Back and forward

Well, after a MOST frustrating day with AT&T, it happened rather quickly in the end. When you finally get connected with the right person, you learn it isn't such a big problem after all.

Yesterday, Pete and I met with his new oncologist for the first time. We do like him, and believe he is "one of us" - his explanation of radiation - "it's like the fact that sin needs a covering"...made us laugh. He was very reassuring and we left feeling his team will do everything they can to help us through this journey. They took blood and scheduled a bone scan, three cat scans, an MRI and some x-rays. These tests will take the better part of Monday and Tuesday. Then the next Tuesday (8/19) we meet with the dr. again for the results. He will have also determined the stage/grade of the cancer and will have a plan, which will, of course, mean surgery first. He'll clean out around the tumor site and will create "clean margins". Then they'll blanket the whole area with radiation. And, of course, further treatment will depend on what else they find (or don't find, as we hope will be the case).

In the middle of all this, I have gotten a new job and will start on Monday. More on that later...

We're heading to our first church out of seminary over the weekend, where Pete will be preaching on Sunday for an anniversary celebration. We get to stay with dear friends and are looking forward to a little getaway.

This week has been profound in many ways, and hopefully I can get back and write about it in detail. From witnessing a close friend have a stroke while leading worship to Pete sharing his cancer news with our congregation and preaching the sermon of his life...to long, long days of trying to finish well at church and direct VBS to meeting with the oncologist...it was a whopper. And I am really, really tired.

I listened to the Steven Curtis Chapman interview with Larry King on YouTube tonight (http://chapmanchannel.typepad.com/jim/2008/08/larry-king.html), and I loved the very last comment made by Mary Beth. It went something like this: "Even as we have been falling, falling into the depths, and not even landing on our feet, but doing a face plant, we have found that our foundation was firm. And that means everything."