The Village...

Yes... I know this is the title of a good, though suspense-filled movie...and so I tried a couple of times to come up with a different title for this post, but I just couldn't.

I played with titles involving the word family... and then with words like 'loved ones' to encompass friends AND family... but nothing fit quite so well because everything I came up with seemed, somehow, to leave out important people. If I say 'loved ones', it doesn't include those we've yet to meet whom, even still, are praying for us and reaching out in head-spinning ways. Though we do love their hearts, we've yet to have the opportunity to know and love them BACK *though believe me when I say, we FULLY intend to at the end of all this.*


So. That leaves me back at that word... 'village.'

It is the village that, on this trail, I keep crying out in tears of joy to see when I simply need to take a moment and look behind me. They are there. Looking at me. Smiling. Ready to catch me if I slip and build my assurance back up that I can do this.

It is the village that has already loved on and doted over my children's every emotional and physical need.

It is the village that has begun to hold phenomenal and generous fundraisers, knowing that the bills and expenses amidst all the other chaos are very real.

It is the village that continues to back us in prayer from a far, all over the world, really.

It is the village that keeps the standing offer of all-hour phone-call duties, store-runs, child-care...any need really, at all.

It is the village of people. Both believers and non. Local and distanced. Related and not.
People from all walks of life---young, old, married, single, parents, grand-parents, kidless, working, retired---who are, truly, getting us through this.

I found myself, more than once, all-out bawling this week.
Aaron made a joke that I shouldn't 'use' my tears because they have 'chemo-chemicals' in them...it was only a joke. But we both had a good laugh over it.

I did though. I cried a lot this week.
I cried when I felt sooooo darned crappy that I thought 'there's just NO WAY, Lord...you have underestimated what you can do with and through me.'

I cried when I woke up to run to the bathroom for the hundredth time for crappy business. :-P

I cried when Aaron and I had a discussion about finances which of course led down the same stress-path it always seems to.

I cried again today, too. But today was different.
Today was because after a rough week of chemo-effects and money stresses, I still had something so completely and utterly intact---My village.
At some point today, whether in the midst of a visit from one of my dearest girlfriends who came, bearing gifts she knows she shouldn't have, or whether being delivered jello from my precious mommy who has all good intentions of helping her 'c-sick' daughter... or maybe in the moment that another dear girlfriend popped in with a serious fiscal blessing from a recent fund-raiser... it dawned on me...I HAVE A VILLAGE and it hasn't gone anywhere.

Sure, life has continued on for everyone else. Soccer games have been had. Birthday parties and trick-or-treating have been enjoyed. Even some vacations has been taken. Heck, I certainly don't expect everyone's lives around me to be on the stand-still that ours has to be right now...nor would I EVER WANT them to be!!
But, that beautiful, amazing, awesome village of people are still surrounding me. They are still sending flowers. They are still stopping in for visits. They are still offering help. They are still just waiting for ME to say 'ok, this is what I need.'

What a moment of awe.

I'll tell you, having people... 'loved ones', 'friends', 'relatives'... around you is one thing.
But when you have a VILLAGE---you have a FAMILY of people from all areas of your life who, in times like this, really are what it takes.

You know what they say about 'It takes a village to raise a child?'

Well, You, my village, (along with my God) are what it's going to take for me to beat this cancer.