Cancer has its privileges

I found a book called, Cancer Has its Privileges. I haven't read it yet, but the title often comes to mind as little "privileges" or benefits make themselves known to me.

This weekend was the beginning of the season of holidays for our son, who turned five yesterday. We had many family members come up for the weekend, and on Saturday we had a baseball-themed party for our son, who is a budding baseball star (and whose t-ball jersey from last year happened to be #5, so it was perfect to wear for his #5 birthday). As we made preparations for the event, going all out to preserve the baseball theme in our apparel, decorations, food, etc., a thought occurred to us. In keeping with some of the less fortunate MLB traditions, this birthday boy's mother happens to be on steroids! I'm usually really dedicated with his birthday celebrations, but I think this put me over the top! We had a good laugh about it. Cancer has its privileges.

On Sunday I helped the Primary children sing Happy Birthday to Jacob. Yesterday I sent cupcakes with him to preschool and to soccer practice. I later wondered if it was a bad idea to hand out cupcakes to soccer kids who are finishing up practice right before dinnertime, but the deed was already done. And I figured, well, at least people tend to be more forgiving of the "cancer lady"! Cancer has its privileges.

The four of us went from soccer practice to Jacob's favorite pizza & game place for dinner and a little family party. He ate a slice and played some games and won some prizes and opened the presents we gave him. When life becomes precious, little moments (like watching a five-year-old boy open the monster truck that his daddy gave him) are sweeter than ever. Cancer has its privileges.

As I said earlier, this is just the beginning of the season of holidays that we celebrate with Jacob. We celebrate his birthday, of course. Tomorrow we celebrate "homecoming day" - the day we brought him home. May 3 is Adoption Day, and June 9 is Temple Day. And then it starts all over again with our daughter, Emma, whose birthday launches her season of holidays on June 20. It's good stuff. Motherhood also has its privileges.