Rejoice!

What a wonderful weekend to celebrate Easter. The weather was nice enough to play outside & we were all healthy & enjoyed spending time with family. Saturday we got to take family pictures finally! My friend Tina came over and took pictures of the six of us, and hopefully there will be one where we are all looking at the camera with a smile. :) Sunday my parents and aunt and uncle went to the early service at our church and then took Brooklyn and Kelsey home while Braden, Kayla, Mike and I went to the late service. We really wanted to all go to church together on Easter, but just figured that there would be too many germs to expose Brooklyn to on such a busy Sunday. One of the things our pastor said was that because of Jesus' resurrection, we have hope out of hopelessness. I have always known that, and found strength in Him, but it resonated with me especially during this time in our lives. When Brooklyn was diagnosed with cancer, when Mike's mom was diagnosed, when my cousin was diagnosed - we didn't feel hopeless, but we did feel somewhat helpless, scared, uncertain, worried, sad. It is so reassuring to have hope in a situation that can be so scary. It is also helpful that Brooklyn is doing so well. She is eating great (in fact she just tried to get out of bed claiming she is hungry - she is good at coming up with excuses to not go to sleep!), she is feeling great and is so much fun to be with. We had a great afternoon playing bocce ball, watching golf and looking for eggs at my parents' house and also celebrating my uncle's birthday. We go back in for chemo tomorrow morning and they are increasing her dose again, so I am hoping it doesn't make her feel sick. We have so many reasons to rejoice and we are glad.