Dear Reader:

I would hate to have to count back throughout my life to see how many promises I made and then, unfortunately, how many I kept. Such is not the case with God and His promises.

There comes a moment in everyone’s life, when facing the possibility of our own mortality, when we find ourselves falling on our knees and making a promise to God. It is an universal prayer. A prayer for more time. (Probably the most requested prayer of all.)

The quote: “Time is more precious than money, because you can always make more money, but you can’t buy back time” is so true if you have ever gone through that experience.

After Eva Cate was born April 27, 2010 my whole outlook on time changed. For two years I had been living with rather bleak predictions and outcomes of my particular form of breast cancer and I had started facing the consequences of that possibility….but suddenly there was a grandchild coming. I was going to get to see my first grandchild during my lifetime! Now time became of the utmost essence!

It was about then that I started writing a diary to Eva Cate (my little “Butterbean”) telling her about me and how much I loved her while she was still growing and getting ready to join the family. I ended the diary with Eva Cate’s birth and my excitement over it…..I believe the last page talked about the Chapel of Hope and the message I left there the first time I went…written on the back of a photo I had….a picture of me, Mandy, and Eva Cate.

On the back I wrote the famous quote by  William Blake: ‘Love is the child that breathes our breath. Love is the child that scatters death.’ (Little did I know how appropriate that quote would be.)

It was then that I privately made a plea to God…that I would love to live long enough to see Eva Cate graduate from kindergarten.

Since my own father had died when I was five…and I had a few memories of him….maybe Eva Cate would remember a few memories of me if I could make it that long. My promise was to find a way to help others, using the gifts God gave me… if I could have that time.

And now here it is. (I must admit that strange combo of viruses I fought for about a month had me a little worried a few weeks ago…was hoping I would not drop the ball this close to my goal.)

Jackson’s mother, our beloved “Mama Mia,” and I would talk on the phone weekly when she was valiantly fighting her brain cancer while I, also, struggled with breast cancer. We each confided our potentially final goals.

Hers was to see Jackson retire. When we realized that this probably wasn’t going to happen we dressed up like sunflowers (some of you might remember) and played out Jackson’s retirement on Jackson’s birthday. Mama Mia passed away just weeks later…satisfied knowing Jackson was officially retiring.

Of course, out of this promise to God, came the blog. And time, so far, to see three more amazing, adorable grandchildren enter this world. I am one lucky gal and I know it!.

So until tomorrow…Let us never forget that time is more precious than gold….especially time making memories for eternity.

“Today is my favorite day”  Winnie the Pooh