Paige is 5!!!

Happy Birthday to my niece, Miss Paige Kaitlyn Mork. She is pictured here with my brother, Trey, her father, at the benefit. (There were so many benefits to that event.)

Paige is as old as Bob's seminary career as she was just a little seed in her mama's tummy when we first got here and Bob started classes. And now look at her! That's what a Masters of Divinity looks like. Five years. The family plan. Well, Ok, six counting Bob's liver diva plus gestation. Just stop, Terri. . .

Anyway, Trey is one of my brothers who built his house with his bare hands. Literally. I mean it. And it ain't a small one either. Bob calls it the Dexter Convention Center. Dexter, Minnesota = the Morks + a bar + a grain elevator + a church. And now, the Mork Convention Center. About one hundred yards away from my brother Rusty, who also built his house with his bare hands. When we visit, all Bob sees is the combined huge yards and how it could very easily make a three-hole golf course.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAIGE!!!!!!!!!!! XOXOXOXOXOXO Hugs and kisses to Trey, Amy, Ashely, and Aaron.

So anyway, my neighbor and expert on most things the Rev. Elieshi, talks a lot about healing. And how healing is really the ultimate goal on just about everything. Even more than keeping our mortal life. And so as I think about "my cancer" that's right, my very own cancer, it's pretty easy to think about what you are really sure you want to do before you die. Not that I am going to die, or at least soon, I mean we're all going to die, but when you have your very own cancer, you think about dying. (To be clear, my very own cancer is thyroid cancer which is 90-100 percent treatable.) So, one thing I thought today is that I really want to get to know my nieces and one nephew. Here they are in birth order:

Samantha
Priscilla
Ashley
Danielle (my God Daughter)
Brandee
Mackenzie
Mallory
Paige
Aaron
Olivia
Laila

I think I got them all. Now do you see why I need a big house? Anyway, tonight Amanda wanted me to lay with her before she went to sleep and asked me when I would have the cancer removed. ASAP, I said. Back on the Monday morning phone with clinic receptionists tomorrow morning. Thanks to the diva liver, I've got a lot of experience with that. ;-) Time to get my appointment moved up closer.

Entonces, thanks everyone, for your comments, thoughts, prayers, and phone calls. I really appreciate it. As Dr. Asfaw says, "We'll walk through this together."

With love, T

P.S. And Zambia. It has come to me three times this week.
#1 -- My speaker for the LWR Virtual U is calling in from Zambia and my awesome Phil has spent all week to make the logistics of this phone conference class work. The Rev. John Nunes looks to be pretty amazingly inpsirational. I've been listening to his online sermons. BTW, you're all invited to call in.
#2 -- Looks like there's some nasty flooding going on in Zambia and LWR issued some assistance.
#3 -- My dear friend and former boss, Sarah Ford, evidently is in Zambia. She happens to specialize in landlocked countries in the center of Africa. ;-) Sarah, are you there? Can you look up John? Actually, Sarah specializes in everything. If you've ever heard of the concept of "fair trade," Sarah invented it. Defined it. Developed it. Refined it. We Lutherans were so happy to have her with us, now she's with the Catholics, but we're scheeming how to get her back. ;-) She's the one who would write these things on Bob's care pages that would cause people to ask me, "Who is this Sarah Ford??? She is amazing." Indeed she is.

xoxoxoxoxoxo