Sunday Fun Moments

We have been absent from our family blog for one month exactly as our son Thomas was diagnosed with cancer. We were publishing over at CaringBridge (https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/thomaslauer/), but are now going to try to bring the two together seamlessly in order to continue the family blog I have written for 14 years. This blog post is copied from CaringBridge and is being published retroactively. Please subscribe to our family blog to receive updates as I publish!

A beautiful family gifted us with a lifestyle session with our favorite professional photographer, which we had this morning. This friend's husband had been diagnosed with late-stage cancer years ago and she remembers how clearly she wanted to capture every normal, healthy, joy-filled moment before and amidst the hard, sick, distressing moments, so she and her husband gifted us with this experience. I actually don't want to put into words all my fears of the future, which makes it is hard to express how much this gift meant to me.

Thus, this morning was a bit of a hustle and bustle with an early breakfast so we could have the 90-minute photography session at our home. I can hardly wait to share photos within about two weeks when we get them back digitally!

We zoomed off to Mass, where we currently have to arrive 30-40 minutes early in order to get a seat indoors, due to the COVID restrictions (only 140 people allowed in our parish). Then we had to figure out how to have all our wee ones sit still in the silence (you could hear a pin drop) for an extra half hour before the hour and a half Mass! Thomas has been run so ragged lately with all these appointments and tests that he fell into a deep sleep on his sister Mary's lap for the whole Mass. Truth be told, every single one of us was ready to zonk out.

After we got home, the generous R family delivered us a ready-to-go picnic! We sat in the deep shade of the back yard in the peaceful quiet with birds chirping while we enjoyed hamburgers, hot dogs, and all the fixings. So simple yet so darned much fun. Now Thomas will remember "that time we had a picnic in the backyard!"

We ended our day with a little swimming, rosary, and cookies for dessert.

Specific Prayer Requests:

• We meet with the surgical team at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow. Please pray the tumor is operable. Neuroblastomas are made up of nervous system cells that are outside of the nervous system, so my understanding is that they are known for encapsulating other structures, and we already know that Thomas's tumor is very close to his aorta and his portal vein.

Gratitude List for the Day:

• Thank you to our photographer for not talking to me about our situation, as I requested, just so that I could keep my eyes dry and not puffy during our photography session!
• Thank you to other ladies at church for coming up to talk and cry with me--I didn't mind getting puffy eyes then! I appreciate your vulnerability.
• Thanks to C for delivering into my hands a novena I did not previously know but am now starting: The Surrender Novena by Servant of God Fr. Dolindo Ruotolo. (https://www.sign.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Fr-Dolindo-article-novena.pdf)