Great Hopes

These 3 sweet photos show the most important members of our little family. :)
Tasha - DH's birthday gift from me 8 yrs ago.. and basically our first child. We had a little scare with our fur-baby the past few weeks. A few years ago, she was treated for cancer. She only went thru a surgery, as the vet was confident that he got everything and I guess he didn't feel that chemo or radiation was necessary. Well, a few weeks ago we noticed a couple of bumps just under her skin that we had not noticed before - or we had and they had grown. This was how the cancer began, so we were very nervous that it was making a recurrence. She had a vet appointment yesterday to check these areas out. They did a biopsy of them, and we are very happy to share that they are benign fatty growths! Yay! Phew. What a relief!
That being said.. how is it that the vet can give us immediate results of that test vs a human biopsy standard wait of several days? Hm. Well, we won't ponder that too much.. we will feel confident in the happy diagnosis!
The bear photographed above is the very beloved, best friend of our daughter. This bear has been thru SO much! But thank god, he is still with us - pretty much in one piece. Praying that another washing will not be necessary anytime soon, as he is getting a bit ragged. We actually had a slight trauma with him recently also. Actually, it was just prior to Xmas (maybe I already posted this story?). We were visiting friends in Cincinnati, and had taken baby and bear to the mall for some Xmas shopping. I kept an eagle-eye on this bear throughout the shopping trip to ensure he stayed close. Alas.. I somehow became distracted during the process of loading gifts and baby into the SUV when leaving the mall. A few hours later, we were packed and piled into the SUV, driving out of town. Suddenly we hear piercing cries of ' BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! '
OMG. O M G. Where was the bear????
We pulled over into a gas station and began unpacking the car, looking through everything that we could without actually unpacking the suitcases. We soon realized that we had no bear.. and we did not recall seeing him after the mall trip. Sooo... baby in tears and the rest of us close to it.. we piled back in the SUV and headed to the mall.
I can only describe it as a Christmas miracle. We pulled into the parking garage and set off for the area where I had parked.
At first .. nothing.
And then .. suddenly ..
THERE HE WAS!
Sitting atop a railing directly next to the spot where I had parked. Some wonderful, fabulous, UNDERSTANDING person had found our bear and left him in plain view so that we could find him.
Unless you have a toddler who is completely attached to a stuffed animal, blankie, etc (as in - will not sleep, travel in the car, etc without said item).. you just have no idea the immensity of the relief that washed over all of us! I almost swooned. And I'm really not sure what a 'swoon' is.. but I think I almost did it.
I am still thanking God for the Good Samaritan who saved our Christmas. And our sanity. Could you imagine a 18-hr drive home with ' BEAR! BEAR! BEAR! ' being screamed by an inconsolable 2-yr old? {shiver}
And the last photo.. our cute.. albeit ornery.. little angel.. probably giggling over 'peepee' or 'poopoo'. {sigh}