LIFE'S PROMENADE: What's a C-sister?

This particular entry has been a LONG time coming, let me tell ya...
So long in fact that in order to get it right, you get to do a bit of time-travel with me, assuming you make the choice to read on. ;)

Rewind to the beginning of October... my port-placement surgery.
No, I'm not going to take you through the surgery itself. Heck, I was put under for it, so my memory of it *other than mine and mom's antics with my cool Bear Paws 'blow up' hospital gown, pre surgery* pretty much starts, post-surgery when, magically--I awoke in the recovery area and first met her--

Amy.

Laying there, facing each other's beds from across the aisle, neither of us really had anything else to look at--but, well--each other. Finally after one too many awkward eye-locking moments, we waved and said 'hey.'
Little did either of us (or for that matter the 5 or 6 other recovery patients, unwittingly eavesdropping as our 'conversation' rose in excitement and volume) know how completely ordained this 'chance meeting' was. Like any initial conversation with a complete stranger, we started out with basic introductions... 'I'm Amy...'I'm Hayley.....nice to meet you.' Then the 'What'd you have done? Oh, just got a port installed...' followed by what became the go-to phrase of all remaining conversation...'Me too!'

Me. Too.

Two little words that in a matter of just 5 minutes or so changed EVERYTHING about who Amy was and now is to me.

As the conversation continued, you could here giggles from behind the *if you can even call them this* curtains/room dividers that separated us from the other patients and families visiting their loved ones in recovery. Who could blame them?! I'd of been giggling too and still get a good chuckle now, reliving our first meeting through this entry. ;) It WAS funny... funny haha, but then not, at the same time.
It quickly became funny AWESOME. At a scary, unsure start to what is bound to be a LOOOONG journey for me, God gave me Amy... and in turn gave Amy, Hayley. :)

Our situations are nearly identical. Both moms with younger kids. Not even 10 yrs age difference. Same type of cancer. Same spread to lymphs. Same doc. Same treatment plan. Same willing participants to additional studies.

It's almost crazy! Almost.

Fast forward to pre-chemo.

The next time I got to see Amy was at chemo class, in which 'coincidentally', we were the only two 'students,' attending with our supportive family-members and loved ones.
Amy had chopped off her hair--though I honestly didn't remember it being longer at our port-surgery meeting----but then I was still coming down off of drugs at that point, ha! :-P According to what she's told me, though, it had always been long before but she'd chopped it short and put a nice big blob of bright pink in the front *breast cancer awareness of course!* :)
It was here that I got to see and know a side of Amy that--even if hurting badly inside at her news, OUTSIDE of some seriously big factors she already had going on in her personal life--that I truly admire. I remember when we got to have the conversation about our initial responses to the news of cancer and I've absolutely loooooved sharing Amy's with people because I feel like I can so easily imagine her doing so...
Vacuuming her house, singing at the top of her lungs 'I have cancer, I have cancer!'
Bahahahaha!

Yes.
Just a brief glance at the beautiful lighted-heartedness she strives to maintain in this battle.
It's a matter of fact to her, having cancer. Of COURSE there have been tears and anger---I see them there when I look deeply into her eyes---especially in her tough outside circumstances, cancer is the LAST thing Amy needs.......not that anyone 'needs' cancer, ha!

BUT IT'S REAL. It's there. It's a mountain God has allowed for her, too. Yet, it's almost like He said 'Ok, ladies...this is a pretty big mountain so here's a fellow hiker, going in the same direction--if nothing else but just to pass the time as you hike since you both seem to love talking!' ;) LOL.

Fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when mom and I went to chemo #4.
Seeing as we had to stay two nights due to my MRI & biopsy appointments, we finally got the long-awaited and anticipated opportunity to meet up outside of hospital walls and spend some real, get-to-know-you time with Amy.
Can I just say how totally surreal it is to lock arms and walk a boardwalk with someone you 'barely know' and yet feel so comfortably with, as though you've been best friend's for life?!!
Sorry for those of you who don't KNOW God is very, very real... but I frankly can't explain that kind of connection beyond God. I feel like I could tell Amy ANYTHING in a manner that I would tell my closest girlfriends or for that matter the very deepest, closest girlfriend I have--my mom--and not think twice about it.

This is why Amy is now, endearingly, my 'C-sister.'
Mind you...C still standing for Courage... and Courage still standing for Christ. :)

After that dinner-date with her and my mom, we finally got our 'stuff' together and exchanged all info--emails, cell numbers, websites (see Amy's CaringBridge link at the bottom of this to follow her beautiful blog), and all forms of contact. Now we text, mostly, and last week she and my wonderful hubby finally got the chance to meet at my chemo #5.
We talk to each other about chemo's and side-effects of which I am soooooo thankful Amy has had little of, comparatively...though the hair began falling out almost simultaneously...go figure. ;)

Most recently, via text, Amy told me how much she genuinely loves and cares about me, though prosed it with 'in a non-stalker-ish kind of way'...obviously scared that she might freak me out in saying so.
Thrilled that she said it, I quickly responded with 'I can honestly say the same, and you need not explain cause I really do love you very much, too!'

God's love is such a wonderfully, UN-worldly feeling. I don't even truly know how Amy feels about God... I have gathered from her blog that she doesn't consider herself to be 'religious'---though I myself steer FAR from that word, too. ;) But it just never ceases to amaze me how He works in our lives. How His timing is just so Perfect---like when you're putting together a jigsaw puzzle and suddenly every piece you pick up is going into place, right where it needs to go and it's suddenly so automatic that you find yourself not even having to THINK about it.

I don't have to think about Amy... it's just so automatic for me to love her like I do. I don't 'choose' to pray for her and thank God for her...... it's just something that hits me everyday--as routined as brushing my teeth, yet it's backed with an excitement and anticipation like nothing I do that's 'just' routine.

I suppose this entry could ramble *like it already hasn't* on and on without any certain ending...any 'moral' to the story... and I suppose that's ok if there isn't one.
As much as I adore all who still make the choice to come here and read my random ramblings, I'm not writing really writing that kind of mini-story for you. I just wanted to finally introduce you to sweet Amy...so that the next time I refer to her (and there will be many more times, I'm sure!) you'll of had a little introduction to this awesome fellow courage-warrior who IS

MY C-sister.