Finishing well

5:51 p.m. Today's project was to take my friend to her last radiation treatment. What a fine day for celebration and a real sense of accomplishment! She has some more steps to accomplish, including starting powerful medication to prevent recurrence, but this was a huge milestone. She was grinning from ear to ear when she showed me her certificate of completion and the beautiful gold pin with the symbol for radiation on it.

We were together from about noon until 3 p.m., and enjoyed a wonderful time of fellowship the whole time. Pam is a published writer, an unspoken goal I have had for many years, but the time, effort and expense of accomplishing that goal have never come together for me so far. The Lord knows what He would have each of us to do, of that we can be assured! "He knows the way that I take..." (Job 23:10). I am so proud of Pam's perseverance--staying up until 3 o'clock this morning working on final changes, for instance! I can't wait to hold her book of stories and poems in my hand.

Meanwhile, another courageous person was working very hard to make plans come to successful fruition. While I was helping Pam, my husband Steve was independently completing the tasks on a sheet of legal paper the two of us had listed together last night, items to be loaded into the RV for our trip to Lake Havasu tomorrow morning. For a person with Alzheimers, this was a huge undertaking, more indication of his growing confidence and abilities that are slowly returning. I checked in with him a couple of times, once to schedule a time for our eldest son to come install our new microwave; and later to let him know when I'd be back.

Steve had stayed on task all afternoon! Heading home at last, I was able to enjoy the cerulean post-rain sky, instead of experiencing anxiety as to whether the RV was in a shambles and seeing myself having to redo everything. Again, the joy of accomplishment!

Being a housewife, I did rearrange a number of items, perfectly normal for me, anyway. The RV was not in chaos, by any means. I was placing items more to my liking, to my preference. I thank Steve for his good job. I don't feel compelled to flatter Steve with false praise; that way, my praise is genuine, meaningful, and TRUE.

God gave me the grace and privilege today of seeing two of His people beat the odds and live to fight on another day against insurmountable odds. Cancer and Alzheinmers are usually death sentences, in all honesty. But the days we all have need to be lived to the fullest, with purpose and determination, asking the Lord to help us "get it right."

Philippians 4:13 is what Pam and Steve demonstrated today: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."