Well, thanks to Alan’s help in getting a new computer, and Aaron’s expertise in getting it up and running…and figuring out that our router was bad (which made email very iffy for the past little while), I’m sort of back on line. You would not believe the number of breakdowns we’ve had around our house lately. Not just the router, but Jon’s computer also went down, our dishwasher’s top hose burned out. In fact, I can’t even remember what all, although I know it’s been a very long list! However, I’m going to try to turn over a new leaf and start relaying all the wonderful blessings of God instead of seeing all the frustrations. Jon and Gerlinde had a wonderful reception. I was amazed and so touched by all the love and support from our chapel family as well as the tireless efforts of two of my dear, dear friends and family. Praise God for family and loved ones! Now it’s on to the Thanksgiving holiday and we’re enjoying the company of Aaron and Dan’s families as well as…well, let’s just say we have everyone but Michael and Kathy’s families, and although Stephen had to go back to MSU for today, he’ll be back home tomorrow night. What a thrill it is to have all the kids around! In fact, I’m going to quit writing and go play some more legos with Reuben and Gideon! So, I probably won’t be back for another week. But, I want you to know that I am so thankful to the Lord for his wonderful mercies and love, for strength and purpose for each today and bright hope for tomorrow! I’m also grateful to each dear friend who takes the time and cares enough to read about what’s goin’ on at the Armstrongs. I feel like a drowned rat and a bad  friend this year. HOPEFULLY, things will calm down in January.

This may be a bit on the early side, but if  you’re as behind on life as I am, you may want to implement this brilliant idea for Christmas decor…

We  just returned from our post-operative visit with Alan’s doctor, and although there was some cancer even in the edges of the tissue that was removed, there is only a 5% chance that Alan will need radiation treatments. He’ll go back in 5 weeks for a check, but as long as his PSA stays down, he is more or less “home free” and may die of old age or something besides prostate cancer. We are feeling very celebratory! Thank you, God!!

Not to complain, but if you don’t hear much from me for a bit more, it’s because I’m still busy tending my beloved husband and our household, which seems to be falling apart on all sides! Besides Alan and my computers being stolen, our main household computer went down and won’t be up and running again until they get the parts on Saturday. Our cat, Davy Crockett, has a UTI and I had to run him to the vet today! Our old Civic had a flat tire. I took it in for repair, and they said all four tires needed to be replaced…further more, the studs on the tires were breaking off. So, $252.00 later (they gave me a break on the tires because they hadn’t survived for the allotted 70,000 miles), I took the Civic over to our auto repair guy. They found $900 worth of trouble just waiting to happen, including dry ball bearings and 12 of 16 wheel studs being faulty. I picked that up this morning. The electrician worked here all day, and—wonder of wonders—the electricity is working again. He said the wires burned out right at the garage wall and could have burned the house down! I just wrote the check to pay him for all he did…another $900. Yikes! My sister Annie says she thinks Satan has put out an all-points bulletin for this parish’s demons: Picnic at the Armstrong’s house: BYOT (trouble)…or something like that!

Well, maybe so or maybe not. I do know the Lord promises that “all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose.” I do know I love God with all my heart, and so I am just waiting expectantly for the good. It may not be anything I can see or touch, but I know that good will come to someone somewhere, even if it’s simply the ability to comfort somebody else when they go through deep waters.

Alan has been up and walking a bit now and then, although he still doesn’t have much energy. Our pastor was over today, and that was very cheery. We haven’t heard any report from the lymph node biopsies yet, but tomorrow Alan will have X-rays and a doctor’s appointment, so we’re assuming we’ll know something by then.

Thanks for all the encouraging notes and for PRAYING. It is a wonderful blessing to part of this grand family of God…to be loved by him, to be his child, to be able to “sit on his lap” often and enjoy the precious privilege of fellowship with such fabulous sisters and brothers!!

I’ve just returned with Alan from the hospital, and he is safely tucked in to sleep and doing well. This has not been an easy week, however…just for the record. Besides having everything stolen out of our car on Sunday, the 18th, the electricity to our garage and outside freezer and refrigerator went out on about Tuesday, and we can’t get it repaired until next Thursday, so we have cords running from the garage into our house. Thursday I was throwing out some old flowers and stepped on a stump which had rotted such that it gave way and I lost my balance. I tried to grab on to a couple of saplings, both of which had died, and so the two trees and Jill tumbled down the hill. Thankfully, I landed on my right elbow and shoulder rather than my right hip, but my arm is pretty sore! Friday morning the stove died (while I was at the hospital with Alan). Alan’s surgery, which was supposed to last 3-5 hours, ended up lasting 7.5 hours, because just as the doctor was sewing up the incisions, the needle broke off (using the DaVinci Robotic techique) and disappeared into his dark abdomen. I believe it took Dr. Lane about 2 hours of white-knuckled searching to fish out the needle. Fortunately, he was able to find it without having to open Alan up the old-fashioned trauma surgery way, and the needle hadn’t punctured anything. Many thanks to all who prayed for him! At any rate, I arrived home only to find that the house was 60° and the furnace had died. Can you believe it? At any rate, dear old Frank, our faithful furnace man, was willing to make an emergency run and now has the furnace up and running again. He just left, so I’ll hop out to the store for Alan’s meds. and then start supper. You just have to ask, “Is it me, Lord??” May we be patient in tribulation, continuing in prayer. Things could be worse. I just read a letter from a missionary friend who had recently helped a woman who was driven out of her house and her town in Indonesia because she became a Christian. Every time I feel the sting of hardship, I say to myself, “I could be sitting in a Chinese prison.” Compared to how hard many people have it, I can only be thankful. I will soon have a warm house and food on the table, and my husband is alive and may even recover!!

