I'm not sure where I was headed professionally before cancer. I knew I was happy as a stay-at-home mom, and I didn't give much thought to what might come next. I was pretty certain I would not do what I did before kids -- college administration and counseling -- and that's as far as I'd gotten in my decision-making process.

It seems cancer would have further confused my future intentions. But it didn't. Instead, it led me in a direction I may have otherwise never discovered. First, it guided me to a part-time position at my kids' preschool. Just after surgery, chemotherapy, and radiation and in the midst of Herceptin breast cancer treatment, I felt a strong urge to reenter the world of the living. One day as I was dropping off my oldest child at his Pre-K class, I noticed an advertisement on the doors of the school. I inquired within -- and got a job working two afternoons per week.

The job was a blessing. I got to see my kids while I worked, interact with loving adults and children, and distract myself from the darkness of cancer.

For two years, I worked at this preschool. And yesterday was my last day. Preschool work was never my lifelong pursuit. It was a means to renewal. It served its purpose. And I will forever be grateful for Abiding Savior Lutheran School.

From now on, I will devote my time to writing. I've been doing it ever since the day I was diagnosed, and I plan to continue writing -- for myself, for others, for pay. This is no short-term gig. It's my long-term ambition. I plan to stick with it, now while my kids are still young and later, when they no longer need my constant attention. It's my new career, a career created by the one thing that could have thrown me right off my already-uncertain course: cancer.