I am married to Allan, he is eleven years older than me. He works for a power plant, and I am a housewife. We live in a fairly small town. One where just about everyone knows everyone else. We don’t have any children together, but he has 3 from a previous marraige. His oldest son is married and has a two girls. His daughter is married and has one girl and a boy on the way. His youngest son is not married yet.

I have one sister and one brother. My sister has three kids. Her eldest daughter has the cutest little girl. And my brother and his ex wife have three girls.
My mother is the best mother ever! We are best friends. My father passed away when I was 15 years old. I miss him terribly.

I met my husband on a blind date, and three months later we were married! But three months into the marriage, we found out that he had developed melanoma! I was scared to death, I thought why was this happening? We were meant to be together, and now so soon, he has developed CANCER!!!! We were also living in an apartment and trying to build a house. It was a mess! We were both under a lot of stress. Well, he had to have 2 surgeries. First, they cut off the mole that was cancerous and checked the surrounding tissue to see if it was cancerous too. Well, it was! So he had to have a second surgery. They injected dye into him and followed it to a lymph node. They removed that lymph node, to see if it was cancerous, and it was also! So they ended up taking all of the lymph nodes out from under his left arm. I wanted to add here, that the one lymph node that the dye led to was the only cancerous one out of the 12 they removed. I asked the surgeon if it was possible that the dye could have led to another lymp node that was not cancerous, and he said it was very possible! And if that had happened, they would NOT have removed any lymph nodes. Which means that the cancerous one would have still been in there!! So I believe that it was a miracle that the dye led to that one and only cancerous lymph node! *S* AMEN!

I was scared to death. But I kept hearing God tell me, "Trust Me". So I tried so hard to do just that, but it wasn't easy. Things did not look good! Well he had to take a year of chemotherapy which made him depressed and he didn't feel well most of the time. This was hard on a newly married couple. We hadn't really begun to know each other. But I believe it brought us closer together.

It has been many years since his treatments and he is doing great! Praise God! We have so much to be thankful for, and I'm sure that you do too. If you would just think about the good things in your life and try not to focus on the bad, it will be so much better. Believe me.

I just wanted to add here that we have been married 11 years in April of 2008. We have had some very, very tough times...at times I thought we would be seperating. We are working through these problems, cause I believe that God wants us to be married. We have had financial problems due to the cancer and building a new home, which we did have to end up selling after 3 years. :( But then we found a beautiful home, we both loved it soo sooo very much, but after 1 year there, we realized we couldn't make the payments. So, we had to move once again. Financial difficulties are very hard on couples. I mean, it is hard on anyone, but when you are married, it really creates tensions between the two of you. And can easily erupt into huge fights!

We moved into a very small apartment. He did not want to buy another home, the loss of the other two was just too much to take. And I was finding it very hard to be happy there. But I know God is with me, I know he will never leave me, and thank God for that! I simply could not go on if He wasn't with me.
After 2 years of living in the apartment we were able to buy a home, we have been here now for 4 years and are happy here.

Times do get hard, bad things do happen to good people. But we must always realize that God is there. And no weapon formed against us will prosper. We will win! We have already won, we are saved by the grace of God. Thank you, Lord! So, just hang in there when the odds are stacked up against you. Hold on to the Lord.

We made it through the roughest times! Things are going very good right now. Our marriage is getting stronger by the day and we don't have near the stress that we had a few years ago. AMEN! I know that there will be days when we want to just beat each other..lol But we will make it through. God is with us, who can be against us? RIGHT? AMEN!

Before I Go
Author Unknown

When my life has reached it's very end, And I take that final breath,
I want to know I've left behind, Some "good" before my death.

That maybe I have brought a smile To someone else's face,
And made one moment a little sweeter, While they dwelled here in this place.

Lord, please be my reminder And whisper softly in my ear...
To be a "giver", not a "taker", In the years I have left here.

For if not a heart be touched by me, And not a smile was left behind...
Then the life that I am blessed with, Will have been a waste of time.

With all my heart, I truly hope, To leave something here on earth.
That touched another, made them smile And gave to my life worth.

Love ya, Kricket :)