Toni Times 12-15-10

Yesterday proved to be very challenging, though for unexpected reasons. Toni has had so many needle sticks over the past few months that her veins are starting to recoil at the mere mention of IVs and other injections. We arrived at the infusion center on time, and the good people there ushered Toni straight in to begin her IV chemo treatment. That's when things started to go downhill. Seven very painful attempts at IV insertion by four nurses over three hours left Toni feeling worn out, and that also meant the eight hour treatment was going to last long into the evening hours rather than wrapping up in the afternoon once they were finally able to hit a workable vein. She was a trooper throughout, as always.

The good news is that the treatment is over and done with, and while we anticipate a couple of down days as a result we also look forward to accelerated recovery over the next few weeks.

We spent an extra night in Dallas and plan to be back in Austin this afternoon. Our thanks for your prayers and concern. Everyone has been ever so kind, and we are humbled by your great kindness.

Our special thanks to Emily Plummer and Brittany Lewis - the Plummer and Lewis clans welcomed Anna yesterday and looked after her with great joy. Anna loves her Dallas friends!

While we are experiencing these 'momentary light afflictions' we do well to recall that these are also working for us an 'eternal weight of glory' far beyond comparison to the temporal distress. The age despises pain and prizes pleasure, but the former can often lead us more swiftly to the throne of Grace and to the embrace of the vision to be like Jesus. The fellowship of his suffering may not be a fraternity we all long to join, but it is certainly one to which we are called, each in our own ways under God's wise and good hands. What we are enduring is very slight by comparison to what many have endured, and when set against the glory to come or the shame of the Cross, our trial - and all trials - lose their dark shadows and can be seen simply as the refining and pruning we all need and which we are all promised. In the end, this too is a gift.