Turning Fear into Faith

Things have been going great here in Pleasant Grove. Melanie has been feeling well and is in good spirits. I asked her the other day if it was the visit home. She said it was more just a change of thinking. Last week when she was here and having a hard time, we watched the movie "Emma" one night. In one part Joseph said, "We shouldn't let fear overcome our faith." Melanie said she realized that was exactly what she was doing. I have seen the change in her and it is amazing! I didn't realize the movie would have such an impact on her.

We have had a few great days. Yesterday we went out and about for a bit. Melanie wanted to get a few things for Kaden's birthday and stuff to make Valentine's for her students. We went to Kohl's, Target, The Dollar Tree, and Wal-mart. She would always wear her mask while we were in the stores and then we would sanitize our hands as soon as we got in the car. It was fun to watch the faces of children when they looked at Melanie in her mask. They weren't sure what to think. There was even one mother that couldn't take her eyes off Melanie. That was kind of annoying! For lunch we drove through and picked up some burgers at In and Out Burger. Neither of us had ever been before. We both agreed that it was alright. The burgers were good and a great price, but not as AMAZING as we had heard. Maybe if we had never had a JCW's burger, we would have felt differently. It was a beautiful day, the sky and air were clear, it was in the upper 40's, and it was just what Melanie needed.

Today we took a quick jaunt to the mall for some more Kaden shopping. Melanie hates to wear her mask, because it makes her so hot! She is great to keep it on while we are in public. We also try to go when there won't be a lot of people.

Here are a few pictures from today:


The kids love to do DS download with Melanie! They all compete, laugh, and have a great time. She has decided she needs to get a DS for her next hospital stay. Chase has offered to let her have his old one (that still works perfectly)! That will give her something to keep busy. Last night I even had to get after ALL of them to turn them off for dinner!

Here are some of the shopping bags from our outings.

Today we organized all the supplies and worked on putting together some Valentines for some lucky kindergarten students. Melanie is such a thoughtful teacher!

Forty-four bags ready for delivery!

Ladee called Melanie today and told her that they found some irregularities in the donors blood. She said it is typical for Hepatitis to come back positive, due to the chemicals they use to test for it at the lab. They often will get a false positive. They are doing some retests, and will keep her posted. If there are irregularities, they will have to try donor number 2, and it will delay things. Melanie does not want to put this off any longer. We are praying things can continue as planned. I didn't realize just what a blessing it was that Melanie even had one donor let alone three. There is a lady that was Melanie's neighbor in the hospital, and she does not have a donor. She is just continuing to do chemo until she can hopefully some day find one. We have been truly blessed and prayers have been answered!