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Mom, what's more important: having more time with your kids or having quality time with your kids? It's not a question we ask ourselves very often, but a Minnesota mom has had no choice. Lynn Acker has three kids, and she has been undergoing cancer treatment for the past seven years.
But just recently, the 37-year-old decided it's over. No more treatment. She's going to enjoy the time she has left with her boys.
As she told a Minnesota TV network:
I may not see my 40th birthday, I may not see next year, but I know I will have the last three months -- if that's what I'm given -- where I get to run around with my boys.
How you doing over there? Managing to hold back the tears? Because I'm finding typing is slow going at the moment ... I'm too busy wiping them away.
I've only read a news story about Lynn Acker, watched a video of her, and yet, I'm already convinced she's an amazing woman and an amazing mom. The choice she's making may not be one for everyone, but it's the right one for her and for her family. Cancer treatment might extend her life, but it won't save her, and it's making it hard for her to be with her kids and be the mom she wants to be.
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Her decision has me, a mom who realizes she is blessed to be healthy, thinking a lot about what matters to our kids. It's not how much money we make by working late; they'd rather have us home, snuggling on the couch. It's not how many things we buy them; they'd rather have us in the backyard kicking a soccer ball around.
Sadly, not everyone gets to be at home on the couch with their kids or out in the backyard with them. Lynn Acker won't get to do that much longer. But the fact that she's getting to do it at all is because of the very tough choice she's made, and it's the stuff her boys will remember forever.
Should every mom stop fighting cancer for that quality time? Of course not. Every situation is different. But for those who do make that brave choice, they should know the gift they're giving their child is a wonderful one.
Put yourself in Lynn's shoes. What would you do?
Image via CBS Minnesota
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