To be continued...Oh, how I hated those words when they would show up at the end of a tv show I was watching. Kids today will never understand the torture of waiting a week and hoping that you would be home to watch the conclusion of an episode of your favorite show, and the agony of missing it and not knowing what happened to Remington Steele (a young Pierce Brosnan people).
We all know that every good story has a hero, a conflict--something the hero has to overcome--and a resolution. And, quite frankly, that is how we (I) like our stories: wrapped up with a happy ending.
This summer was filled with many ups and downs, and it felt like a lot of the time I was holding my breath to see what would happen next. August brought some happy resolution--tumor removed, jaw intact for #2. But also a period of waiting as he will have to be monitored for the next year and receive frequent steroid injections in his jaw to prevent a recurrence of the tumor.
For #3, her "to be continued" stretches out ad infinitum. Type 1 will be part of her story day in and day out for the rest of her life. As a mom, we want our kid's stories to be epic but also relatively safe and to always have a happy conclusion. Unfortunately, that is not the way life works.
To be sure, there is always hope and promise in these situations, but the challenge comes in living into the hope and not be exhausted by the lack of resolution. When I can stop and remember that my HOPE is greater than this world, I can deal with all of the "to be continued's" in my life. Only then can I exhale and remember that I am not the author of the stories for any of the #'s under my charge.
Until next time, praying for all your "to be continued's".
