Gratitude
I am grateful that this month marks my ten years in remission from the melanoma cancer.
I am thankful for my family and friends for their support and care that strengthened me and carried me through the most difficult time.
Tag Archives: Support
Weekly Photo Challenge – Beloved
I met my beloved husband Lynton in a church group for single parents. It was the last meeting before summer break. The group didn’t meet again until the following fall season. We exchanged phone numbers and that was the beginning of our twenty-four years of relationship.
One of our first dates was going to a Motivational Leadership Conference. I know, it wasn’t too romantic, but we both were interested in administration and management. When the conference was over, on our way to the parking lot, I thought, it would be nice to keep an admission ticket as souvenir. I turned my head and looked at him. Before I said anything, he reached out to his pocket and took out a ticket, asked if I would like to keep one. It impressed upon me that our antennas received signals from each other already.
Lynton has been supportive of me in many practical ways. I had the administrative credential seven years before we met. For various reasons, I didn’t feel I had the strength to hold an administrative job. An administrative job is a twelve-month, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. position whereas teaching is a ten-month, 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. position. When I was promoted to the administrative position in 1998, I was ready to accept it because of Lynton’s support.
He was a great cheer leader when I decided to get my doctorate degree in Educational Leadership. I went to school full time in addition to my full-time job. All my evenings and weekends were spent on assignments and projects and dissertation in the final year. For three years, he watched television wearing a headphone. I worked on assignments in my office with the paper and books laying on the floor. And I did my reading in the living room where he watched television. At least I was in the same room with him. I dedicated my doctorate degree to him.
We now both are retired, we go to the gym together three times a week. As I mentioned in the previous posts, he is doing all the cooking, doing dishes, and working on many house projects.
We remind each other again and again that it was a divine appointment in which we met. It’s His guidance and our respect for each other that sustain our relationship!
Weekly Photo Challenge – Beloved
Wonderful Baby Shower
Mercy had a fun Baby Shower on Saturday. Many friends came from near and far. The hostess was very creative in decorating her house for the party. There were several activities such as filling out a “Guessing” card, guess the gender, the weight, height, eye color of the baby. Another activity was filling out an “I Wish” card addressing to the baby of the thing they wish the baby will be or will do. After eating, Mercy opened the gifts. The person who gave the gift also gave her some advice or insight of being a mom. As part of the support, the hostess had the ladies sign up a “Meal Train” to bring meals to Mercy and Will after the baby is born. It was a successful party full of surprises and laughter.
It Takes A Village
My group of ladies is specialized in one thing – showering our daughters and daughters-in-law with love and blessings. We do that consistently to each other’s girls.
We give bridal showers to bless the marriages of the brides and grooms. The bridal shower gifts are enough to help the new couples to start the new homes with bedding linens, bathroom items, kitchen pots and pans, utensils and more.
When these princesses are expecting their babies, we give them baby showers – showering the new parents with warm wishes, cute baby gifts to support their new parenthood.
Even though my daughter lives 1000 miles away, and her baby shower is in Portland, Oregon. This group of ladies shows their love and support by contributing a sum of money to get several large items of baby gifts for my daughter.
This afternoon I went to a bridal shower for the daughter of a lady in this group. The party was elaborate with beautiful decoration and delicious food, sandwiches, scones, different kinds of tea and dessert. The gifts were generous. We enjoyed so much sharing the happiness of the bride-to-be. The groom-to-be showed up at the end, helping to carry the gifts home. We had a chance to congratulate him.
We will continue this tradition. It takes a village to support a child and the child’s child!
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Daily Prompt: Traditional
Daily Prompt: Tea
Thank you for Your Support
Dear Friends,
I have been having trouble with my site link.
I made a slight change of the site link. The old link is now Inactive. My Gravatar is under my old username and I CANNOT BE FOUND under my old link or Gravatar.
My OLD link is https://theshowersofblessing.wordpress.com
My NEW link is https://theshowerofblessings.wordpress.com
You may click the new link and FOLLOW my new site again, or
A BETTER way to do is copy my old link and paste to your Reader – Blog Followed, when it shows up, click off the green following, it will turn blue – you UNFOLLOW the old link.
