Amazing!

Our trip was absolutely amazing.  I can’t even begin to describe how beautiful and wonderful it was.  And to answer the question I know you have been wondering – Hurricane Matthew completely missed us.  God was so gracious to us with the weather.  We had some strong winds one night and a couple cloudy/overcast days, but considering what Haiti, the Bahamas, and the eastern coast of the U.S. got – we were completely spared.  Turks and Caicos Islands are less than 200 miles directly north of Haiti.  We were getting a littler nervous after the resort delivered a letter and some lanterns (in case we lost power) to our room stating the warning we were in and to let us know the airport had been closed.  So we tracked the radar and followed the storm.  In the picture below on the left side is the radar (we are the blue dot) and the right side is the picture at the exact same time off our balcony.  Truly no explanation, but just a vivid picture of God’s graciousness.

Our favorite place (that we drove across the island to visit three different days) was Taylor Bay.  Back when I first got diagnosed in February, Mark researched and planned this trip.  He had it booked before my surgery at the end of March.  He would periodically send me pictures of the resort or islands as an encouragement stating things like “this will be us” or “this will be over soon”.  The following picture I made my screen saver on my phone so I saw it everyday, multiple times a day, whenever I looked at my phone.

That is Taylor Bay.

And this is us in Taylor Bay.

It was surreal to literally be IN the picture I had been staring at for the last six months.  Every chemo.  Every surgery recovery.  Ever really sick day.  Or just discouraging day.  I would look at that first picture and pray.  I would find hope in the future.  And when we got there and I saw it – well it was sorta emotional.  We had made it.  God had brought us through.  And so we sat under a tree and prayed and talked about our future hopes and dreams – because God had chosen to assure us a future we could talk about.  This story is not yet over.  Cancer will not get the last word.  And yes, I don’t know what that future holds.  I don’t know if cancer has left for good or will be written again in a future chapter of the novel of my life, but I know for now it is gone and it was worth celebrating all we had survived and God had accomplished!

#takethatcancer
(In no way am I wanting to come across as insensitive regarding the true tragedy that has taking place in those areas impacted by Hurricane Matthew. We prayed then and continue to pray and support aide in those areas. It is not lost on me that I was spared for a vacation and not 200 miles away many people lost lives and homes.)