Kemo

A friend of Laura's shared this with her the other night. Thought you might like to read it.

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“And the God of all grace….after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you….

I Peter 5:10 (NIV)

My family planned a dinner to celebrate the end of my year of chemotherapy treatments. But my two daughters were a bit mysterious about their part of the celebration.
“We’ll pick you up at five o’clock and meet the rest of the group later,” they told me. So off we drove into the winter’s early darkness. Soon we pulled into a long driveway with a sign out front that said KENNEL and entered a home with a pen full of golden retriever puppies in the living room.
“You’ve always said you want another golden retriever, so you get to pick one!” my daughters told me.
I cried and laughed as I got down on the floor and began playing with the roly-poly, facelicking, tailwagging puppies.
A half hour later, a bit of my sanity returned. I have to talk to Dad about all this,” I said, knowing that my husband needed to be a part in this decision. So we reluctantly said good-bye and went off to meet the others for dinner, where we talked about the pros(and no cons) of getting a new puppy right now.
“A puppy is the perfect way to celebrate this new post-chemo season in your life.”
“You’re home more now, so you could train him.” “What are you going to call him?” This last question came from my husband Lynn, which told me he was already on board.
At once I knew the answer.”I’ll call him Kemo,” because in the beginning of this journey, I had to understand that chemotherapy was my friend. Besides, Kemosabe means “faithful friend.”
A couple of weeks later, we brought Kemo home, and I have a new dream in my heart. Maybe we could go to chemo centers together and let other people know that “Kemo is your friend”

Prayer: Thank you, Father, for new dreams in new seasons of life. By Carol Kuykendall
Guidepost Dec. 09,08