When you knock on death's door, ring the doorbell and run. He HATES that!

Yesterday was my FIVE year anniversary out from breast cancer! FIVE YEARS!! I can't believe it. I've said it over and over in my mind and it still sounds crazy! I still knock on wood everytime I say it. The medical world says "I'm cured" at the five year mark. I don't dare say such a thing. That would be like tempting the Cancer Gods. Don't want to go there (again).

The top five things I have learned from this journey:

1. Relationships really ARE what it is all about!
2. God really does hear and answer prayers!
3. Each day really is a gift!
4. I love and appreciate my husband and children more than I thought possible.
5. What doesn't kill you really does make you stronger!

I can't even begin to thank those people in my life who have helped me along the way. Friends, neighbors, family, church members, doctors, nurses, co-workers, and kind strangers. My life has forever changed. I will never be the same.

I have learned volumes about myself and those around me. I have learned I am married to the man of my dreams who has stuck by me through better and worse, richer and poorer, and through sickness and through health. I have learned what is important in a marriage. Commitment, a sense of humor, unconditional love, and a man who will hold your barf bowl and say you are still the woman of his dreams even when you are bald. Who could ask for a truer man?

I have learned my children grow way too fast to spend too much time sleeping! Enjoying the small things in life are more precious that anything money can buy. Being home with them instead of chasing my own dreams has panned out to be the best decision of my life.

I have learned I have made life long friends who will stick by through the thick and the thin. I am surrounded by amazing people with hearts of gold and great senses of humor.

I have learned empathy for those who suffer physically and emotionally and the importnace of serving them, especially when prompted to do so. I have learned over and over again that I am blessed with good parents and a loving family.

And finally, I have gained a greater understanding of the atonement, it's purpose, and why I need it. I have learned more deeply there is a loving Father in Heaven and his son Jesus Christ who loves me and wants me to be happy.

This post closes this chapter of my life...My Journey through Breast Cancer. Thank you for your faith, prayers and encouragement through what was at times the darkest days of my life.

Signing off...