Albini Family Health

I know many of you have seen bits and pieces about my parents' health issues on Social Media, so I thought I would give everyone and update.  

About a month ago my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer.  On Friday she had a lumpectomy to remove the 1 cm tumor and determine if it has spread to her lymph nodes or not.  This will be followed by 6-7 weeks of radiation 5 days a week for that time period.  Thankfully she has been getting her routine mammograms (here is my PSA...GET CHECKED:) so they caught it early and it appears to be contained.  It is still very scary to hear to word cancer, but it truly seems like the best case scenario. 

Then one week after my mom's diagnosis, I received an extremely scary phone call from my mom that my dad was in the hospital.  He had a heart attack! On Friday he said he felt like he was getting the flu.  Then on Saturday morning he was with his best friend getting ready to go do a construction job and he was not feeling well.  He told his friend, Greg, to take him to the hospital.  They were in the hospital waiting room for about 15 minutes when Greg got up to use the restroom.  When he came back my dad was gone and the nurse said they were rushing him back for an EKG.  He had the heart attack while on the gurney during the EKG.  They immediately rushed him to surgery to put stints in.  The procedure lasted about an hour and my dad said that once they put the stints in he immediately felt better, like an elephant got off his chest.  He had 99% blockage in his widow maker and 90% blockage in a different spot in that artery.  The doctor said if he had come in 15 minutes later he would have died! He stayed in the hospital for 2 days and now is home doing really well, but he is tired and sore in his leg where they put the port in to do the stints.  

Unfortunately, my parents were supposed to come visit us that week, but that obviously has been postponed.  

Over the past few weeks it has started to sink in just how fortunate both my parents are to be alive, especially my dad.  I am so so so grateful for God's grace in saving my dad.  The fragility of life has been on the forefront of my mind these past few weeks and I have been giving my girls and Phil extra hugs and kisses.  Please go give your loved ones extra kisses and hugs for me too!  And a HUGE thank you for all the prayers and love and support from so many of you!!!!

This picture is of my parents with my best friend, Lesley and her family and mom taken just days after my dad's heart attack when Lesley brought my parents dinner.  Friends are the family God let's you choose for yourself, and I sure have the best!

Let Your Light Shine

Several weeks ago, while I was getting ready for church, putting on make-up, Emrie asked if she could put make-up on too.  I said she didn't need any and her reply was:

"BUT I'M NOT PRETTY WITHOUT MAKE-UP"

I cried, right then and there.  She was dead serious.  She actually believed she wasn't pretty without make-up.  I felt like I had failed my three year old.

I did my best to explain that she was beautiful without make-up and that she was pretty on the inside, which is what matters most.  But she kept asking me why I needed make-up then.

I felt ill-prepared and ill-equipped to handle this situation.  It was important to her, and as a woman, I know it is something that will be important to her the rest of her life.  I didn't want to down play her concern, but I wanted to also handle it with great care.

Always and forever, I am certain I will struggle with how to address this issue of image with my girls, but for now I have decided to address the heart issues instead of the physical issues starting with very careful modeling of my own actions.

For about a week after that incident, Emrie and I would talk every day about what it looks like to be pretty on the inside.  We would role play at the grocery store or talk through scenarios while in the car about the kind way to handle situations which made you pretty on the inside.

But apparently my 'lessons' weren't getting through, because shortly thereafter, we started REALLY struggling with using kind words and voices toward each other (myself included....eek, that's embarrassing to admit as the adult).

To address this new issue, I pulled out some of my Seeds CDs and found the one that had

Matthew 12:34 "Out of the overflow of the heart, the mouth speaks."

Blending these lessons all together, I felt like we needed a phrase to sum up how we should act.  Emrie responds really well to catch phrases as reminders (all I need to say at the grocery store is, "Emrie, are you earning gum? and that is her cue that she isn't behaving well enough to earn her gum at the end of the trip).

Thus, 'LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE' was born as our family motto for this school year!

Our phrase became "If we are beautiful on the inside, we say nice things, we do nice things and we LET OUR LIGHT SHINE."

Ahhh...but over time, that just didn't seem right to me!  I felt like it was missing the major point that WE don't make our hearts beautiful, JESUS DOES!  It is because of what Jesus has done for us that we can be beautiful on the inside.  So I tweaked our phrase to,

"Because Jesus gave us a beautiful heart, we say nice things, we do nice things and we LET OUR LIGHT SHINE!"

Of course this will be a constant challenge and lesson which will always need to be refreshed, DAILY, but I think it fits our family so well right at this season of life!

How about you or your family, do you have a special motto this year?