Update for 12-29-06

It has certainly been a long time since we "blogged". This is a great time of the year but also a busy and hectic one. We were very blessed to have all with us for Christmas except Michael's family who were in CA. We had our Christmas on the 23rd as Kirk (Cassie's husband) who is a minister, had to work on Christmas eve when we often get together. We had a wonderful day with a great meal and opening the presents. I cooked the usual Beef Wellington for those who were not doing vegan. Christmas eve which was Sunday, we had two church services. One at 9:30 (the usual one) and a Christmas service at 6:00 p.m. Kevin and I sang O Holy Night together at the evening service. On Christmas day we all went over to Cassie's who served some special appetizers and a great meal. We had a great time and it was nice to be at her home.

As for many of you, Christmas is a very special time for our family. When I was diagnosed on July 26th, I wondered if I would even be here this Christmas. I was not only here, I had a couple of days where I felt really great. The last few days I have not felt that well but overall good. Just a queasy stomach. We are starting to get geared up to go to Bonaire ( a small island in the southern Carribean near Aruba). We will leave on January 9th and are planning on returning on April 11th. Bonaire is a very laid-back island with no traffic lights and only 11,000 people. World class scuba diving which is why we go there. We have many friends who live on the island and more that we have met who vacation there while we are there.

We will have a pretty quiet New Year's Eve at the neighbor's and like many, I will probably spend much of New Years Day watching football. We wish you a healthy and joyous New Year!

Joe

Update for 12-27-06

I'm Back to the computer after a week off.
As Joe wrote, my surgery went well and no cancer so we can close that page. We had a wondeful Christmas long weekend with all the kids here except Mike and his family who were in San Diego visiting Heidi's Mom and her sibs. We celebrated Christmas the first time on the 23rd with our traditional beef wellington as the main course except for those of us vegans who weren't taking a free day. We had wonderful barley lentil stew. We opened gifts that night. On Christmas Eve we had two services at church. One in the morning and one in the evening. At the evening one, Joe sang "O Holy Night" with our son Kevin and we tried to videotape it but one of the mikes was not on so we retaped it at home later that evening. Our son-in-law Kirk, our computer guru, will put it on the blog when he has time. They did a great job. The little grandchildren got to hear Joe sing for the first time in church because children aren't usually allowed in our clubhouse where our church meets, but they gave special permission for Christmas service. That evening, Joe told stories of his childhood and it was amazing the kids had never heard some of them. Christmas day we went to our daughter Cassie's and had Lasagna. She stretched out her table to fit 12 of us and it was lovely. Kevin took Karen to the airport at 4 and we stayed and watched home movies of the Moore kids when they were little. Although Joe fell asleep for part of it, it was a lot of fun. Joe felt really well through the whole holiday although he had some quezziness again yesterday but he shared that he never expected to be here at Christmas when he got the diagnosis last July and he sure didn't expect to be feeling this well. We feel truly blessed with how prayers are working and that God has allowed us this time together as a family to share with them and special friends just how important they are to us. A pass it on saying I bought this Christmas is When God is all you have, God is all you need. We again thank all of you who so faithfully pray for Joe and for the family. We are doing well and are looking forward to leaving for Bonaire on the 9th of January for three months. Our friends from Holland, Henk and Wilma, and our friends from Germany, Roland and Renata surprised us with calls at Christmas. Thanks guys. You can't imagine how special that made Joe feel. May you all just take it easy these last few days of the year and reflect on all God has given you to be thankful for. We sure have. God Bless Take care Mary Anne

Update for 12-21-06

Mary Anne is doing very well today with a little sore throat from the anesthesia. Her surgeon came in this afternoon and said that the results had come back from pathology regarding the tissue from her thyroid. The abnormal cells were benign. No Cancer. Praise God! I will be bringing her home this afternoon and it will be my turn to wait on her for a while....she deserves it.

Thank you all for your well-wishes and your prayers!

Update for 12-20-06

Mary Anne had her thryoid surgery yesterday and and the Doctor said that it went very well. He did not think it had spread even if it was malignant. He did not have to remove the entire thyroid which is good. I believe that she will come home tomorrow. Mary Anne is feeling pretty good and is not a complainer at all. She is a rock as you who are following this regularly already have figured out. I can't imagine what I would do without her.

Things seem very rushed around here what with coming back from Palm Desert and all the mail and the things that need to be done prior to Christmas. We will all get together to celebrate Christmas on the 23rd as Kirk as a minister has to work on Christmas Eve. We will have a special service on Christmas Eve where Cassie, Karen and I will sing and Kevin will play the guitar.

This is such a special time of the year as we celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. My Christmas wish for you is that the peace and joy of this season will be with you at Christmas and throughout the coming year.

