THE WINSTEADS: Gatlinburg 2009

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Gatlinburg 2009

Brad and I had our first vacation in over a year and a half this weekend. Sad, I know. Brad's parents kept Braden...so I felt comfortable knowing he would be spoiled all weekend:) We went to Gatlinburg for the weekend with two sweet couples from our Sunday school. Brad and I were talking tonight and he looked at me and said, "You know, I don't think we have laughed that much in like three years"! Ha! So true! We had the best weekend! We didn't really leave the cabin! I felt like we were back in high school. We played Cranium, Uno, Clue, and pool all weekend. It was just what we needed. We are so, so thankful to have such sweet fun friends here in Nashville.

1 comment:

Amanda said...: Tell Brad that he and Maddie have the same North Face. Seriously. It is the one she picked:); October 19, 2009 at 12:57 PM

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As most of you probably know by now, Brad was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma two weeks ago. It came as an incredible shock to us and our families. We went to a Sunday school party Sunday night and Brad played kickball with all of the guys. He was sore the next day and took some Ibuprofen on an empty stomach. Tuesday, he started passing blood in his urine and went to the walk in clinic. They immediately sent him to the ER where he found out five hours later that he had a golf ball size tumor in his left kidney. We met with the urologist the next day and he scheduled the surgery for the following Thursday. Dr. Locke was able to remove the entire tumor. He only had to remove 1/4 of his kidney. He will not have to do chemo OR radiation and for that...we are so thankful. We are finally back home and Brad is recovering well. Our lives have been completely turned upside down the past two weeks, but we both have new outlooks on life. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with our beautiful baby boy who just turned 10 weeks old this week. We have learned that life is a true and absolute GIFT and we will appreciate every single day we have with one another. I love Brad more than I ever have before. I've been scared, mad, anxious, and happy all at once. I am so thankful we caught the cancer at such an early stage. We have a lot of life left to live and so many more memories to make. Braden and I love you Brad...