From Bristol to Boise with Faith

  I Know that My Savior Loves Me About I Know That My Savior Loves Me

We have seven children (six sons and one daughter) and seven grandchildren (five grandsons and two granddaughters). Greer and Ewan are recovering well from childbirth. I have been able to hold Ewan a couple of times.  He is so precious. We have blueberry and raspberry bushes and a grandson who loves to eat both kinds of berries. Lachlan’s eyes light up whenever we offer them to him. My medical insurance originally denied coverage for my second chemo pill.  The oncology pharmacy appealed the ruling and it was reversed.   LaVarna is sharing produce from her garden with us. She has given us zucchini, a cucumber, a bell pepper and tomatoes. She also gave us gluten free brownies which did not come from her garden. Paul took me to a fabric store.  I purchased fabric to use as a quilt back.

From Thomas: After we checked out at Costco and we started walking to the car, Roma looked at me and asked, “Are you doing okay?”   I said, “Yes, I’m just going through a lot right now.” From Paul: I saw this at Toyota today: “My boss told me to have a nice day. So I went home.”

Original Image Kyle's Interpretation (rotated) first place for this week Original Image Amy's interpretation runner up

  5  ¶ Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. 6  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths. Proverbs 3:5-6

 "So, in the midst of this refiner’s fire, rather than get angry with God, get close to God. Call upon the Father in the name of the Son. Walk with Them in the Spirit, day by day. Allow Them over time to manifest Their fidelity to you. Come truly to know Them and truly to know yourself. Let God prevail." D. Todd Christofferson

 We got an email informing us our UK visas were cancelled because our sponsor (the Church) had withdrawn its sponsorship.

  On Thursday, July 24th our seventh grandchild was born.  Ewan Tadhg Blackham is the second son of Kyle and Greer.  He weighed 9 pounds 11 ounces and was 21.65 inches long.  Greer and Ewan are doing well.

   Pepcid is an antihistamine type 1 blocker.  The doctor who did my skin punch biopsy recommended I take it to lessen the redness on my leg from a bug bite. The elevator we took in the Boise St. Luke’s Cancer Institute did not have a stop for the third floor even though we went to the fourth floor. Paul saw a hummingbird when he was deadheading our roses.  He was able to get very close to it.

 From Doris: I was privileged to witness that blessings come in the midst of what appear to be unnecessary delays.   This past week was an exercise in patience because of miscommunication.  However, the delays caused by those miscommunications allowed me to receive a priceless gift. At one of my first appointments with the oncologist, he mentioned genetic counseling.  Shortly afterwards I was contacted by a scheduler from the cancer clinic to schedule an appointment with a genetic counselor. After reviewing my family’s cancer history, the genetic counselor told me I would need to get a skin punch biopsy to determine if my mantle cell lymphoma was caused by genetic mutations. Evidently MCL is a wildcard type of cancer.  Although genetic mutations may not be found in people who have MCL, it seems to run in families.   I chose to be tested to provide cancer risk information for my children and siblings. According to the genetic counselor, I had to ha...

From Paul Blackham: Cycle 3 Postponed The medical side of our journey this week took an unexpected turn because of an infection that Doris had from her skin punch biopsy. As such, all the expectations of last week will be part of this week’s experience. In the meanwhile, we continue the journey towards healing in faith. There are reminders and disappointments associated with the cancellation of our mission to England, such as when I pull out our laptop that we purchased after we received our mission call and I gave it the name or label of Bristol. Secondly as I dig into the messenger bag that we use for the laptop, I find the UK power chord that I bought so we would be able to charge the laptop without using an adapter. We often find ourselves feeling strong, and not always negative emotions. Emotions are often near the surface. We feel a great deal of love from family, friends, and church members who say that our needs have found an interest in their prayers. It is very meanin...