Wonderful Visits of Encouragement

I have been so blessed to be surrounded by such a great network of family and friends, and even strangers.
I don't think that I blogged about this already, but I could be wrong. Anyway, it's on my heart again. Around the half-way mark of chemo, I really wanted to do something to celebrate. My first thought was to go North to Pittsburg, but that just wasn't best. I ended up without an idea of what to do. Well, God took care of it; I didn't need to plan anything. I had some very special visits right around that time that really boosted my spirits - seeing Gram H., Aunt Paula, Jen, Aunt Carol; a visit from Aunt Deb, Uncle Denny, Grammie C.; another visit from Aunt Cheryl, Uncle David, and Whit; a day-long visit with Ryan (my cousin) and his family from Kentucky joined by Jason and Dawn; a visit from my cousin Karrie and her family; as well as the regular summer visits of Beth Anne and Dave, and Denise and other wonderful friends who live nearby. What better celebration could a person have?!!! It was great.
More recently, I had another very special visit. "The great aunts" took an excursion to come see us, and boy, did I feel special. The photo below shows the crew - (back row, left to right)Grammie, me, Aunt Norma, Aunt Geneva, (first row) Aunt Katherine, Lyndsey, Aunt Hilda, Aunt Betty, and Aunt Margaret. The set of older women are all sisters-in-law, married to the Covill brothers (except for Aunt Geneva who is Grampa's sister). How special that this group of ladies piled into the mini-van to spend a day on the road visiting us, and doing a little shopping. 8) I really enjoyed the visit (and, I got to see Grammie twice in 1 week!). Lastly, a quick story about a stranger. My friends Julie and Tim (from college days) have been faithfully praying for us. Tim's job puts him in contact with tons of people. He met a man, John M., who lives in Ireland and whose wife is fighting cancer. He and Tim talked about me back in March/April, and John said that he would be praying for me. His and Tim's paths crossed again more recently, and John remembered me, asking how I was doing and saying that he was still praying. Isn't that amazing how God is demonstrating such lovingkindness in that He continually reminds people, even strangers, to pray for little ol' me?! God is so good.