Thankful Thursday

Yesterday was my sister Robin’s birthday.  I sent her a text full of Birthday wishes and she sent me one back calling me a brat for mentioning her age!  That is what a Birthday is about, isn’t it?  Well, sisters can be like that…especially older sisters!  All kidding aside, I am very thankful to have my sister Robin in my life!!  She has been a big sister in all the usual ways…helping with advice and experiences,sharing recipes, hobbies, laughter, parenting stuff and now, best of all grandkids!!  But she is also my friend, long before there were BFF’s or Ya-Ya’s!

Robin is also my sister in Christ which takes our relationship to an even deeper plane.  We pray for each other and encourage one another with God’s promises.  We see His Hand at work in all the circumstances of our lives, good and bad.  We can rejoice, and have hope and peace…especially in the difficult times!  We see from the eternal point of view, not just the “here and now” and it brings purpose. 

All of that is important because we never know what a year will hold in our lives.  As we celebrated Robin’s Birthday last year, she never knew what this year would hold for her…cancer.  If you have been living your life depending on the Lord, cancer is just another opportunity in which to do that.  Oh, I am sure Robin has had her days of doubt and fear.  Trusting the Lord doesn’t mean you won’t.  It means that when you do, His promises become more real to you.  His peace follows and you can smile.  Not because your circumstances have changed, but because your heart has.  And a smile is pretty much what you will always get from Robin! 

I took the picture below of Robin on her first day of chemo.  I am happy to say that when she went in last week to have her second to the last treatment, they sent her home without it.  She does not have to have any more chemo!  So she is chemo free!!!  We now wait to see if she is cancer free, which won’t be for a couple of months.

In the photo above, Robin still has her hair.  It was one thing she was dreading, losing her hair.  But she has always liked hats too and she looks so cute in them!

One nice thing about Robin having chemo, is that she was off work all summer.  So we had a lot of sister time, especially when Jo hit town in August!  We had a couple of scrap sessions, making cards for JoEllen’s stash.  We had breakfast together and, lunch together, probably even dinner once!  We also went to tea, shopped at Ikea and had Swedish meatballs, talked and quoted Psalm 1 together! (Mom, Robin and I were working on memorizing it!)  It was a nice summer for the “sisterhood!”

So, I am thankful for Robin.  I am blessed to have her in my life.  Even if her report comes back in a couple of months and is negative, nothing I have said here would change.  My gratefulness stems from an unchanging God, Who graciously gave me a wonderful Big Sister!