Lee and I got to visit Holly and Randy and Matt and Rebecca and their family. It was great!
On the way up there, we stopped in a small town called Cottage Grove. The town is famous for their covered bridges, a novelty on the west coast. They were beautiful!
We stayed at Holly and Randy’s the first night, and they introduced us to fondue on Friday night, and Indian food Saturday. Both were fabulous! Lee even went out for Sushi Saturday night.
Proof:
Monday Matt’s family and we went to the Children’s museum. There was so much to do! The girls first went to milk the cow
While they were doing that, Rebecca got to ride the horse,
It was tiring just watching the girls play!
Brianna and Asia (with a little bit of help) built a go cart and took turns riding it:
Asia and Brianna flying an airplane-
Uh oh……
.
Brianna discovered a fossil-look out National Geographics!
Asia loved seeing far away (it’s okay that she looks in the large end, she’s using her imagination)
Brianna decided to play Rapunzel:
While grandpa hid behind his shades inside and took a snooze
On the way home, we attempted to see the beautiful Oregon coast. Visibility was about 20 feet.
It was very apparent why lighthouses were needed. We headed inland.
we got off the coast, the whether opened up, and the sunsets were beautiful.
We stopped at Sequoia National Forest where we saw the largest tree in the world! Here’s Lee in front of one tree, not the largest.
We could even drive through a tree!
Andrew is home and had the surgery. There were so many miracles that worked together to make this happen!
He was struggling with the pain in Brazil, and his recovery from the surgery there hit a plateau and then he experienced some serious pain. The surgeon spent 2 ½ hours trying to remove the plate there, and ended up removing two screws and breaking eight more before deciding not to go on. It was a very dark moment in Andrew’s life.
The decision was finally made to send him home to have it redone by an American surgeon, and I got an appointment with a general practitioner in order to get a referral to a surgeon. Many people told me to just use Mission Medical, but my information is that the Elders aren’t insured-their expenses are paid by donations. Andrew is still covered by Kaiser, so I thought I’d attempt to work him through the system ASAP. The first appointment I got really fast, the surgeon appointment was 3 ½ weeks out. I started calling everyday for cancellations, and got it bumped up one week. Then I was told after he saw the surgeon the scheduling for surgery could be 9-12 weeks out. One person even told me that it took seven months to get a shoulder surgery done through Kaiser. So we expected the worst. Andrew was assigned to the Carlsbad mission unofficially where he worked with another elder that was having medical issues.
We met at the surgeon’s office, and discovered the doctor had a Mormon uncle. He joked with us about Mormon’s preoccupation with geography (his uncle must go to his own ward, won’t go to church by his house). After the consult and deciding that the surgery was advisable (though he was not excited about what he might find) he asked Andrew when he wanted to do it. Andrew said-“I’m home to have this done, ASAP, whenever you can do it.” So the surgeon responded with ‘how about tomorrow?’
We thought he was kidding. He wasn’t. Many, many circumstances occurred to make this possible:
Then, after the surgery when he went to see Andrew, he expressed with pleasure that it took him 10 minutes to remove the plate. Unreal.
Andrew was released from his mission on Saturday-he has a six week recovery period after which he has to get a note from the doctor releasing him for service and send it in with a letter requesting to be reassigned. He has pain meds, which don’t completely cover the pain but help. He is at a loss for what to do, but his attitude is good.
Prayers are answered. What a week.