Love ya.....Joe

Update for 12-16-06

Well, today is Saturday - one week before Christmas Eve. We are in Palm Desert until tomorrow and we have had a wonderful trip. We've had some relaxing days and some go-go days, but it seems just the right amount of each. Earl and Pat have been with us this week and we have had a great time playing hand and foot (a card game). Unfortunately, the men have soared ahead of us in games won. Last night our daughter Karen and her friend Kelli arrived. They will be with us for the weekend. Kelli was Karen's roommate when they went to Russia as missionaries. It's great (as always) to see Kelli again.
More good news - our grandson Matthew just got the lead in the musical at his middle school. Also it is official now that Kirk, Cassie's husband will be the new pastor at his own church in Somonauk, IL starting in February. This will necessitate a move for them down the road but not right now. We are happy for them and pray for success in this new mission.
I believe we can pray for anything that would be pleasing to God so we are praying for Cassie's dog Molly who may need surgery because of something that may be lodged in her nasal passage. She is only 2 and a very sweet dog.
Back to Joe ( I tend to digress), he is back to his ordinary queasiness after two days of feeling normal but he is not any worse. It doesn't stop him from doing anything and he has been enjoying reading books out here rather than watching television. He is into James Patterson. I just finished reading 90 Minutes in Heaven, a true story written by a pastor who was in a terrible accident. A good read and I thank my high school friend Mary Ann McCollough for giving it to us on this trip. I read it to Joe for several hours as we drove from Arizona to California. What a beautiful vision of heaven he had. We continue to hear of more people who are praying and we are coming up on 5 months since diagnosis and we know the prayers are being heard. Thanks you so much. We watched a tape Earl brought with him yesterday and it had a part in it that Jesus was in the garden asking God to let this cup pass from him but if it was not in God's will then so be it. I realized that that is our prayer for Joe.
Life will get hectic when we get home tomorrow with my surgery Tuesday. I will be in the hospital until Thursday. If it takes us awhile to get back on the blog, please have a beautiful Christmas with lots of family memories and Christmas songs and cherish the time you get to spend with friends and relatives. Our spirits are filled up each day with the grace from your prayers.
God Bless,
Mary Anne

Update for 12-12-06

Great news!
I've felt great the last two days -- better than I have in 14 months!
Friday night we were at our daughter, Karen's house. She gathered her pastor, Mike and his wife Darcy together with about 15 friends and they prayed over MaryAnne and me. After that we went out dancing -- and learned the fox trot!
We played golf today in beautiful weather and plan to do that again on Thursday. (What a wonderful game golf is!)
We ask that you keep the prayers flowing. We are very thankful for the last few days of feeling so good!
Joe

Update for 12-5-06

Hi Friends,
We came to Palm Dessert on Monday and are staying with our dear friends the Presleys until Thursday. The weather here is gorgeous with lots of sunshine -- just what the doctor ordered. Those of you who know Joe well, know he has seasonal affective disorder so sun is very important to him. He had some nausea on Saturday and Sunday but it is gone. I try to get him to look at it as big chunks of cancer coming off and that he just needs to flush it out. It is hard for him not to think of it as the beginning of a downward spiral. Today we went walking in the mall and came across a Jamba Juice which has fresh carrot juice. I was thrilled! Joe was not so crazy about it, but we found pure carrot juice in the store and he is drinking that.
We also discovered that our friends, Marc and Joan Adler, who we met in Bonaire diving and who live in CO. are here in their motor home. We are meeting up with them tomorrow for lunch. It is 75 during the day here and gets cooler at night. The airlines ruined our luggage by cutting off the approved TSA lock and also cutting off the tabs of the zipper totally so we had to get that repaired yesterday. They didn't pay any attnetion to the approved locks so for those of you traveling, we suggest to skip the locks, at least with American. This is the second time this has happened with our new (cheap) luggage. It cost us more to have new pulls put on than it did for the luggage.
I for one am glad I am away from the hustle and bustle of Christmas and just spending time with good friends and family this next two weeks. I'm sure that Jake our dog staying with Cassie and Kirk, our kids, has added to their stress and we thank them so much for doing this for us. As I think I said, I have my thyroid surgery on the 19th, two days after we return home , so Christmas will be fairly quiet I think. We will not have our traditional Beef wellington that Joe usually makes but we will have something vegetarian. We have a church service on Christmas Eve night and Joe will sing O Holy Night accompanied by Karen and Cassie. Kevin will play the guitar. We will try and videotape it so we have it as a memory. On that night children are welcome in our clubhouse so the little ones will get to see it. That is about it for now. We continue to feel blessed and hope you are all continuing to pray. Since Joe is still doing so well, sometimes it is easy to forget that he has this diagnosis and we have had 4 great months. We just pray that God will let us continue our journey here to help people find their way back to God and this can be your prayer for us. God bless Mary Anne