To have my new posts come to your Reader – copy and paste my NEW link and paste to your Reader – Blogs Followed, click on the blue Follow and it will turn green and change to Following the NEW link. Then my new posts will come to your Reader.
I spent three days to compile the profiles of the blogger friends who have access to my new link. They are in the following photos. I appreciate several of you contacted me and made the changes.
The blogger friends whose profiles are not in these photos, they couldn’t find me. I will try to contact them to let them know what happened to my link.
I could pay an annual fee for WordPress to redirect my site from the old to the new, but I will try to make my own contact I choose that option. My purpose is for my friends to be connected to my new link instead of being redirected.
Sorry for the trouble. Thank you, Miriam ♥*♥*♥*♥*♥*♥
Kidney Transplant – A Good Match
In the summer of 2008, my husband Lynton, my daughter Mercy, her boyfriend (now husband) Will, and I planned to attend my nephew’s wedding in Hong Kong. That was the year when China was hosting the 2008 Summer Olympics. The airfares going to Hong Kong from the U.S. were higher than usual because of the people traveled to Beijing through Hong Kong. After searching, I found a Bangkok tour from the U.S. via Hong Kong, and we could stay in Hong Kong at any length of time. It was a deal I couldn’t resist. I had never been to Bangkok, so this would be a bonus for our trip. All we had to do was adding five days to our travel.
I scheduled the tour and stopped by Hong Kong first. We arrived on June 25, 2008 and stayed with my sister Yolanda. Yolanda and her husband Patrick took us sightseeing for two days. Hong Kong decorated the city with the Summer Olympics theme.
After my nephew’s beautiful traditional Chinese wedding, we went on a five-day tour in Bangkok. When the tour was over, we came back to U.S. via Hong Kong. There was a two-hour’s layover.
While we were waiting at the Hong Kong airport, I called Yolanda. To my surprise, there was worrisome news. Yolanda said while we were in Bangkok, one day Patrick went to work on the train as usual. He got on the train but had a feeling he should get off the train in the next station, and he did. As soon as he got off, he felt dizzy and fainted. Upon arriving the Emergency Room and attended by a doctor, he was diagnosed with kidney failure.
My heart was heavy for the worrisome news. Yolanda said they had known about the possibility for quite some time. They were thankful that Patrick got off the train at the next station and was taken to the hospital close to home. Besides, had he fainted on the train, it could have taken longer for Patrick to receive the hospital care.
We came back to the U.S. and I kept close contact with Yolanda. After Patrick received the initial treatment, the doctor put Patrick on routine dialysis at the hospital as outpatient services. He adjusted to the new condition well.
Three years prior to Patrick’s incident, their family migrated to Canada. Patrick and the two children moved to Vancouver, B.C. while Yolanda continued her government job in Hong Kong. To get their Canadian citizenship, they had to live in Canada for three consecutive years. They moved to Canada for two reasons, one was for the two children to get a good college education, the other was for getting better health care services. During the previous three years, Patrick stayed in Vancouver with the two children and went back to Hong Kong four times a year to spend time with Yolanda.
During the months Patrick received the outpatient dialysis services, he could not go to Vancouver to see his children. He then learned to do the dialysis by himself at home. He only needed to do it every twelve hours. After many months of doing it by himself, he could visit his children in Vancouver. He monitored the timing of the dialysis, so he didn’t have to do it on the plane. Most of the time he stayed in Hong Kong to be close to the hospital.
After assessing the chances and distance between Hong Kong and Canada, as well as Hong Kong and China, he registered in the medical system in China to get a kidney donation. His blood type is O. He could only receive a kidney from a donor with blood type O, whereas people with any blood types could accept blood type O kidney. He had fewer chances to get a kidney of the same blood type. The hospital in China told him that the waiting time was from two to ten years.
The four basic blood types are A, B, AB and O. People with type O blood can give to others with any blood type but can accept only from the ones with type O.
