This is Nate, alive and well, writing for the first time on the blog!  To start things off, I can’t begin to express my feelings toward you who prayed, wrote, stopped in, told a friend or spent time thinking about us.  It is all appreciated so so much and those memories will be held close to my heart for the rest of my life.  Even as I write, faces come to mind… Nancy, Uncle B and Richard who sat by me through some intense moments in the Phoenix hospital, Bridgette who always came to the hospital in Indy to do our laundry, Jason and Nick spending the whole day in the waiting room without even getting to see me, family waiting in the lobby for hours at a time, people driving many hours to see me for 10 minutes, all the cards and financial gifts, and Mark, Lindsay, and Daisha sending flowers from Las Vegas.  The list goes on and again, so overwhelmed with all the love shown.

If you read the blog regularly, Holly and I have been traveling from Indiana to Phoenix and made it late Thursday night with no problems (not even one flat!).  Holly and I are excited to be back with our AZ community on the other side of the country.

As for me and my health, I am doing alright.  I’ll have lots of energy at the start of the day, then crash halfway through.  If you like percentages and numbers, (Jim!), I’d say I am at about 65%.  Just trying to be patient throughout the healing process and getting back to what I’d consider my “normal”.

My hope is to write more soon.  But I wanted to get something up, since it’s been weeks since Holly said I would!

...and making our way through Tulsa, OK this morning.

Today is the day we begin our drive back to Phoenix!  During the last weeks we've been jumping from house to house, from apartments to hotels (staying at the Von Tobel's wonderful lake house with Phil & Julie now!), and everyone has been so gracious!  But oh how wonderful it will be to be in our own space again!  I'm →

I couldn't sleep as I lay in bed last night.  It was 2am, and my thoughts were running and running.  I kept thinking "has it really been six weeks since surgery?" and "did all this really happen this summer?".  A part of me definitely closed off the worst of the feelings, particularly the first week in Phoenix.  Occasionally, like last →

I wanted to give you the opportunity to read of the last month's experiences through the eyes of our good friend, Adam, who was with us from day 2 till yesterday.  He recently put some of his thoughts down on his blog, LooseLuggage.  Adam is also responsible for most, if not all, of the photos represented on this blog.  Click HERE →

I wish I had more to report on!  Nate and I are in Fort Wayne, and recovery has continued.  Physically, Nate dropped a lot of weight after leaving the hospital, and has been (very) slowly regaining an appetite.  The dark circles under his eyes have begun to fade and he's up and moving a few hours each day.  The surgery →

It was with an oddly happy/heavy heart that we walked out of the Organ Transplant Unit at IU Med.  After undergoing such an intense experience together with the doctors and nurses, it felt strange to walk out of their lives--just like that.  We were given orders from Dr. Vianna to send him a postcard every year, and the nurses asked →

Nate's still pretty weak and tired, but managed several walks and is continuing to eat jello and broth, and having some serious rumblings in his stomach!  As soon as he can go to the bathroom, he'll be able to eat regular, solid food (so in the mean time, save your amazing meals for later-Nate's starting to get jealous of not →

Sorry for the lack of update over the last 24 hours.  But here's the rundown: -Nate might be in the hospital for a few more days but is currently healing up really well.  He  had a decent night's sleep last night.  He's moved on to eating Jell-O and broth and drinking clear liquids which is an exciting step.  The next step →

WOW!  We are speechless here.  It is with elated hearts that we are writing this post.  After about 2 hours of waiting, Holly's pager buzzed and she was called into the other room along with Nate's parents, Dave and Margie.  After a few short minutes of praying and waiting, Dave burst in to tell us that the tumor had been completely →