Elisha

I wrote a lot about friendships last year.  I have never been the type of person to take my friendships lightly.  I cherish the people who call me their friend, and allow me the honor to call them mine.

My favorite post from 2012 is the one I wrote about how God has reunited me with my best best friend from my early childhood years, Michelle.  From the number of pageviews for that particular blog series, I would say it was your favorite as well.  Thank you for that.

I remember a particular conversation I had with Keith about how thankful I am that God brought Michelle back to me.  It struck me at that moment that God had done the exact same thing for Keith...

Keith is an only child.  I usually say "spoiled-rotten" only child.  But I'll refrain this time.  Wait...  oops.  I can't find the backspace button...  Heeheehee  :)

Anyway, my dear sweet husband had no siblings while growing up.  So God blessed him with fellow youngsters in his neighborhood with whom he played pretty much all the time.  His best friend lived right next door.  His name was Steven.  They played basketball.  They rode bikes.  They had sleepovers.  They spent a lot of time together during their elementary years.

As they grew up, they too grew apart.  Not for the same reasons and Michelle and me, but it did seem their season of friendship had come to an end.  Until a few years ago...

About the same time Michelle had come back into my life, Steven came back into Keith's.  In fact, he moved right next door, with his new wife - Elisha.

Guys are so much different than girls.  It took a little while before Michelle and I felt the spark of our friendship had truly been rekindled.  Keith and Steven just picked right back up where they had left off.  I mean, they're not racing their bikes up the road and having sleepovers.  But there was no awkwardness at all.  They just shook hands and started talking again.  Guys are so weird.  :)

Keith met Elisha before I did.  I remember him coming home and saying, "You have got to meet her.  You'll like her."  I was like, "How do you know?"  He said, "I just know.  You'll like her."

I finally got to meet her soon after they brought their new baby, Sawyer, home from the hospital.  We took a meal over to them, and Elisha and I sat there talking liked we'd known each other for years.  She showed me all the pictures from Sawyer's birth.  (I remember being shocked at some of those pictures, one imparticular.  Elisha ~ you know which one I'm talking about ;)  And she told me everything she was feeling as a new mother.  Things you don't normally do with someone you just met.  But like I said, it just didn't feel like we'd just met.

We didn't get together often after that.  They both had crazy work schedules that just made it difficult to socialize.  When Elisha changed jobs, we were able to have them over for supper a few times.

Then Elisha found out she had breast cancer.  I will never forget.  We go to church with Steven's parents, and Keith would always ask how Steven and Elisha were doing.  Steven's dad told Keith, then Keith told me.  I have no idea what was being preached at that service.  All I could do was think about Elisha.  I came home and cried for her.

She spent the next six months fighting for her life, completing chemo and radiation.  When Elisha was feeling well, we invited them over for supper.  She and I would retreat to our homeschool room, play with Sawyer and talk nonstop.  One time we hid out in my scrapbook room, just to get away from the husbands and kids (sometimes this is just necessary to maintain our sanity).  Keith and Steven literally had to drag us out of there.  I laugh just thinking about it.  It was funny.

Soon after that, Elisha and I decided we needed to exercise.  So we started walking together, at least 3 times a week.  We walked up and down "the compound", her word for the first mile of the road we live on, which is home mostly to her husband's family and my husband's family.  During this time, we talked about everything.  I mean EVERYTHING.  Our husbands, our kids, our families, our friends, our jobs, our hobbies, our bodies, our food...  EVERYTHING.  It was so nice because we didn't know each other well enough to judge, but just well enough to know it was a safe place to be completely honest.

I was so excited to have a friend that lived right next door.  Even though our walks only lasted an hour a day, three days a week, we became very close during that time.  It was the start of a very special friendship.

Of course, then life got in the way.  Her family went to the beach, then my family went to the beach.  Then I got sick.  Then my boys got sick.  Then Sawyer got sick.  Then I got sick.  Then Sawyer got sick.  Then I had surgery.  Then it was Thanksgiving.  Then my whole family got sick.  Then her whole family got sick.  And now, her cancer has come back, and it is viciously attacking her body.  And right this very minute, she is undergoing surgery to insert a chemo device into her brain.

Last night I couldn't sleep at all because I have pretty much become completely obsessed with her situation.  I am overcome with emotion.  That's why I'm writing.  I don't know what else to do.  She is all I can think about.  Yet I am so incredibly useless to her at this moment.

So I keep praying.  Please God, heal her.  The doctors can't heal her.  Her family can't heal her.  Her friends can't heal her.  Only You can heal her, God.  Please do.  

I'm asking you, please pray for her too.