I do not have anything borrowed or blue but I have a few old and new things to tell you about. Deb had an old friend by the name of Dave travel to meet her. When she was in grade school they had 13 in their class and over the years they have stayed in touch. Some of these friends live locally and have helped Deb with some of the medical appointments and have come over to show their support. Dave lives in Virginia and was close to Michigan in his travels and called to see if he could come and see Deb. We had a nice visit with him. Ross was playing for the GR symphony yesterday and Dave met us at the concert and then stayed overnight with us before his return trip. It was fun to see him again.
After the concert we had a nice meal and visit with some other friends in GR. Dave came along with us and we returned home at night. We had been contacted by some of the families that we had helped years ago with resettlement to the USA from the Vietnam war era. I wrote about some of these experiences someplace in the middle of my blog stories. I also called them to tell them about Deb's condition. To our great surprise and delight many of them came over to our house today. Not only did they bring some wonderful gifts but it was just really good to see them again. We talked about the years when we were involved with them. We have maintained touch over the years. It is interesting the huge ability levels in their families and it was really fun to hear about their children and what they are doing now. A nice thing now is that their children are totally bilingual and now we are able to understand each other at a higher level than we could when they first arrived. It is really a fascinating story of success when you know the story. I asked them today to make sure I had the facts right in the stories I told and for the most part they thought I had them right. As we recalled those days some tears were shed. A really cool thing happened. Quan the father of one of the families asked if we could all join hands and say a prayer. His English is still a little broken so he said his prayer in his native tongue and then it was translated by Van who was just a little girl when they first came over. It was moving to have him do this. If you feel like it read the story on my blog about a "One way conversation with feeling" and you will see why this event had a huge amount of impact on both Deb and I. It brings a tear to my eye even as I write about it now.
This picture shows representatives of the all of the families we were involved with during the resettlement days. All of them came here with no possessions and now are doing quite well. The man on the right is Dave who visited us from Virginia.
This picture below is a picture of Van (Vickie) and her husband Marsel and their little boy James. She was the little girl who broke her arm on the playground when they first arrived in this country that Stan talked about in his blog. They now live in Australia. 
Another day of Chemo tomorrow. Every three weeks they administer two extra drugs and it takes a little longer. So Deb is expecting the procedure to take 5 hours at least. Mieke is taking her and I am hoping they can talk about wedding plans and get some things finalized. I am just not that good at that stuff. It is looking to me like this is going to be a pretty big deal not in terms of the financial side but just the planning.
How is Deb? She is doing OK but this thing does have its moments. Lately she has been visited by some pretty strong headaches during the night time. It has also been a little harder for her to keep her stamina on the high energy plane. She is really bothered by her wig which seems to squeeze her head more than she had expected. Other than that things are pretty good. She thinks the tumor that pressed up against her stomach might be shrinking a little. At least she does not feel it as much which from the optimistic side might be a sign that the chemo is working.
Thanks to Bonnie for the wonderful Chicken Divan on Sunday. The apple crisp was great too.
That is all for now. We will keep you posted with the updates. Thanks for all of your concern and prayers.
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