This month has been a rough one…

Earlier this week, this is what I posted to my personal FB page:

As many of you know my husband, Patrick Vaughn‘s sister is currently fighting liver cancer, and three weeks ago we found out his Dad had bladder cancer. My father-in-law is going on his third week in the hospital. This past Friday my parents and I met with an oncologist. It strongly appears my father Wayne Halbrooks has lung cancer. Today was his PET scan and tomorrow is his biopsy. We meet with the oncologist this coming Monday to go over results and begin a plan for treatments.

Our family would covet your prayers during this journey that lays ahead of us. We are confident in the sovereign hand of our God and we praise Him in good times and bad. Knowing that He never leaves us or forsakes us and none of this has caught Him by surprise.

***

It’s been a bomb dropping month for my house… especially for my girls who now have an aunt and both grandfather’s who are fighting cancer (the grandfather’s were diagnosed within weeks of one another) and a mother who was diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis earlier this year.

Our Bekah has a loom for making band bracelets. The first thing she did when she found out about her first grandfather was she made him an “LSU” band bracelet and when she gave it to him in the hospital she found out that purple was also the color for bladder cancer. So when she found out about my Daddy the first thing she did was look up the ribbon color for his cancer and said “I am going to make bracelets with all the colors of the cancer that our family is fighting so that people can remember to pray for us”

 

However she chooses not to make the bracelets with the colors our family are currently fighting but also includes the colors of the cancer our family has already fought.

Me, being the momma, and wanting to make it a little easier on her and her band collection told her that she could make mine out of the colors they are currently fighting and she quickly turned to me and said, “Momma, I have to use the ones they have fought, that’s very important! All colors or no bracelet” and I smiled deep all the way into my heart and said, well alright, make mine with all the colors.

Here they are. She chose to make the bracelets with the colors of cancer in the order of our family’s diagnoses…

 

The colors of cancer in order of our families diagnoses.

Black: For her Papaw Wayne, my Daddy, who was diagnosed with stage 3 Melanoma. Fought and Defeated.

Pink: For her Aunt Phillis, my husband’s sister who was diagnosed with Breast cancer. Fought and Defeated.

Blue: For her Aunt Phillis, yes, my husband’s sister who was diagnosed with Colon cancer. Fought and Defeated.

Green: For her Aunt Phillis, yes, believe it or not, my husband’s sister who was diagnosed with cancer in her Liver as a metastasis from her Colon cancer. Fighting and latest reports were cancer cells had shrank x3 in size and her blood work is looking great and her attitude is beautiful.

Purple: For her Papaw Jerry, my husband’s Dad who was diagnosed with stage 4 Bladder cancer. He has been in the hospital for going on three weeks from complications that arose from the surgery to go in and remove the tumor that they discovered. However the cancer had invaded the bladder wall, so he will have to have another surgery after chemo to remove the bladder. Right now we need him to get his strength back so that he can be released from the hospital in order to begin chemo treatments. Getting ready to fight.

White: For her Papaw Wayne , my Daddy who was diagnosed with Lung cancer. We meet with the oncologist this coming Monday to go over PET scan and results of biopsy. He is ready to fight.

***

A couple of days ago I posted the picture of the bracelet that Bekah made me and shared that she wanted to make bracelets for anyone who wanted one to remember to pray for our family… when I shared with her all the replies of yes I want one her eyes got big and she said, “This is awesome. This is a reminder for people to pray for us! I never thought so many people would want one!”

So she got busy in the floor with her loom and Shelby said, “Bekah I will go get some tissue paper and ribbon and make individual bags for each one so you can hand them out like that”

So last night as I watched my girls work to make and gift wrap prayer bracelets for those who have promised to pray for their family… I couldn’t contain myself. It amazes me how a heart can break and be filled with such joy all at the same time.

This year has been a beautiful reminder of the sovereignty of our God and the hope that is ours in Christ. 

This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil…

Hebrews 6:19

This season is simply a reminder that God is with us and that this world is not our home and our hope is in Him… and as my sister-in-law (Aunt Phillis) posted on my wall… this is our families theme song through this trial. Our Hallelujah song…

 In the book of John, my Jesus looks at the Pharisees and says…

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

John 2:19

And in the 1 Corinthians the Apostle Paul writes…

Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19

This is the hope that is ours in Christ… we can look at cancer and say…

Go ahead and destroy this temple because my Jesus is going to raise me up again!

For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection…
Romans 6:5

Cancer can get to my loved ones bodies… but it can’t touch their souls. None of us know what tomorrow holds. It doesn’t have to be a cancer diagnoses… it could be a ran red light or a tornado or a backyard swimming pool. Death of this body will come to us all… the question is who holds your soul?