Dillon's Dialogue

You are spirit filled believers that call upon His name for comfort, peace, hope, and healing. "...But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." I Corinthians 15:57

Thursday, May 13, 2010

"Catching up with the Dillon Girls"






It seemed like spring would never come with all the snow we saw this winter, but it's finally arrived
and we have plunged head first into one activity after another. We rejoice that while life is too busy
at times, we are enjoying a healthy, normalcy of life that we wondered if we would ever regain
in the midst of Kate's cancer journey.
Kate arrived home May 4th and is glad to have finals behind her and be home for the summer. She had a
good sophomore year at Malone. She has an on going struggle with the short term memory and the
processing issues resulting from the high dose chemo and radiation. Although she puts a tremendous amount of
time and energy into her studies and typically ends up with a C. This is so different for Kate, who was an
A student in high school. She doesn't complain and perseveres when others of us might have given up. She
amazes me with the grace with which she walks. C's are a minor trade off in comparison to the gift of life Kate
has been given. The support services at Kate's school and her professors have been great about meeting
her educational accommodations for testing and have been extremely supportive and encouraging to her.
Kate began a philosophy course on line this week. Next week she will begin doing weekly PT and continue
through out the summer to work on her gait and balance issues and to strengthen her leg muscles.
Kate's next MRI is June 3rd. We are as always grateful for your prayers once again as we
go for this scan.

Beauty and the Beast consumed most of Maggie's time through mid-March. The show was great!
Musical and track overlapped for a couple hectic weeks and now track season is winding down so that
Maggie can then focus on preparing for her dance recital. Another fun part of Maggie's spring was attending
MORP (prom spelled backwards). The girls have to ask the guys and it's usually a fun theme. This year's
theme was Disney. Maggie and her friend Bryson attended as Esmeralda and Quasimodo from Hunchback
of Notre Dame. Maggie is really excited about her plans for the summer. She will be working this summer at
Seneca Hills Bible Camp - about 1 hour 45 min. from here. She will only work 3-4 weeks of the summer at
different points as the camp directors believe high school students should still have the opportunity to vacation
with their families and do missions trips, etc. She will be doing crafts and child care. She's thrilled! I was very
impressed with the program directors and their emphasis on discipling their staff, as they serve for the summer.
Maggie is counting the days until she turns 16 on July 13th.... oh my, another summer of teaching a daughter to drive!!
I am so very thankful for steady substituting throughout the school year. This summer I will be once again be
tutoring and working with our district's summer school program. Last weekend our church hosted an all day
Beth Moore simulcast that was televised to over 300,000 women in over 800 churches around the country. I
have been participating in Beth Moore Bible studies for the past five years. Each one has touched my life and
impacted my spiritual journey. As always God blessed through Beth's teaching and it was fun knowing of friends
in other states participating in the same study at the time as I was here in PA. This was a huge event with women
coming from all over the surrounding area. It was a blessing to cross paths with several friends from my college days,
who I have not seen in years. The girls and I are looking forward to a busy, fast paced summer together. We are
looking forward to some visits from dear friends along the way and hoping in the midst of a busy summer to get away for
some rest and refuel before heading back to school in the fall.
Several people that I've talked to lately have commented that there has not been a blog update for a while.
So in addition to the written update attached are some photos to capture the events of the past few
months so you can "see" what's been happening in our lives. We remain grateful for each of you, your
faithful prayers and how you have journeyed beside us over these past years. We continue to be amazed
by God's infinite grace and faithfulness in our lives as He cares and provides for us above what we could ever imagine.