Good News!

As I typed this title, my mind was filled with an old Ray Hildebrand song (I think only my family will appreciate this, since I've never seen his album anywhere else and would love to get my hands on it, since we grew up listening to it countless times), so I have to share the snippet that is running through my mind:

"GOOD NEWS! Children of God never die!
Good News - we are going to our home on high!"

And that leads to another song:

"What's that light in the eastern sky?
Looks like a ball of fire.
It's getting closer. The closer it comes,
Now it's as big as the sun.
It's JESUS, coming for me.
It's Jesus, coming for me.
No more pain, no more ... (here my memory goes fuzzy, sorry)."

This is what I was raised on! That, and listening to stories on records. I remember we had a whole series (I wish I could remember the name - something with a locomotion sound in the intro - and stories we never seemed to tire of) along with other records like "Suki and the Invisible Peacock" and "Hans Christian Andersen and the Silver Skates" and "Little Marcy Talks with the Animals." Perhaps this is why I tend to listen to books on tape with my children in the car and before nap-time. What cherished memories those are! To my siblings, do you remember coloring in our coloring books and listening to all those records?

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4/3/20 Update - During this pandemic isolation, I googled You Tube to see if I could listen to a Hildebrand song and discovered someone had uploaded the entire album - after I listened, I was shocked at how morbid some of the verses are for the "Good News" song - thankfully, my child-mind retained only the chorus and not the verses - ha! Here's the link for anyone interested in hearing nostalgic music from the 60's.

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Now, for the good news, besides the good news that children of God never die! My niece, Amelia, has been enduring treatments for ALL - a form of leukemia, for over two years. They just received word that her final spinal tap came back clear. She has only 5 more medications to receive and then an appointment to remove her port. What wonderful news to be able to share. She is a spunky, strong, resilient little girl (in fact, her name means "resilient!") and I am so thrilled that they have received this fantastic news.

I also wanted to share the results of the Colgate challenge that several of you helped with. While Amelia's hospital (St. Vincent's) didn't win the contest for Wisconsin, they did receive one fun center for participating. It was also interesting to learn, through comments on Amelia's blog, that the winning hospital is a location where most stem-cell transplant operations occur for patients in that state. So, everyone wins. Thanks to all of you who took time to vote.

Further, good news. I have been following Boothe Farley's blog ever since I learned of it. Boothe gave birth to a second daughter, Copeland, last year, but knew that Copeland would be heading to heaven early because she was diagnosed with Trisomy-18 while in the womb. Her words are always an inspiration and encouragement to my soul.

The blog has been silent for a while, so I don't check it as regularly. But, thankfully, when I checked last night, they had a new video to share (one their church produced to tell Copeland's touching story) and some really great news to share.

The only good news I have to share personally, is that today is the last day of spring break (not too sad to see Bryce head back to school and Trevor's PDO resume). Also, after very limited sleep last night, I was able to snag, not one, but TWO NAPS today! What a blessing! Anybody else GOT GOOD NEWS???