A Relief

As the first of December edges closer and closer a point of stress that I have felt more and more keenly each day is the fact that we had not heard back about Katrina's disability pay. I had already swallowed my pride and met with my Bishop to tell him that we may be in need of some assistance come the first of December if we didn't get it straightened out.

We had been receiving a partial pay check from the the catastrophic leave fund that Katrina has been paying into. However, the first week of November we didn't receive any pay. We found out that her catastrophic leave was up and that long term disability was supposed to have taken over. Unbeknown to us there was some paper work that we were supposed to have filled out. I scraped the bottom of our charitable account and a few other places and managed to cobble together enough money to scrape by this month.

Today we received a check from her long term disability insurance for not just last month but for a few months back pay we didn't expect. It is a relief to me. We will be sitting good financially again this month and should be able to put a little bit back in savings for if things get tight again. Hopefully things continue to go well and she can return to work full time in January like she wants to. Then, if thing continue to go well, we should be on stable ground again.

Once again, I feel truly blessed. I know that the lord has helped us through what could have financially ruined us.  Thank you to everyone who have been the instruments of the lord in this.

Giving Thanks

What am I thankful for this thanksgiving?


As we listen to numbers and statistics about rates of survival and likely hood of relapse I am thankful for the time I have had to keep my wife these last few months. I firmly believe that I would have been a single father by now (or very soon) given the exponential way her symptoms were increasing. I am truly thankful to the lord for each day I get to have her here with me.

I am thankful for modern medicine. I enjoy history and sometimes fantasize about what it would have been like to live in a more simple time. A solitary log cabin by a stream in a wind swept valley with a garden and some livestock stirs a desire inside me that is almost painful when I look at the complicated way the world functions today. The problem with this fantasy is that Katrina would have died of  some unknown disease. She would have continued to waste away until her forth ventricle was completely blocked. Then, hydrocephalus would have killed her long before the cancer spread, and we would have had no idea why she had died.

I am thankful for the charity of others. The truly unexpected outpouring of love, prayers, money, and other things has been and amazing blessing to us. I distinctly remember multiple instances where other people have had medical problems and watching as this same outpouring fell on them and their families. I also distinctly remember grumbling privately about how if it was us we wouldn't be treated the same. It was due to a persons popularity, position, etc. that they received the charity that they did. I stand corrected and completely humbled. I realize now that those thoughts and feelings where a sin (envy? jealousy? pride?) and I regret them deeply.  

I am thankful for family and friends who have done everything they can (and probably more) to help us through this. I really don't know what we would have done if not for all the babysitting, meals, visits, love, prayers, etc. that have been provided to us.

I am thankful that Katrina has recovered as well has she has and I pray that she continues to do so. I really feel like my love for her is the strongest that it has ever been. This trial has been like the fire, hammer and anvil of the forge that tempered our relationship and increased its strength.

I am thankful for this trial. I feels odd to say that and given the choice I'd probably still chose avoid all we have been through and still have to face. The problem with that is the blessings, lessons, and strength we have received far surpass the trials. Our priorities as husband and wife, parents, and human beings have changed drastically in a way that only something like this could have done. 

Most of all I am thankful for a loving farther in heaven whom I know has carried me through this; who has given me strength that I never could have found on my own.

Frid. . .Err. . . Saturday update 11/20/2010

Things are still going well. We've had a bit of a hiccup with her disability Insurance but we are trying to get that straightened out.

She met with her Principal yesterday and they decided to shoot for returning to work full time in January.

Friday Update 11-12-10

I continue to be impressed by how well Katrina seems to be handling being back to work. I must confess that I was expecting her to just collapse energy wise when she got home. I was thinking that she would be going to bed at 6:00 or taking a nap as soon as she got home, but that is just not the case. We are settling into a routine that is similar to the one we had prior to June.

On a side note she got an i Pad at work today, and I guess the teachers at my school got them too. I'm envious, but not too much. It really felt like a giant i pod.

How'd it go?

So how did her first week of work go?

She says it went well and i didn't really see any signs of it taking a negative toll on her. I hope that this week goes as well for her.

On a separate note, I'm going to try to force myself to write at least every Friday. even if it is just to say that things are going good.