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accepted that he had to wait for a long time to get a kidney donation. He quit his job to take care of himself. Yolanda was very supportive. During this time, their children stayed in Vancouver with the family friends to finish school, the daughter finishing high school and the son finishing college.
After six months waiting, Patrick received a phone call from China; let him know that there was a kidney donation for him, and that he had to go right away for the transplant. Yolanda could not go with him without advanced notice to get a leave from her government job. Patrick’s sister went with him, taking the night train to China. Next day, Yolanda took time off from work and joined Patrick. She stayed with him for the ten days while Patrick went through testing, transplant, and observation.
When matching organs from deceased donors to patients on the waiting list, many of the factors taken into consideration are the same for all organs. These usually include:
- Blood type
- Body size
- Severity of patient’s medical condition
- Distance between the donor’s hospital and the patient’s hospital
- The patient’s waiting time
- Whether the patient is available (for example, whether the patient can be contacted and has no current infection or other temporary reason that transplant cannot take place)
Depending on the organ, however, some factors become more important. For example, some organs can survive outside the body longer than others. So, the distance between the donor’s hospital and the potential recipient’s hospital must be taken into consideration.
Many kidneys can stay outside the body for 36-48 hours so many more candidates from a wider geographic area can be considered in the kidney matching and allocation process than is the case for hearts or lungs.
Apparently, the donor and the Patrick were a Good Match. Patrick’s body showed no sign of rejection of the new kidney. After the ten days, Patrick’s condition stabilized, they went back to Hong Kong to receive the ongoing medical care. He was making good progress slowly but surely. We thank God that it was a miracle for him to get a kidney donation within six months. It was a miracle it was a Good Match of the donor and receiver.
To fast forward the story to 2017, Patrick eventual went back to work part time, and then transitioned to full time. He is now working a combination of a part-time church pastor, and part time Headquarter staff for his church. God is merciful. His loving kindness is with us forever!
Gratitude Moments #4
February 17, 2009
The original treatment plan was that I would go through four cycles of bio-chemo treatments, and have a surgery to remove the shrunk tumors, and then have two more cycles of treatments. After the second cycle of in-patient treatment, I did my routine lab work before the third cycle.
I met with the Melanoma doctor and the surgeon. During the meeting, the doctors reviewed the lab result with me. There was minor bad news but major good news. The lab work showed 20 categories in hematology. Five categories were low. Blood count was 7.9 with the normal range being 11.5 – 15.0. The lab work also showed 22 categories in chemistry with 4 being low. In addition, I had been running a temperature as high as 102.4 ever since I came home from the hospital on February 1, 2009 (more than two weeks). I survived on Tylenol.
For the low blood count, I needed 2 units of blood transfusion within the following two weeks (1 unit = I pint or 450 ml). Rich in iron food was my diet but didn’t help fast enough to boost up my blood count. My temperature was caused by some kind of infection that my body couldn’t fight off. Antibiotic was prescribed to take care of that. With low blood count and temperature, I was so weak that I felt there was no life left in me. I knew that I had to be strong to go through the treatment. There was not enough blood to keep my body warm, so I bundled up and walked every day back and forth in the neighborhood. My neighbors couldn’t recognize me.
This was my prayer: “God, you gave me clear indications of which direction to go as far as treatment options. I listened and followed your direction. You took my hand and I followed you to near-death with no doubt because your direction was so clear. You’re the God of miracles and I believe in miracles. Now if it is your will, please carry me back to life.”
Now back to the meeting, the doctors also reviewed CT scan done on February 13. It showed encouraging improvement. The tumors in the lymph nodes had shrunk and were contained, so the cancer cells did not spread. As a result, instead of having two more cycles of bio-chemo, the doctor now could have surgery to remove the shrunk tumors. After the surgery, I could rest longer before the final two cycles of bi-chemo. Altogether, I only needed 4 cycles instead of 6 cycles of bio-chemo! What great news!
