Day 131

     Katie and I go to the clinic this morning.  Katie will be getting one dose of chemo today.  She has had this particular type of chemo only one time before, when she was in the hospital at Cardons.  At Cardons, for some reason, they opted to give it to her the hard way.  They gave her two simultaneous shots in her legs (which took three nurses and Scott to hold her down and inject her).  Whereas today, at PCH, they will give her this same type of chemo intravenously through her port.  I am not sure why they did it the hard way at Cardons, but today I am grateful that she will be getting it through her port.  I can't say I am glad about it - because chemo is something I am never glad to put into my daughter's body.  However, I can say I am glad for the positive effects of the chemo, to which she is responding, and we pray that she will be shielded from the negative side effects (short term and long term).
     President Spencer W. Kimball said, "God controls our lives, guides and blesses us, but gives us our agency.  We may live our lives in accordance with his plan for us or we may foolishly shorten or terminate them.
     "I am positive in my mind that the Lord has planned our destiny. Sometime we'll understand fully, and when we see back from the vantage point of the future, we shall be satisfied with many of the happenings of this life that are so difficult for us to comprehend.
     "We sometimes think we would like to know what lies ahead, but sober thought brings us back to accepting life a day at a time and magnifying and glorifying that day.  Sister Ida Allredge gave us a thought-provoking verse:
'I cannot know the future, nor the path I shall have trod,
   But by that inward vision, which points the way to God
I would not glimpse the beauty or joy for me in store,
   Lest patience ne'er restrain me from thrusting wide the door.
I would not part the curtains or cast aside the veil,
   Else sorrows that await me might make my courage fail;
I'd rather live not knowing, just doing my small mite;
   I'd rather walk by faith with God, than try alone the light.'   
(Tragedy or Destiny?, 11).