Walking Together

Stephanie here again...

We realized it has been a few days since an update on Poppy. It has been a few hard few days for him since Saturday. He has had some very serious symptoms and it has been hard to determine if it is from the chemo or the tumor itself. We are beginning to realize it is probably all due to the tumor. He has been in horrible pain. The worst I have witnessed and he has been the most agitated that mom says she has ever seen him. Yesterday he was at the cancer center for some fluids and they could not get him comfortable. Mom pushed to take him home but even there he could not get comfortable feeling like he has so much pressure in his tummy. So mom and Kirby took him to the emergency room where they tried to get him out of pain. It was not very successful and hard on their hearts to watch. I came later after tuncking in Ben and B and met them at the hospital. They admitted him and were finally able to get him comfortable. But not after much heartache of watching him suffer and be undone by the pain. They told us his belly is full of fluid which is putting all the extra pressure in there and what he is responding to at this point. We are going to see what his oncologist says today.

So, that is the physical realities of things today but that is not the unseen realities. The unseen things are more real and of greater importance. I had a short but great talk with Poppy on Sunday laying on his bed with him. I asked him what he was doing with all of his time in bed. I asked if he and Jesus were having some good times together. He said, "Oh yes, I have NOT been bored back here. I just wish I felt better to enjoy it more." We had a good talk about WWII (some of our favorite chats) and God's Kingdom (our other favorite topic.)

Poppy and I have logged many miles together, running,walking and talking. For the past 15 years we have walked miles around the nursery looking at plants and insects and wondering aloud to each other about the growth of flowers and how marvelous they can be (and bewildering.) He has taught me everything I know about growing flowers. But more than that He has just walked with me and talked with me about everything. I know that I know that I KNOW, that our heavenly Father walks with us closer than our breath. That is our joy today and Poppy's joy as well. We live in joy and that is our gift.