I'm going to Hawaii!

Call to me and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things,which you do not know.  Jeremiah 33:3

Yes, this blog title is truth...it's not some great ploy to try to get you to read this entry.  No false advertising here...this is really happening.  (I'm still trying to convince myself of this...)

I know some of you may be checking in to see how Dave's chemo treatment went today.  It was really boring so I'm blogging about Hawaii instead.  Okay, I'll talk about Dave for a little bit.  We met with Dr. Senacal first (Have I mentioned he is the best Oncologist in the world?) 

He walked in the room and smiled at us and said, "Here's the couple of the century!"  We were like, "Wow, did we win something?"  His dry reply, "No, I say that to all my patients."  We proceeded to chit chat, share some of Dave's latest effects/concerns from the chemo and that was that.  All is well.  As we were leaving he gave us the charge, "Onward Christian Soldiers!"  I'm still smiling at how delightful this man is.

We went next door, Dave got hooked up to some meds for about 3 hours, they put on his pump that will give him chemo slowly over the next two days and we were out of there.  He did get to borrow one of their ipads to play Angry Birds, that was a highlight.

Okay, back to Hawaii.  So about a week ago my sister Lily skyped with me and said, "I know this isn't great timing and I will understand if it won't work for you, but do you want to go to Hawaii with me to see Kai?" (my niece, her daughter) 

Let me insert here, my dad is Hawaiian, grew up in Maui, went to UH. I love Hawaii.  I haven't been in about 26 years.  You must know I love the ocean, beaches, paths (well, now you do).  If I could pick one place to go to get refreshed I would say Hawaii.

My first thought was "right, Dave gets cancer and I get Hawaii, how fair is that?"  No, I can't go.  He is in the middle of treatments and it's just not right.  And um, I can't pay for it.  Well, long story short my generous and always giving parents are giving me their miles to fly there (and back!).  We are staying with Uncle Richmond, (who isn't technically my uncle, but in Hawaii, that's how we roll) he is a long time friend of my dads. 

So I am going to Kauai in 35 days!  I cannot express in words how valuable this is to me.  How undeserving I am.  How desperate I am to go!  I feel "fleshy" wanting this so much, I have dared not dream of this day for fear it may not happen, oh me of little faith.  Seriously, I wrestled with this decision.  Is it okay to leave Dave (for four days)?  Who will take care of my aunt?  Is it worth all it will take to leave town?  What will people think?  Is this fair?  Is this right?  And just like that I knew.  God said yes, I am doing this for you.  Go.  I hesitantly emailed my sister, yes.  And she got the tickets the same day!  No turning back.

I am overwhelmed at the goodness of the Lord.  And do not let Dave sing you a sob story.  He doesn't even want to go to Hawaii.  He's like, go, get it out of your system. : )  He has been pretty great about this.  As he says, I am part of this whole cancer journey too. 

And by the way, the picture above was taken in Kauai by my niece Kaileia.  (check it out at Kai Nicole Photography on fb) I've already asked her to reserve that spot for me.  This will be hard, part of me wants to just relax in that hammock for hours soaking in the sun and the other part of me is thinking, I'm only there two and a half days, we have to get in as much as possible! 

Thank you Lord!  I am ridiculously blessed again...