Thank you for all the birthday wishes today!  (Well, technically that was now yesterday…). This will be a long post, so get comfortable! 😂 Especially after this past year, I stop and think about how special life is and what awesome family and friends we have.  So many of you have surrounded us with prayers, love and support during the tough times and made our burden so much lighter.  Thank you for allowing God to use you in that way.  You may have thought it was just a simple little text or comments on our posts, but to us it was a great big hug.  And the prayers were our very favorite thing!

If you know me well, you’re not surprised that I haven’t put an update on FB or Caring Bridge in a while.  I’m really bad at this!  But several people have asked Cassidy and me for updates lately so I thought no better time than my birthday.  This will probably be the final update of my breast cancer journey and that alone should be celebrated!  We believe all the cancer is out of my body and future chances of recurrence are low.  If this is the only update you’ve seen, I was diagnosed officially on March 10 of this year, had a lumpectomy and sentinel lymph node biopsy on April 19 and had radiation for the month of June.  We caught it with a mammogram while it was still very small and the pathology came back indicating that I didn’t need chemo, thankfully.  (Ladies - schedule those annual mammograms!) I will have several clinical checkups this first year, then a mammogram and ultrasound in February.  After that I’ll be back to annual screening.  Amazing to already be on the back side of this. Today, on my birthday, we attended a Breast Cancer Survivor Celebration at Imaging for Women, where I have gotten my mammograms for about 12 years.  They had a butterfly release which was pretty cool. 

Only God knows what our future holds. I’ve been a big worrier in the past but miraculously I haven’t had that obsessive worry with this.  God did that.  Remember, do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.  Each day has enough trouble of its own.  That’s from Matthew 6:34, but there’s more in Matthew 6:25-34. Good stuff…

Beyond that, Rick is also doing well.  He was fitted for two prostheses for his hand/middle finger recently.  One is functional and the other cosmetic.  Unfortunately I don’t have a picture of that to show you and I can’t take one because he’s away tonight getting ready for hunting season.  Saying that is also a blessing.  This time last year he was concerned he might never hunt again but he’s done so well and is figuring out new ways to do all kinds of things.  He has gotten to take a break from doctors and therapy appts since April.  He goes back in October to discuss whether or not he needs any other surgeries then.  He was ready for that break!  

We just got back from an Alaskan cruise that was originally supposed to occur in 2020 for our 10th anniversary and was postponed 4 times!  Had a great time!  We also just had another grand baby - Jack Miles - on September 10.  I’ll share a few fun pics here.  Blessings upon blessings!

Thank you - love you all!