An update on most everything

It's been more than a week since I've updated. That's because life has been good (and very busy!) Here are some recent highlights to bring you up to speed...

• Tim and Nikki (at left) arrived safely on June 25. What a blessing to have them around! They will be here until after Nikki's shower on July 1 (appropriately, Canada Day!).
• All the visa application stuff is complete and in Montreal. Now we just wait for the Montreal Consulate to make an appointment for an interview. please pray with us that this will happen in July or August, in plenty of time for a September 13 wedding.
• Please also pray that Tim would find a job, and that everything would work out according to God's will for these dear children of ours! I will really miss them come Wednesday!
  
• We enjoyed the wedding of childhood friend Carolyn Thomson over the weekend. What as weet time to reunite with friends and enjoy fellowship and celebrate all together!
  

• Ben and Elsa are doing well in Indiana. But it seems Ben is currently in need of new summer employment, having lost his job at the Indiana University music library. Apparently the loss was a combination of funding cuts and butting heads with a supervisor. Please pray for a new job to be found, and for Ben to bless those he works for. And pray for Elsa as she is in Indiana, away from her sister Bethany and the summer camp life they have known for many years. We had to cancel a trip to see them when my cancer started, so I hope we can see them sometime soon!

• Marilyn, Dave's mom, has been gone for three weeks, spending time with her children in Ohio and Tennessee. She arrived home safely on Sunday, and is recovering from her travel.

• Jack and Shirley, Chris' parents, were a big help bringing Marilyn home from the airport, and this only a day after Jack was attacked by his neighbor's pit bull dog. He has some nasty puncture wounds, but seems to be healing well. Please pray that the dog will be removed and the neighborhood made safe for everyone again.

• Dave turned 52 on Sunday. Happy birthday to my best friend, and husband of almost 28 years! I really don't know how I would have made it through the last two months without Dave. God has blessed me tremendously through him.

• I am feeling better, little by little. I am able to walk faster and farther, and need fewer naps, so I see improvement. I still struggle with my own impatience and desire to have more energy that I do, and have moments of fatigue and melt-down, but God is being very faithful to me. And Dave is being loving and patient and tender in every way.
  
• I met with the gynecologist this week and discussed the side-effect problems with the tamoxifen I am taking. She recommends that after radiation I have a sonohysterogram: a sonogram where they use saline in your uteris and can check your uterine lining carefully. This will need to be repeated yearly while I take tamoxifen. I'm not thrilled about another potentially painful procedure, but need to be grateful for the technology that can help us catch any secondary cancers caused by my medication.
• This week I will meet with the oncologist to get some blood test results to check on my iron and other things, and get the clearance to go ahead with radiation.
• Next Monday, July 7, I will meet with the radiology oncologist in Santa Fe. I would really like to be considered for the new Accelerated Parital Breast Irradiation procedures, which would cut down the time and side-effects of regular radiation treatments (instread of 6-7 weeks, 5-days-per-week, it would be twice a day for 5-10 days) while being just as effective. I believe it would have to be done in Albuquerque. Please pray for that visit, for wisdom and for a good game plan to be established.

• Tomorrow, my Mom and sister, Gwen, and her girls, and Nikki and Marilyn and I will all head to Nikki's wedding shower. My dear friends Kris and Kelley have worked hard and done wonderful preparation to make it a special night. What a blessing such friends are! And how wonderful to celebrate in this way with Nikki!

So we are busy, and blessed, and growing in our trust of the Great Physician. Join us in thanking Him!