My Little Redhead

Our Julianne is a big bargain shopper. Savers is her Nordstrom, and she finds some pretty good stuff, too. Once, at DownEast, she found the perfect pillowcases for her daughter's bedroom: perfect color, all cotton, very nice. The monogram didn't matter for their function, but when she got home and presented them to Claire, Claire wanted to know, "What does MLR stand for?" Just a quick as that, Julianne calmly said, "It stands for My Little Redhead." It has become a favorite nickname for this little redhead.

Well, Julianne is my little redhead, and she's likely going to lose that incomparable, gleaming, just curly enough strawberry-blonde hair to chemotherapy. She has been diagnosed with Hodgkins and we are celebrating at the prayers-answered miracle that this is. Nothing worse? Ha! We laugh at lymphoma. Seriously, the menu had nothing better and a lot worse options. 

She has tons of wonderful friends and neighbors and of course, six siblings who stand ready to help in every way they can....and have thought of things I wouldn't have already. We are so appreciative of your prayers and kindnesses and concern. Having served a mission herself, she wants us to stay here, and truly, we feel a new motivation to be the best missionaries we can be; to make this time away from our loved ones count, and to try to say thank you for the Lord's miracles--particularly this one--in our lives. 
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Here's a picture of the patient with the fabulous hair during her first chemotherapy, with Saundra, the doctor known for her glamor (and her gift of compassion) checking up on her. It's going to be a brutal six months, but this is the girl who runs marathons in downpours, jumps into a neighbors' yard with a snarling dog to get a runaway ball and prays our old van up the mountain in Colorado when nothing else would get it going. We know this territory. We can do this.