I have been wanting to make a post about this for a very long time.     I want to tell you about my friend, Sandi, who is such a strong woman, and someone who I think will be an inspiration to many women.

I have known Sandi, a sweet woman with now 4 beautiful girls, for about 5 years now.   We met when she entered a contest for a baby foot drawing from my website.   Since then, we've been very good friends.

For two years, Sandi had been telling me and other friends, on my discussion board, Friendly Faces, that she had been experiencing what she thought were problems with her thyroid.  She said many times that her thyroids were getting so large that it was becoming difficult to breathe anymore.    I was worried about her, but I had no idea how serious this problem really was.    None of us did.    She went to doctors for two years who simply assumed the problem was her thyroids, asthma, and other such things. 

Sandi found out she was pregnant in April, and she emailed me letting me know.  It was a shock, and she was not expecting this at all.   She was very excited though about having another child.  

Only a few weeks after Sandi found out she was pregnant, she found out some devastating news....all of those problems she previously thought were her thyroid actually indicated a much more serious problem:

Sandi had cancer. 

Here is what Sandi posted to us the day she found out what she had:

We were so shocked and so worried for Sandi when we found out.   All we could do was watch and wait, and pray for her.

A nurse (Edit to correct an error- it was actually a specialist, not a nurse) that Sandi talked to, recommended strongly that she have a "therapeutic abortion", telling her that there could be possible side effects to the unborn child, such as defects like cleft lip, or other things that they don't know about yet.   She said they hadn't researched it well enough to know for sure, so abortion was probably a 'good idea'.

Sandi is pro-life, and refused to even consider aborting her child.   In fact, it actually really hurt her to even have the option presented to her.    (I don't blame her...I would have been offended by that option too).   

Through the next few months, Sandi went through so much pain....the first few months, her morning sickness was very hard to bear, due to the fact that  she had had a couple of surgeries, and because of that the throwing up was very painful for her, more than it would have been otherwise. 

But through it all, Sandi found motivation and energy through bonding with her child.  Here is a post that she made in May:



Sandi found a wonderful resource while pregnant, which I think every single pregnant cancer patient should find. It's called " Pregnant with Cancer", and the statement on the front page says:

Sandi was able to connect with another woman who had recently been through the exact same type of cancer as her, and ended up delivering a perfectly healthy little baby boy.    Sandi kept telling us that this was such a great thing for her, to be able to connect with someone who knew exactly what she was going through! 

Over the next several months, Sandi went through trial after trial. 

Chemo treatments, being life flighted to the hospital, tests, and more tests...she kept us updated on everything.

What amazes me is how positive she was through it all!  


Finally, a couple of weeks ago, Sandi announced to us that her little baby, Gabriella, had decided to be born!



Isn't it amazing how God can make even bad situations turn out for the better for everyone, if we just follow His will and trust in His goodness. 

God knows what He is doing. 

Sometimes we don't always understand why God puts us in situations that are difficult for us to handle. We sometimes become overwhelmed with trials that come our way. But all in all, God always knows what He's doing. 

I would love to invite you all to visit Sandi's blog, which has her journal of her cancer/pregnancy experience, and to see what a wonderful thing came out of such a sad situation.  

 Sandi still has more treatment to go through before this is over with, but thankfully, she has her new little girl to be encouraged by and to love.  And her daughters have a sweet little sister to cherish, and know without a  doubt that their mother loves them so much she would go through anything for them.