Two Miracles

It is officially fall and while I will miss the summer and be cursing the state of Utah come first snow fall, I am excited. Paige is in school, Mia and I will be attending Mommy and Me classes at the library and I am back at the gym. Some other reasons to celebrate? Thursday night t.v. is back on (oh how I have missed you, Tina, Alec, Tracy, Jenna...) there is a new Olive Garden down the street and they have some cool new soup containers for take out (do any of you really know how much I love soup? Especially the fatty cream soups loaded with buttery calories) (don't worry, I am back at the gym) and most importantly, Brett is done with his Chemo treatments. He got a long anticipated call this morning from the beloved Dr Rich saying that his tumor markers are now within levels of normal. WOO...HOO! I can't seem to find an accurate way of expressing all of the emotions that this news brings with it, but I can tell you about the last day of his chemo and how we were skipping through the halls of the hospital singing zip a dee doo dah.. I can say that during his last round of chemo we saw how truly ugly cancer treatment can be. And I can definately say that it is a miracle that after only three months of treatment, the "inumorous" tumors in his lungs are no longer growing, that he can breath normally and that he does not have any permanent damage to his lungs. We now move on to the part where they try and figure out how to remove all the tumors without cutting him from the top of his collar bone to the bottom of his abdomen, but after this summer I have absolute faith in the doctors and I know they will be successful. I have to say, again, I am so moved by the kindness of people involved in his care and the friends and family that have rallied to his aid.

Now about this second miracle, as you know, at the beginning of the summer Brett was uninsured. Though the hospital has been remarkable in his care and treatment during this time, (his urologist, Dr. Oldroyd never even sent a bill for the surgery he performed) the bills were piling up. For some reason, and I guess we may never know why, his cobra benefits were reinstated, and set to be retroactive beginning at a time before he was diagnosed. Although there is still a financial responsibility for Brett, the mere fact that he is insured has opened up a door to different treatment options concerning his surgery and his post surgery care that simply weren't possible before. So there it is. He is halfway through the process and the outlook is very very positive. Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers.

I was asked to do some pictures for a friend of Mikes parents, who are going to school here but are from Russia, I was honored to be part of their day and really impressed by what beautiful people they are, here are some preview pictures. The little girl in the pictures is Mia, she came with me to help carry my bags. Isn't she a doll of a toddler?