Recently Chris' grandma, Betty Durbin, underwent surgery to remove a suspicious growth in her throat.  Pathology has confirmed that the tissue was cancer.  She was told that they believe that they were able to remove it all.  Her cancer was staged as T1,N0,M0... this is all very good news and her prognosis is very favorable IF she is able to quit smoking.  She was told that her survival rate will be 90% if she never smokes again but the cancer will definitely return if she continues to use nicotine.  Of course we are praying for her as she makes this very difficult change for her own health!  Please pray with us for her... it's not easy to quit!  She will follow up with a PET scan in 6 months.  A special note... to my own family... if you smoke or chew tobacco of any kind please please stop... it is a death sentence.  We are praying for you too!  Cancer affects everyone and I'm tired of seeing my family suffer! 

About a week ago Chris surprised me with the sweetest gift!  He said he had been saving it for a special occasion but he felt I needed it now.  Here's the story:  When we were married in 1997, Mom and Papa had a beautiful set of Teak nesting tables with mother-of-pearl inlays shipped to the USA as a gift for us.  They were absolutely gorgeous and of course all four of us were dissapointed to find that the largest table had been damaged in transit.  We immediately made plans to seek out a repair shop but life happened and we never got around to it.  As time passed the damaged table went from being loosely fit together to appear whole to sitting alone on a garage shelf with one side completely broken off.  I had all but given up on ever having it repaired.  Unknown to me, Chris had been doing his research and found a company that would repair the table.  They did a fantastic job and we now have a complete set! 

 

We also have another surprise to enjoy... yesterday we welcomed a new member into our family.  Sawyer, a 4-year-old retired racing greyhound came to live with us.  He's the sweetest, mild-mannered dog I've ever met.  (quite the contrast to spunky little Sydney)  He's taking his time getting to know everyone but so far he's been such a good boy.  I've added a couple pictures of him so you can "meet" him!