BENEDICAM DOMINUM! BLESS THE LORD AT ALL TIMES!

Seattle, WA, U of W Medical Center, beautiful day, 60 degrees sunny and clear.

Psalm 34 calls us to a life of thanksgiving. Regardless of how difficult our circumstances may be, ponder just a few moments God's Goodness and you will have reason to praise the Lord. "I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall ever be in my mouth. I will glory in the Lord; let the humble hear and rejoice. Proclaim with me the greatness of the Lord; let us exalt his Name together. I sought the Lord, and he answered me and delivered me out of all my terror. Look upon him and be radiant, and let not your faces be ashamed. I called in my affliction and the Lord heard  me and saved me from all my troubles. The angel of the Lord encompassses those who fear him, and he will deliver them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed are they who trust in him!" Since entering the hospital exactly a week ago, today, I have experienced the deliverance of the Lord. The raging fever that got me admitted in the first place is completely gone. It was touch and go for a few days, they tried every possible treatment and it persisted. Slowly, hour by hour it began to recede and I have had a normal temp for 2 days. My intestinal rebellion persists. Fighting only one war at a time is much easier. Despite no appetite, I have been vigilant to force myself to eat as much and as often as I can bear it. Doesn't sound very typical for me, does it? I've lost 15 lbs in the last two weeks and they don't want me to lose too much body mass, so eat or get put on IV fluids. I managed an almost normal breakfast and the Medical team came in as I was eating, so they were very pleased.

Yesterday, my blood count actually showed an upward blip, but it is too early for the transplant to have that kind of impact, so they were pleased that it plummeted today. I am at day 8 of infusion and it will be closer to day 15 before they would expect real and lasting improvement. Exhaustion is the greatest obvious sign that I am still deep in the battle zone. I force myself to go out and do laps in the hallway every day. It's stunning to me that I just come back and fall into bed as if I'd run a marathon. I will never take having energy and strength for granted, ever again. Just the thought of going outside for a long walk seems like a fantasy, but it will happen in God's time. Being close to the nadir, or lowest point medically I will ever be again, I don't think about winning the race. I set realistic goals for each day and try to push myself a little more each time. As a result of this precarious medical state, I will probably remain hospitalized for another week - ten days. They don't want to take any chance of my picking up some infectious agent and losing all the ground we have won since the invasion. Those millions of stem cells from my daughter have used their built in GPS units and are gearing up for another big push. In fact, for the last three days I have been getting the same shot in my stomach area that they gave to Hanna to stimulate stem cell formation. She got a lot bigger dose than I am getting, but it hurts like anything when the drug enters into your body. Some nurses are much better than others at minimizing the pain. I will likely have to have those shots for a long time, so I better get used to it.

I can feel the angel of the Lord surrounding us and it appears others can as well. The Medical Team, nurses and tech people all comment about how different our room seems to them and they look forward to coming to see us. The thousands of prayers being said on our behalf from around the world keep holding us up even when we can't stand on our own. Kriss and I will never be able to thank all of you adequately for this sacrifice of love and concern. To help pass the time we watch movies we brought in or I watch the Australian Open Tennis Championships. Starting life over at 59 years of age isn't a piece of cake, neither was our married life living 6,000 miles away from friends and family.


Aix-en-Provence, France  January, 1972

Kriss and I settled into our bedroom flat and I went back to classes and Kriss tried to cope with homesickness and a jerk of a husband the best she could. We were living on about a dollar a day US and so there wasn't a lot of stretch left in that food dollar. Our flat was about 45 minutes, walking briskly, from town, and Kriss had to walk alone during the day and that wasn't very pleasant. I thought she would learn French quicker by immersion, so I spoke to her in French much of the time. Needless to say, I had a lot to learn about being married. Regina and Cindy got word of this stupidity and gave me a much needed dressing down. They convinced me it was OK to speak English with my wife, or they would intervene again. They didn't have to. Just when we got the language thing resolved, our landlady, Yvette, asked us to find somewhere else to live. She figured out that we were getting such a deal that she now felt she could lease that room to two people and double her income. It was a big shock, but like all things, God's fingerprints were all over that situation. The housing office at the Institute for American Universities already had a real flat lined up for us and all we had to do was go by and meet the Concierge for both parties approval. It was smack dab in the middle of the Old City, close to everything. Kriss could take classes and we were surrounded by English speaking people that was a blessing. We moved what meager possessions we had and started over again. Now I had the long commute to the Faculte de Lettres at the Universite, but on my trusty used bicycle I could get there in no time. We prayed about what God would have us to do for Christian Fellowship and felt called to start a Bible study in our flat for anyone interested. We put up an announcement in the mailroom at IAU for the coming Friday evening. We thought it would be a good alternative to the other entertainment choices available to students. Word must have gotten out about it, because come Friday evening several students showed up and it became an essential lifeline for all of us.

You never know when people are going to change direction of their lives, but one day a large package arrived for us at the mailroom. It was from my mother, amazingly. Inside were two things worth more than their weight in gold, real American peanut butter and loose popcorn to insulate the peanut butter jars. You just couldn't find either of those two items in the French food supply chain. In addition, there was a card with a check for $100 American  that my mother thought we needed, we did. She would send us the same package for the remainder of the Academic Year. God had obviously changed her heart and attitude towards Kriss and our marriage. Now, on Friday, we would close the meeting with real American popcorn, a small ration of peanut butter, or homemade cookies. Attendance increased instantly. I thought it might have been due to my stellar Bible teaching, but it probably was the rare chance to eat real popcorn that brought the crowds. We only had one room, packed (planchers a plafond) floor to ceiling with eager Bible students. It set the stage for a lifetime of Christian service which is what we felt God had brought us together for in the first place. The worst of the cultural shock was over for Kriss and she felt safe and made new friends to do things with. We even felt like we could afford a used bicycle for Kriss and got her one about the same vintage as mine. Studies were going well and we formed a Good Will Touring Basketball Team, dubbed the IAU All Americans. It was a pretty crazy group of guys, some of them legitimate Division I basketball talent from places like Dayton University and Kalamazoo. You won't believe where that pony show would take us in the coming months.