Guess What My Blog Brought In?

God brings people into your life for 2 reasons : to BLESS you or to cause you PAIN (and therefore, teach you a valuable lesson). In my 43 years of existence, I've had my share of both types. Although the "painful" people have somehow managed to leave an indelible mark, one that I know I'll have on me for the rest of my life, they've also taught me things that will stay with me forever. The "blessings" are more fondly remembered, for obvious reasons. Today, I'm proud to share that I've got one more person to add to the "blessing" basket. 

We met each other via my other blog, Nonstopbabble. She communicated with me because she's also a breast cancer patient. It's uncanny that our surgeries were just 2 weeks apart! We're practically on the same boat, with me being on one end, the more advanced one in terms of timeline. I felt the need to really connect with her because I could certainly share my learnings. Besides that, it's always good to be in constant communication with someone who knows exactly what you're going through and can honestly mean it when she tells you, "Omg, that's just how I feel!". Not to undermine their efforts but N, my brother, my Mom --- they all support me and they will until this thing is over, but none of them can really say they know what it's like. 

After exchanging email messages for a few days, we decided to meet and arranged to do so last Wednesday afternoon. I'm glad I wasn't under any pressure (I now know that I can't plan more than one trip/event per day because my body is still officially in recovery and tires easily) because our chat turned out to be a really interesting one, which lasted 'til about 6pm! There was simply too much to talk about. When she initially told me via email that the reason she felt compelled to reach out to me was that she found so much of my experience parallel to hers, she really wasn't joking. 

I would rather not be too elaborate about all the other things we have in common. In fact, I won't even name her out of respect for her privacy. Suffice it to say that the breast cancer (stage 2, as well) is our main thing in common, so let's focus on that for now. If we didn't have to adjourn the meeting so we could go back to Mommy mode, we probably would've stayed on to have dinner. It was a really refreshing thing for me, having no one this close to share my thoughts and feelings with. I never thought I needed to, until last Wednesday. I seriously thought releasing it all and blogging about it was more than enough. But it helps loads to have someone tell you to your face that she can absolutely relate. 

At the end of that 4-hour coffee date, we thanked each other and promised to be in touch from now on. I told her I would be praying for her and she assured me that she had been praying for me from the time she received my first email message. We both believe that this was no coincidence, God brought us to each other ... for comfort, reassurance, confidence and added courage. She too seemed to be so brave about all of this! 

She'll be going into chemo in November, whereas I begin with my 1st cycle on Tuesday. I'm looking forward to telling her how it all goes for me so I can somehow calm her nerves (yup, we're both apprehensive about it). 

You never really know what God has up His sleeve. This was totally unexpected and I have to admit ...  God has replenished my spirit (again) by introducing this new friend to me. His blessings are all around, we just have to be ready to receive them with the right attitude! 

It's Friday, everyone! Those of you who toil in the office day after day, this is when you get to kick off your shoes and forget about work for the next 48 hours! I wish everyone a happy and peace-filled weekend!