so glad to see the world has not taken God out of the hospital

this is MOm's hospital room door, look hard.... as dad sat there one night while mom slept away, he just happen to notice he was truly in the presence of angels even in the wood work of the door.  You can also see the angel outline in the picture above, but i had to zoom in.

There are angels among us!