Making Lemons Into Lemonade

Ever heard the saying, "God doesn't give you more than you can handle."?

Ever thought that statement isn't very comforting?

Two years ago, I wrote this blog with my thoughts on this saying because it's been said to me so many times and rather than being a comfort, it's just frustrated me.

The reality is, LIFE has given us more that we can handle! It was God who helped us navigate through the things that were too big for us.

In fact, life has given us a lot of lemons:

Tillery was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 🍋Lemon
Tillery had to undergo 16 surgeries and 2 years of chemotherapy. 🍋Lemon
Tillery was delayed in standing, walking, eating, and learning. 🍋Lemon
We have had to travel for treatment. 🍋Lemon
We know that her tumor can grow again. 🍋Lemon

Those lemons are heavy. Sometimes they have buried us and sometimes we thought we couldn't handle any more...right before another was thrown our way.

BUT, we did the best thing we could with life's lemons...We made lemonade!

Tillery was diagnosed with a brain tumor. 🍋Lemon

We now are part of a pediatric brain tumor parent support network and we help guide other parents through the beginning stages of diagnosis and we have formed a community of other families who can understand us. 

Lemonade!

Tillery had to undergo 16 surgeries and 2 years of chemotherapy. 🍋Lemon

We hate all that Tillery has had to endure but through her treatment, we have learned to focus on the things that are really important in life. We have found laughter in the surgical waiting room and PICU and during chemo infusions and it's taught us to laugh through other stressors of life. 

Lemonade!

Tillery was delayed in standing, walking, eating, and learning.🍋Lemon

Often, Tillery can't do things her peers can do. But when I watch her stumble or fall behind, I see her brush it off. She doesn't focus on what she can't do or what other people do better, she just does what she can and is proud of what she is able to do. 

Lemonade!

We have had to travel for treatment.🍋Lemon
Because we had to travel for treatment, we had the opportunity to stay at the Ronald McDonald House. We built a community there with other families facing their own trials and we leaned on each other for support. We learned to be real with people around us, to accept help when we needed it, and to be a help to others when we could. 

Lemonade!

We know that her tumor can grow again. 🍋Lemon

We have already survived treatment once. It's not new territory and we are more knowledgeable and confident now than we were in the beginning. While it would be really hard to go back, we know we fought through it once and we can do it again. 

Lemonade!

We've been thrown a lot of lemons over these past almost 4 years. We've also made a lot of lemonade from what we've been given. Many of you who have followed Tillery's story have watched Tillery make lemonade from lemons. Many people have reached out and thanked us for sharing and told us how Tillery's story has helped them through difficult times in their lives.

So now, we want to invite you to join us in turning lemons into lemonade!!

This September, as we support Alex's Lemonade Stand Foundation, we want to share stories of people turning lemons into lemonade. But not just any people...YOU!! We are inviting you to send us a private message or email (hope@tilleryisloved.com) with your inspiring story of a time when you turned lemons into lemonade. We will be picking stories to share on Tillery is Loved each day in September and hope to compile all the stories into a booklet that we can make available later as an end of year fundraiser/holiday gift idea.

We can't wait to read everyone's stories and be inspired! Get writing and let's turn a lot of lemons into some sweet lemonade!



*If you aren't a confident writer, don't let that stop you! We are more interested in your content than your writing and can help you craft your story, just reach out to us!