Up Date

Dear Family and Friends -


I can't thank you enough for all of your faith, prayers and fasting. I am so humbled by your love and concern and I know that prayers are being heard and answered. Thank you!, Thank you! Today was a big day in figuring out what the next steps are going to be. Talmage and I met with the surgeon today and THANKFULLY I will be going into surgery this Wednesday at LDS hospital. We feel very confident with the surgeon and she came highly recommended. Here is what the next several months will entail. So, Wednesday afternoon I will have a lumpectomy with radiation, recover as much as possible, have the baby whenever she is ready and then a couple of weeks after she is born I will start Chemotherapy every 3 weeks for 4 rounds. Sounds like a bummer, but I am surprisingly alright with this. It's amazing how the Lord can and does strengthen you in your hour of need. I know it will be a tiring few months with a newborn and chemo and we'll get to see if I have a round head, oval head, flat head or a lumpy bumpy head. Those falls off the bicycle when I was little might really show up now. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. I am grateful that the doctors are being aggressive to give me a better chance of not having a reoccurance. Plus, i'm going to find some really cool bandanas or maybe see what it is like to have black or red hair. ;) I feel much better today just knowing that we have a plan and can move forward.

If you feel so inclined, we will be having a fast starting Tuesday evening specifically for 1) that the cancer has not spread (2) that the surgeons will get all of the cancer out and (3) that the baby will be safe and all will go well with the surgery.

I love you all so much and have felt the strength of your prayers and the tender mercies of a loving Heavenly Father. There is no way I could do this alone. I am grateful for strong and valiant children who are being so brave and a husband who gives unconditional support and love. Can you imagine having to be the one to tell your wife she has cancer? I love him.

Thank you again and again for your faith and prayers. They carry me moment to moment.

All Our Love,

Danae, Talmage and Kiddos.

p.s. Here is my thought for today. I received this book from my visiting teacher who is also batteling cancer and has been for 16 years! She gave this to me two months ago. The title is "Counting Blessings" by Kerry Blair and in her introduction of why she is writing this book she says, "But why do it? Why venture into that dark hole of uncertainty and possible failure in the first place? Kate Douglas Wiggin answered that question in "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm": "Going to Aunt Mirandy's is like going down the cellar in the dark. There might be ogres and giants under the stairs, --- but, as I tell Hannah, there might be elves and fairies and enchanted frogs!"

Isn't that wonderful? Something that seems so dark and scary can actually have something magical and beautiful. I believe that to be true with this situation. I know something good will come of this.