Thanks for the light

So many of my posts are sad and often make me tear up upon re-reading them, but today was a wonderful day. I was so prepared for the worst; vomiting, screaming, violence, etc. and I was delighted to experience quite the opposite. My mother-in-law has been staying with me this week and we have had quite a number of adventures so far....today was no exception. McKaylee was very sweet and calm all day, much unlike the attitude she displayed the last time she had this "cocktail" of chemo drugs. She was giggly and friendly with everyone, constantly waving and blowing kisses to every stranger that passed her. The only problem she did have was some issues with constipation. Apparently, chemotherapy drugs are notorious for causing "lazy bowels" so they constantly give kids this stuff called "Miralax"....or as we call it, "Miracle Laxative". McKaylee was on her third dose of that with no luck below, so I was starting to become concerned that the deed was never going to be done. We were joking about it with one of the nurses when suddenly McKaylee's face turned a deep crimson red. I realized that she was putting forth quite an effort and I felt a little bit scared as to what was going to happen next. All of a sudden we all heard this loud, "Boooomp"! I thought, surely that was not what I thought it was! I won't go into details, but let me just tell you that the Miralax lives up to its name! McKaylee kept pinching her tiny button nose shut with her fingers and saying, "Phheeeww! I pooooped!". It was absolutely precious and quite hysterical. After washing and re-washing our hands, we started on our nightly rounds through the hospital. We decided to make a stop in the nutrition room to heat up some spaghetti for the little chunk (her very favorite). After heating up the delicious canned spaghetti, I was commenting on how amazed I was that she hadn't thrown up from the Chemo. "Maybe she just isn't going to get sick this time around!", I exclaimed happily. No sooner did those words leave my mouth when she suddenly vomited four times all over the floor beside the nurses' station. I was worried that this was going to be a downward spiral of events but it didn't even seem to bother my sweet little girl. She just cracked a little smile and acted like nothing had even happened. They gave her some different anti-nausea medication to help control her upset tummy and within thirty minutes, she was doped up. It was absolutely precious because she could hardly even hold her head up, but she was still babbling away to anyone that would listen. My mother-in-law commented that it was her first "drug experience"....and we have the pictures to prove it. We could tell she was getting extremely sleepy so I decided to put her down for the night. I stood there and rubbed her head for a couple of minutes and then tried to slowly tip-toe away, when suddenly I heard a tiny voice call out, "Momma!". I turned around to see this precious little angel lying there, eyes closed, hands held up in the air motioning for me to hug her. So I climbed into the caged crib with her and laid there until she fell into a deep sleep. I started wondering how I was ever going to get out of the bed without waking her up and tried to plan out, in my head, an escape route. I made the awesome choice of using the bedside furniture to hoist my body out of the bed and, much to my surprise, the furniture had wheels on it! The table rolled away and I landed smack on the floor. The bed is metal, so it was sure to squeak very loudly as I tumbled out. Luckily, no one was there to witness my mishap, but my mother in law and I had a good laugh about it later on when I shared my story. It's funny because I had myself completely prepared for a bad day and God just blessed me with an amazing one instead. I laughed more today than I have in a long time and it felt so good. It's like God knows just how much I can take and then He offers me relief. So I'll spend the rest of my night hanging on to the laughter and the joy that I saw in my little girl's eyes today. It may be easy to praise God in the light, but it's days like this that give me the strength and the courage to praise Him in the darkness. Thank you Jesus for blessing me with light!