When I heard the doctor’s plan for me, even though I didn’t have too much energy, I almost jumped up to thank them, but I knew that it was God’s Healing Power.
After the meeting, I was given a longer time to rest, got blood transfusion, tried to get rid of the temperature. The schedule of surgery would depend on my progress.
My family and friends continue to pray, bring food, send me cards and emails. I was wrapped around with love, friendship, and prayer support to keep me going this dark journey.
To be continued……
Gratitude Moments #3
I started the first cycle of treatment on January 7, 2009 as scheduled. During my hospital stay, I wasn’t able to take a shower. As soon as I got home on Sunday after discharged, the first thing I wanted to do was to take a shower. I had no memory of how it happened, but my husband said I was so weak that I crawled to the bathroom to take a shower. The next day, I wanted to give the update to my family. These are a couple emails I sent to them during my resting weeks.
January 12, 2009
Dear family and friends,
I came home last night. I should have been discharged at 11:00 a.m. but my potassium, magnesium and electrolytes were low, so I was put on IV for 17 hours to replenish those elements before I was discharged.
During the hospital stay, every minute was like forever. Eventually the medication worked into my body, so did the side effects. One medication burned my skin to red and purple, swollen, and dry. I looked like a red balloon. It will take 10 day for the color to get lighter. I had chills every day. The shaking could only be stopped by injection of medication. The vomiting and diarrhea happened every day also, so I just stopped eating. With all the fluid going in from IV, I weighed 15 pounds more at discharge than at admission.
Today, Monday, January 12, I went to my first IV hydration in the doctor’s office – to flush out the toxicity, plus getting more mediation. A home nurse will come the next three day to do the same thing. The same routine will be done for next two Mondays at the doctor’s office. Each IV hydration last for 2 1/2 hour.
Today I felt there’s a hole in my stomach asking for food, so I ate. Again, there it went through vomiting, nothing stayed in the stomach. So far my energy level is about 20 percent.
Thank you for your prayer and support.
I love you, Mom (Miriam)
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January 23, 2009
Dear Family and friends,
I want to thank Jolyn for coordinating all the rides to and fro the doctor’s office and scheduling for people to bring us meals. It reduced a lot of anxiety on Lynton because he traded his internship days, so that he could take me to the doctor’s office 3 times every cycle – those are early appointments and have to leave at 6:30am.
Also thank you for all cards with the encouraging words. I feel like I’m resting peacefully on a soft but strong bed of prayer support, with no struggle, no reasoning, no anxiety, no anticipation, no worry, no “plan’” except hope; great hope to get well. I have no questions for God, except a grateful heart.
Thank you for being in my life. Your prayers will carry me through to the end. The doctor wanted me to eat as much as possible to get fattened up for the next treatment. The medication zapped out almost everything of my life. My white blood count was so low that I had to put some gel in my nostrils twice a day; so that I wouldn’t catch any germs, because my body had no ability to fight off any bacteria.
I love you all, Mom (Miriam)
Enthusiasm in Learning
When I was working in the school district as administer, I held a five-year, Tier I, non-renewable administrative credential. By 1997, I realized that I had to go back to school to get my Tier II, permanent credential. I checked out all the universities within reasonable driving distance that offered such a program. I came across that University of La Verne had a two-year Tier II Administrative Credential Program. The exciting fact was that they also had a three-year program that included the Tier II Administrative Credential, plus the Doctoral Degree. I was very interested in this program.
I started school with enthusiasm. Most of the doctoral students finish the three-year courses, and then take some years to complete the dissertation. At La Verne, students have the choice of completing the doctoral program in three years. It means that when students take the third year courses, they also complete the dissertation.
There were three classmates who were interested in the three-year doctoral program. I decided to join them. Year 1999-2000 was the hardest year I had ever worked in my whole life. I worked full time, took full time courses, plus completed my dissertation.
My husband was very supportive. For three years, he watched TV with the headphone on, so it would not disturbed me when I did my assignments. I dedicated my doctoral degree to my lovely, supportive husband.
Daily Prompt: Enthusiasm
