Gratitude

Only peripherally a Cancer Post ™

 Peripherally in that this bastard of a thing called cancer has apparently been a catalyst for a lot of the spirit of giving and love and so forth. I mean, I've pointed out some of these things before, but tonight as I contemplate our little tree, I'm kind of seeing it all at once.

And I thank you all for it.

You know who you are.

So here's the thing: with Laston being sick and me being the primary breadwinner at the moment, I was pretty sure we would not have a lot of cash for things like Christmas presents. When it comes to asking for help for me (and Laston) I have a lot of angst; I don't like feeling like I'm not pulling my weight. But when the kids are potentially affected, I have no shame and all bets are off.

I signed them up for the Giving Tree at my work, wherein you can put your child's age and interests down and someone chooses a little gift (or gift card) anonymously and donates it to them. So we got some of those for the girls, all three of them. Add to that the gift card I mentioned in my last post (a bunch of my coworkers got me a gift card for Taking Care of Jenn so She Can Take Care of Her Family - also known as "fastening one's own air mask before tending to the child"), and the huge amounts of gifties given to our kids from Laston's work (told you they love him and would not have laid him off if it hadn't been for budget issues), and they just might have even more gifts than usual rather than less. And that doesn't even include the usual round of things from extended family and friends.

So I feel blessed and loved and most of all reassured that no matter what I hear on the news, not everyone out there is a raging nutjob. Lots of them have solid cores of decency and kindness, and for that I applaud them.

Update: Laston's old boss thinks he looks great, considering. Laston himself is generally doing well on the chemo, though tired much of the time. Most of his pain is gone most of the time.

In general, cancer or not, life's pretty okay!