Blessings to you!

Well, we’ re just about ready for bed. Some of our closest friends came over tonight to pray with us. Alan and I have to be at the hospital at 5:30 am for the surgery, which will be about 5 hours, from 7:30 am-12:30pm. Since my computer was stolen, I won’t have internet access, and I plan to stay right at the hospital with Alan until he comes home on Saturday or Sunday, so it may be awhile before I post again, but I’ll try to let you know how things went as soon as I can. Thank you in advance for praying for us, and take it that “no news is good news!” In all things, may God be glorified and Jesus Christ be praised. Billy Graham said that the greatest thing in his whole life has been his fellowship with God. Isn’t it wonderful to know that we don’t have to miss out on the best? We don’t have to be rich and famous to have “the best!” The best is knowing and loving God…belonging to Him and experiencing His great love for us!

While Alan and I were on vacation last week, all of our belongings were stolen, including my computer with my blog account information on it. I will try to update you soon on what’s happening, but in the meantime, if I “post” anything crazy, know that it’s not coming from me!

You’ve probably all seen this from Octobers past, but I still love the thoughts. What a Savior!

Being a Christian is like being a pumpkin: God lifts you up, takes you in, and washes all the dirt off of you. He opens you up, touches you deep inside and scoops out all the yucky stuff–including the seeds of doubt, hate, greed, etc. Then He carves you a new smiling face and puts His light inside you to shine for all the world to see.Of course, we always continue to be works in progress and still under construction, but praise the Lord for “all His wonderful works for the children of men.”

Well, I wrote a long blog yesterday but it all crashed and the net was down for most of the day. So, I will try again, although the post may sound a little less spontaneous this time! My birthday celebration was really a mixture of sorrow and joy. We found out that Alan will be having surgery on October 30th. He has cancer but a 68% chance that the surgery will be curative. If he can’t be cured outright (and that’s what we’re praying for), then he still has other treatment options and a 90% chance of survival for 10 or more years. That was very traumatic  news for us, who up until Friday knew that death was in our future but had never heard a time table beyond the generational “three score and ten” mentioned in Scripture.

Having already planned a wonderful weekend of celebration, we decided to go for it anyway. We spent the first night at our all-time favorite spot, where we spent the first two nights of our honeymoon. We had a “two for one” since it was my birthday, and so we really splurged and got “Surf and Turf.” I don’t think we’ve ever had their very “best of the best” dinner before, but it was really fabulous! We even split a piece of German chocolate cake for dessert (in honor of our German chocolate wedding cake from nearly 37 years ago)!

Saturday we spent meandering along the Huron River Drive, where we spent countless happy afternoon bicycling with our kids during the years of Alan’s residency and first practice. It was rainy, so we didn’t really bike, but we drove as slowly as we used to bike a enjoyed remembering all the fun we had!

On lazy summer days, we used to swim and boat on the river, which was shallow, slow-moving, and loving nicknamed by our family— “Stinking Clam National Park.”

Of course, we had to stop at the Dexter Cider Mill for donuts and cider…

and then at the Dexter Bakery for donuts and tea…how DOES my husband keep so slender???

And finally ended up at Kathy and Carl’s for a joyous family birthday party. Kit even made my favorite cake!

To top it all off, we visited Kathy and Carl’s church the next morning, and the message was on Belief Beyond our Fears.” Every time I hear Brad speak, I say to myself, “No wonder they have 20,000 members in their church!” The message was just perfect for us; it was entitled Belief Beyond Fear. Although last time I gave a wonderful synopsis, it’s almost time to make dinner now, so I will just recap the main idea. His message was on the idea that all of us have fears. They may differ, but fear is a fact of life. Good fears keep us from making foolish choices; unhealthy fears can paralyze us. In order to overcome fear, he encouraged us to:

Receive God’s salvation, reflect on His Word, rely on His Spirit, and refocus on God’s love. The “refocus of God’s love” has been especially good for me, since I have received God’s salvation and do already spend much time reflecting on His Word and relying on His spirit. But, in the midst of trial, I do often tend to focus on the problem more than the solution (which is always found in God), so I’ve been practicing refocusing on God’s love whenever I start to become anxious. God loves us. He intends good for us. His plan is ultimately for our happiness. We have a future in heaven with Him. What’s to fear? “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (2 Tim. 1:7). So, even in the face of insecurity and sorrow, let’s celebrate life and all that is good! God is eternal life, and to know Him is life eternal!

Neither Alan nor I slept well last night. In fact, Alan got up at 3:30 and headed in to work at 4:00 am. He’ll have his 8 hours in before our appointment with the doctor at noon! I have a cold, so I slept in until almost 8:00, took a lovely walk with Abby in a drizzling rain, and had Cocoa Puffs (of all things!) with Joel for breakfast. Jon came back from teaching his first class. He usually stays at his office until his second class is over, but this morning he came home, declaring he was in need of a glass of hot cider and to work on his presentation at Puritan Reformed for tonight.

What a wonderful life I enjoy! I opened my email and found so many warm, cheery birthday greetings from my beloved friends and family. Thank, thank you, thank you! With Alan having scary health issues, the temptation is to look down instead of up. May we all keep our heads up, praising God even when it’s raining. The rains of life bring much needed refreshment…make the soil of our heart soft again and able to soak up the words of life that bring us strength and hope! God is good…all the time! Rain on our faces is good.