One of my college friends, a mother of three, had cancer several years back and was able to beat it.

Unfortunately I learned the news over the weekend that the cancer has returned.

If you have room for a spare prayer or two, please be sure to keep Allyson and her family in your prayers.

She recently made a post about her ordeal, below is a portion of it that really tugged at my heart, especially the part where she tells her kids.

And yes, that makes two friends from college that I know have cancer, and oddly enough, both are from the Houston area.

Yesterday was the day that we had to tell our children that their mommy has cancer. Again.

I would give up every single one of my good-day memories if it meant that I could have kept yesterday from happening. Forever etched in my mind will be the swollen-from-crying-green eyes of my oldest son as he looked at me and said, “Mommy, please don’t die.”

Tomorrow I will go back to the operating room. The plan is for my oncologist to remove the 2 tumors that are growing in my abdominal cavity and on my colon, to apply intraoperative chemotherapy, and then to insert a port for post-surgery chemo access.

My heart is torn, and my emotions are raw. I am scared. I am angry. I am thankful. I am still blessed.

A lot of things will change for me in the coming days. I will be sick, I will be weak. I will not be able to attend Goliath’s scout meetings or to cheer for my 5-year-old karate kid from the sidelines. I won’t teach preschool, I won’t do much cooking, and I will not take Baby to the library.

But in the midst of my heartache, my God remains the same. He was faithful before, and I believe He will be faithful again. I wish so much that I could understand why I must endure this. Little Middle asked me yesterday, “Mommy, why do you have to have cancer?” The answer could only be, “I don’t know why God lets bad things happen to good people.” But I do know that the God who gave me those three precious boys holds me and my cancer in the palm of His hand.