Dictionary.com describes a miracle as an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause. Well, lets see if this fits the bill.

Triann went to Houston again for her scans. These scans were to be compared to the scans in November to see if there were any hot spots. The biggest struggle I have had with this whole thing is that there is just so little information about Triann’s form of cancer. There are relatively few cases of Adrenal cancer to begin with but the vast majority of them are stage 4. This means that the cancer has spread to other parts of the body and is very difficult to treat. Because of this most of the information available has a very grim outlook. There are only a handful of cases where for whatever reason the cancer is found prior to stage 4.

I didn’t really know what to expect when we went down there, but was very surprised when the doctor came back with a huge smile on his face and told us he was surprised but there were no hot spots. He was so comfortable with Triann’s current state that he said we do not need to come back down for 6 months (instead of the normal 3 month gap). He did say that Triann needed to up her Mitotane levels but that once she reached the level of 13 (whatever that means) she could back off the pills.

Let me try to explain why I think this qualifies as a miracle. Bear with me, since I have to go back a bit to set this all up.

Emily was born with a Latex allergy. This meant that Triann had to quit selling rubber stamps and I had to quit selling conveyor belt. Aaron Lane was selling mortgages for Aames Home Loans in Portland and got me an interview. I progressed through jobs inside Aames until Aames was bought by Accredited and I was relocated to their San Diego headquarters in March 07. We thought the move made sense since I had been traveling to San Diego weekly for most of 06. Things didn’t quite turn out how we expected since the company closed down most of its operations and I was layed off in August (yes… 5 months after we got there). I looked for a job for 3 months with 0 results. I ended up at Chase based on a dinner conversation between my old boss and my new boss who happen to be related. I understand it went something like this…

New Boss “I am looking for a trainer in San Diego”
Old Boss “That’s funny, we just laid a guy off in San Diego”
New Boss “Did you let him go because he wasn’t any good”
Old Boss “Oh no, he was the best trainer we had, great with people, quick learner, a real stand up guy, we hated to see him go”
New Boss “Man that’s great, I have been interviewing tons of folks for the job, but haven’t found just the right one”
Old Boss “Give Eric a call, you won’t be disappointed“

(I am not entirely sure it went just like that, but it works for me)

Anyway, I hired on at Chase but after 3 months of no pay in San Diego we were really hurting financially. I heard that there was an opening for my same position in Dallas and approached my boss about it. He said I could transfer out there on my own dime and they would open the position in San Diego instead. This made sense since the cost of living was so much cheaper in Dallas so we did it. We landed here in Dallas in June of ’08.

Hang tight, we are getting close to the end…

We were not sure about our decision, when we got here we walked right into the heat of the summer, 110 plus days and $550 electric bills. Any savings we were expecting were eating up by the utilities (I have never paid more than $150 for electricity in my life). In September Triann and I were sitting around talking about whether or not we had made the right decision to come out here, two days later we were celebrating our 13th anniversary in Plano Presbyterian hospital and they were explaining that Triann had a Tumor and that she should get her affairs in order. After that shock we were told that the oncologist was not comfortable with treating Triann and that we needed to go to the best Cancer hospital in the country, MD Anderson.

OK, so did you follow all of that? Let me ‘splain… no there is too much. Let me sum up (sorry for that)

If Emily wasn’t born with the latex issue I wouldn’t have gone to Aames, If I hadn’t gone to Aames I wouldn’t have been moved to San Diego. If I hadn’t gone to San Diego and been laid off I wouldn’t have been looking for work. If I hadn’t been looking for work (and worked for my old boss at Aames) I wouldn’t have hired on at Chase. If I hadn’t hired on at Chase, I wouldn’t have moved to Dallas. If I hadn’t moved to Dallas, I wouldn’t have been withing driving distance of the country’s best cancer center. If we hadn’t have gone through all the stressful things we have already gone through we wouldn’t have been ready to deal with this.

Do I need to go on? How about the fact that If Daniel had not jumped on Triann we NEVER would have found the tumor before it grew to a stage 4 (is everyone clear on this? the only way people EVER find this is after it has spread to the lungs and it is noticed there). And now after it was removed there is no sign of any residual stuff anywhere in her body, are you kidding me?

A lot of coinkidinks don’t you think? I am sure that you could argue that it was all just chance, that God doesn’t care about silly things like this. You could argue all you want, just don’t do it with me. I believe whole heartedly that He is interested in our daily lives and if we stop and look long enough we can see His hand (re-read the above).

I want to make a point, and then I will quit for now. Christianity is a greatly misunderstood thing, even by Christians. True Christianity is about a relationship with Christ. We talk to Him through prayer and He talks to us through the Bible and our lives. Deciding to follow Christ does not (I repeat DOES NOT) mean that your life will be easy. No where in the bible does he say that (despite what you hear from some televangelists). It does however say that he will not give you ANYTHING that you cannot handle. That is what makes the difference. I know that I am not doing this alone. Once more, read above.

I think the whole thing qualifies as a miracle (an effect or extraordinary event in the physical world that surpasses all known human or natural powers and is ascribed to a supernatural cause).

How about you?

E