Dan

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We deeply appreciate the messages you have been sending us. Cancer is such an unknown quantity...it is easy to get lost in the struggle. Your prayers & kind words help keep us thinking clearly.

When we got back from Eastern Europe the end of October, we began preparing to vacate the house, literally "break up housekeeping" to move to Romania. We invited the children to choose what things of ours they'd like to have. Making a stack of a few things to ship to Romania, we put the rest out for the estate sale lady to see.

The house was a mess...it looked like someone was moving..Blank spaces on the walls where favorite paintings had been, things for the estate sale on tables and floors...then this mass appeared on Dan's right thigh.

The Dr. told us to go on and spend Christmas with our California kids, but cut our trip short to come back for Dan's surgery. We kept focussed on the positive - hoping, praying all the while that the mass was benign. Sometimes God answers, "No," or "Not now." This is one of those times.

God helped Dan make it through the surgery, the stay in the hospital...and now we are living in this messy house. : > ) Friends from church are helping a lot by bringing food so I don't have to cook. Today while Dan slept, I began to straighten up the living room, and arranged a couple of pictures on the walls. As each area becomes less cluttered, I begin to feel better.

Our life is completely different now than it was a few months ago. We do not understand God's ways. A wise friend said, "who knows but what this event may be protecting you from something." Tonight as Dan was pondering how to deal with doing nothing, I told him, "This is a time for you to rest and heal. This is our time, a time to be together, to cherish each moment God gives us."

We pray that you will choose to cherish each moment you have with your loved ones. Our beloved brother, Stefan, in Sfantu Gheorghe, wrote today that his mother had just died. Today we also learned that one of Dan's beloved cousins, Kathryn, has Stage IV cancer. A friend gave Dan a plaque with this saying on it, "Only one life, Will soon be past. Only what's done for Christ will last." That message helps keep us foccused too.

We love and pray for you. -- Anne