It’s been 3 months since I put an update out about my life and what has been happening. We’ve shared some, and tag each other, so those can be found if you’re a Facebook user. But here are some details for everyone:

It’s been a year since my bout with pneumonia began. That was really hard. I keep expecting to get sick again, but so far I’m feeling ok. Better than ok, actually. The right prescriptions are part of that. I am still dealing with effects of the seizures from April of last year. But I am getting around better than I was just a month ago. My hope is to recover my vision--I still can’t see on the right side.

Many people know that we were temporarily displaced from our home following rain on Christmas. Not immediately, but after being squeezed into smaller and smaller areas. We finally had to vacate the house; that happened on 3/17.

Our Anniversary was 5/24! We moved back from the Airbnb and our first full day back was that day! We had a quiet celebration. Next year will mark 30 years, so we will hope to have a bigger party.

I started a new medication in the Spring - it’s a derivative of a drug from the 60s that caused serious birth defects. So I can’t get pregnant haha. I have had only a few side effects so far. I’ve been on it for almost two full cycles -3 weeks on, one week off- so I’m not expecting it to get worse.

Health Insurance - our premiums tripled--because of poor communication from the company. PTL that’s not going to continue. I’m on Medicare because I am considered disabled, so my family needed to switch to different insurance too. A really helpful broker worked with us to sort through the details.

I had another MRI about a month ago. The results show that my tumors haven’t continued to shrink as rapidly. So that was disappointing. But they also haven’t grown, so I’ll take it.

House - we got back in and are glad to be home again. PTL, we had home insurance coverage. We had a great mitigation contractor who figured out how much damage we really had. They were very careful because of my pneumonia. Demo and early stages of reconstruction took awhile. But finally, we are back and excited to be home. But the work isn’t finished! It’s 7/1 and the stucco is underway. A painting contractor is here today. We know the house is a temporary dwelling, but we love it. And as Dorothy said, “there’s no place like home.”

My birthday was in early June. It was meaningful in ways that are hard to express. There have been times I was uncertain I would see another birthday. But I’m pressing on in hope.

We traveled to Ohio in stages, earlier in June. Between Gina’s work, ongoing construction/remodel of our house, and Penny’s need to have a family member taking care of her, we decided it would be easier to travel separately to limit the time she would need to have other care. We went, looking forward to seeing family and some friends. But my dad was in the hospital while we were there- so that changed our expectations. But we’re used to hospitals! It felt surreal to be on the other side of the bed. He’s in rehab now and doing better. He’s an inspiration to me!

After returning home, we left for San Jose only two days after the last two of us got back! That trip was for Max and Ashley’s baby shower. They are having a baby girl! Paula and I are/will be grandparents and we are excited! She will be our first grandchild!

With all that going on, it’s been hard to deal with mentally and emotionally. Paula and I have both struggled at times. Sometimes we can help each other through the hard days. Other times we feel down at the same time. But we know the sun will rise again tomorrow, so we endure. Having each other, the baby to be born, and faith in our hearts helps immensely.