MY FROG STORY
While battling cancer for the past four years I had many surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation. These procedures are alway followed by tests to check to see if the cancer is still there or has returned. Too many times I was told that "it" was back. Last September I was invited to a wedding in Buckhead, Georgia. I was really looking foward to going as I would be meeting members of my online cancer support group called Gyngals for the first time. Just days before the wedding I was told that the cancer was back and that I would need extensive surgery that would take months and months for me to recover from. I even got a second opinion from another doctor in who agreed that the removal of several organs would be necessary in order to treat the reccurence. To say the least I was devastated. I didn't feel like I would be fit company for any wedding and felt that I would be too depressed to make the trip. God, however, felt differently. He used my daughter, Janean, to convince me that I should go, so off to Georgia we went. The wedding was great, I met a lot of my cyber sisters, the Preacher, his wife and other members of the church. Janean and I participated in prayer for healing and learned about the prayer cloth and how to pray and believe in the power of God's healing.
We attendend church the next day and it was one of the most spiritual and uplifting events in my life. A passage was read from the bible in which it was quoted to me "there will be no death" (John 11:4) It is hard to describe what took place, but I have never felt closer to God than I did that day. When the service was almost over, the Preacher asked God to give me a sign, just a little tiny miracle to help me believe that I was going to be OK. We left church and headed back to Florida.
In the car on the way home I told Janean that maybe the "sign" would come from her Granny who passed away last year. We were going to go to stop at my son's house first as it was his birthday. We were almost there and it was starting to get dark. Janean commented that she hated driving this fast in the dark as she was afraid an animal would run out in front of the car. At that very moment a large bull frog hopped right in front of the car and we heard a loud thud. Janean was devastated. She said that her whole incredible weekend was just ruined. Janean will NEVER kill anything. She will catch a mosquito and release it before swatting it. I told her that there was nothing she could have done and not to worry about it, but she was very upset. After hitting the frog, we drove another 3 miles to my son's house. I told Janean that we would need to clean off the car. Janean said that she would ask her brother to do it.
When we arrived we looked at the front of the car and the frog was wedged into the grill of the car, appearing as though his eyes were open and it was looking at us. Needless to say, we were astonished. Janean and I went inside and told Jason, my son, that we had just hit a frog at 55 mph and he was stuck in the bumper. Jason went outside then came back a minute or two later with the fully intact frog in his hand. Jason looked the frog over, checking for cuts or broken legs, but there was nothing wrong with the frog!!! His heart was beating rapidly and we released him in a pond in the back yard. We couldn't believe it, but we were very relieved that he was alive.
When we were inside the house my grandson brought me a book to read to him. I opened it up and both pages were full of pictures of frogs jumping all over the place. I told him to go and show it to his Aunt Janean. She just looked at me kind of funny. We all sat down to have birthday cake and my son lifted up the paper plate to show me that it was one of those animal plates and yes, you guessed it . . . it was a frog. I went to the china cabinet and on the top shelf were two little ceramic frogs sitting on chairs. I showed them to Janean and her and my daughter-in-law both said, "Those were Granny's". I told Janean, "This is our sign".
We got home a few hours later and I thought it would be a good idea to call the church and let them know that we got home OK. I told them about the frog incident and was reminded about the scripture "There will be no death". Two minutes later I got a call back and was asked, "Do you know what FROG means?" I said no and was told that I had everyone in the church rolling because FROG stands for Forever Rely On God. Now we were really convinced that this was a sign.
The next day I had an appointment and received encouraging news that I may not need such extensive surgery. When I called Janean to tell her the good news she said that she had called a Gyngal sister in Florida to make sure that she and had made it home OK from Georgia. She said that she had told her about the frog story and after hanging up she got a call back saying, "You're not going to believe this but my son was out walking the dog when you called and after we hung up he came in the house wanting a flashlight because he heard a frog and wanted to find it".
The next night I was awakened by my other daughter and my husband who were chasing two frogs around the house at three in the morning. My Mom and sister had been telling me for months about the two frogs that come to their window almost every day. My other sister reminded me of the frog that was in her gas cap that we found when we stopped to get gas. A couple of weeks past and I was at my Mom's to pick up my brother and take him for his chemo treatment. My sister had written me a check from my Mom's account to pay for my co-pay for surgery because they know that my medical bills are starting to pile up. I told them that I appreciated it but that I could not accept it and gave it back. They kept putting it back in my purse until finally I couldn't find it so I left.
On the way to my doctors appointment I was digging in my purse for the check and found it. I opened it up and there on the bottom left hand corner of the check was a little green frog sitting on a lily pad and peeking out from a flower. Needless to say the tears came streaming down my face. I called my Mom and told her about the check. She said that this was a sign for me to keep the check and that everything was going to be alright.
At my doctor's appointment I learned that my case had been discussed with the "tumor board" and that there was a doctor who had a different opinion. I met with this doctor and he was willing to do a less extensive surgery. I had my surgery on Dec. 11th, and everything went better than anyone had expected. Everything that was removed and sent to pathology came back showing "no evidence of malignancy".
I owe it all to God and the people that taught me to have faith and put my total trust in the Lord. You could probably say that this is all coincidence but you would have a very hard time convincing me and a lot of other people. I will Forever Rely On God!
Update: After extensive testing on Good Friday, April 9, 2004, I was told that they could not find any invasive cancer. A little green frog showed up at church the next night to confirm this. |
