An Unwelcome Guest

The word cancer has suddenly become real to me in the past couple of days. Usually when someone tells me that their grandmother or friend or father has cancer I say, "I'm really sorry" and I act kinda concerned but I don't really give it much thought. Last Wednesday night my mom was rushed to the ICU of our local hospital because her doctor found that her white blood cell count was dangerously high. They told us that she has leukemia. It came as a total shock to me. I knew she'd been having bad headaches and that she'd seen a couple of doctors but I just figured it was migraines.
I don't really believe this is happening. I came back to Georgia today to check on her and bring her some books to read while she's in the hospital. It's really hard seeing her with so many tubes all over the place but I'm so encouraged by her attitude. She's really trusting that the Lord will heal her. She's also been making friends with all the doctors and nurses. When my dad and I came in tonight to visit her a nurse named Barbara was in her room chatting it up with her and she'd brought her all kind of gifts from home like fresh fruit, chocolate, a book, and a journal. Inside the cover of the red journal Barbara had written- "From one control freak to another".
I love it. I can just imagine my mom sitting up late talking to this lady about life and encouraging her just like she's encouraged me so many times. Its really blown me away. The Sunday before my mom was admitted into the hospital I went to church with my parents at our "crazy" Pentecostal church. The pastor preached a pretty good sermon about witnessing (evangelism). When I went to visit my mom for the first time the first thing she said to me when I got into her room was "I've been able to witness twice since I've been here, I know God has me here for a reason." She's always been the kind of woman who wasn't scared to talk about Jesus anytime, any place, and she's no different in the hospital. I told my mom tonight that she reminds me of Paul in Philippians 1:12-13 when he says, "I want you to know brothers that what has happened to me has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole imperial guard and to all the rest that my imprisonment is for Christ." Though I would change the wording to say something like what has happened to my mom has really served to advance the gospel, so that it has become known throughout the whole intensive care unit and to all the rest that her hospitalization is for Christ.
She told me tonight that she's trusting God for a full recovery. I want to believe that God will do it but Lord help my unbelief! When I got home from the hospital tonight my sister asked me to pray with her. I think its the first time we've ever prayed together. I don't know what's going to happen. Tonight as I was leaving my mom said, "Well, I'll see you in a couple of months (that shows you how much I've been home in the past year), and I was like, "you'll see me alot sooner than that." She really wants everything to be life as usual but it can't be life as usual. It'd be easy for me to go back to Montevallo and get so involved in my work and my life that I forget the seriousness of what's going on here at home. I don't want to do that.