Jessica is back in the USA

Hi everybody! I saw Pat Christensen at work the other day. She said she had read Jessica's blog that day. This made me feel excited to write again. Pat is so cute. For those of you that don't know her she is Kellie Knowle's, my brother David's wife's mother. Pat is always so cheerful and happy no matter what. She has had some very serious medical problems in her life but she always has a smile on her face. She laughs and makes the room just feel happy. Her husband Blaine loves her so much. If anybody ever wants to see an example of the perfect institution of marriage you can observe them. They are very devoted, loving and a wonderful examples of how marriage should be. Blaine was out in the waiting room holding Pat's purse in his lap. He is this big bank president but really protects and loves Pat. I told him his purse went perfect with his shoes. He said he had really worked on it. They are just cool people that we love.



Well here is the news you have been waiting for. Jessica is back from Croatia safe and sound. This is a miracle. I had some of her Dr's. at Huntsman say she would never make the trip alive. They did not know Jessica. When she had called yesterday she sounded very weak. She said she was tired but had such a wonderful experience. I can't wait to get all the details. She said she took so many pictures. They had driven from Seattle to Tri-City Washington and then on to Baker City Oregon. When in Tri-Cities she took her camera to Costco and got about half her pictures developed. They told her the one hour development promise could not apply. It took them three hours and she said she has a box full of wonderful pictures. So I will have Robert teach me how to upload pictures.



She said the trip was long. I think in Belgrad they had overbooked the plane and she did not have a seat. Uncle Dennis said he would stay behind and Jessica could go. At the last minute a seat opened up. Her luggage made it just fine too. She said for two days now she has not worn a bandanna on her head as he hair is like, "A short boy's cut but it feels great to not have a scarf on my head". They had taken a catamaran across the Baltic sea from the island they were on to Splits. They had spent the night in another one on her grandmother's houses. She said the family stayed up in a part that had not been occupied for years and was dusty and dirty. The bottom floor is a working kitchen. I guess like a restaurant. Jessica slept down in the kitchen on a twin bed where it was clean. I am so thankful for Grandma Annie, Grandpa Eugene and Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dennis for taking such perfect care of Jessica. After that night stay they went flew to the states with stops in several places in Germany I think. We can get all the details right when Jessica is home. She will stay and rest and visit her father in Baker City for about a week and then fly home so she can be to her Dr. Appointment with Dr. Zimpalic the oncology surgeon about her huge abdominal tumor on her uterus. As you my remember they did not want to do surgery as they felt she was too weak. I am anxious to hear what she thinks. Jessica has a lot of tumor pain.



In closing today I want to openly thank Heavenly Father for the blessing of Jessica having this experience. I went to bed last night with joy in my heart for all my many blessings. I am so thankful that we have a father in heaven that can watch over us. As parents we can turn our dear children over to him and he can keep them in the hallow of his hand. Jessica is going to take out her endowments when she gets home. We are so excited. Jessica and I plan on going to the temple as much as she has strength.

We are going to have a party for Jessica when she gets home so plan on attending everybody. I love you all and appreciate your support. Love Sandy.

Jessica's Trip to Croatia

Jessica and I flew to Seattle Washington where we met Steven the end of August. We decided that this was best to have Jessica rest a few days before flying off to Croatia on the 30th. She would have a 24 hour trip of nonstop travel to reach her destination. We had fun while we were in Seattle. Jessica had never been, I don't think Steven had either. We all went to Pike's Market. Jessica really enjoyed this as it was full, I mean full of fabulous flowers this time of year. She was able to watch the cute fishermen throw fish around and be show-offs. That was funny. The next day we met her cousins, Matt and Rebeca Dinger and we all rode the ferry over to an island. It was about a two hour trip all in all. We then ate really good seafood. The next day Jessica slept all day in preparation to her journey. Aunt Shirley and Uncle Dennis and Grandpa Perkins met she and Steven on Thursday the 30Th and then all but Steven flew off on the voyage. Jessica called two days later when she reached her destination. I could only talk to her for a brief minute and then she had to end as it was so expensive. She said it was very very long. She had traveled on planes, trains, automobiles and boats. She said she had slept every chance she could. She was exhausted but had reached the remote island in Croatia in the Baltic Sea at ten o'clock at night. She said she was staying in a 500 year old family home built by the Romans. She had gone to the home her grandmother had lived in and found some pictures of her great grandparents and her grandmother as a little girl. I ask if she had a good bed in this house and she said she slept in her own king sized bed. She said the country was indescribably beautiful. A message was left on Steven's phone that she was doing good. That is all we have heard. She comes home the end of this week, a two week stay. I pray she will have a safe and good trip home. We can't wait to see her again and give her a big hug. I love you my Jessica.

Ooooops

I wrote a neat blog about memories of Jessica as a little girl. I spent about 30min. Then I hit add and it left and I cant find it. So I will try to find it. Anyway Jessica has been upbeat today and felt pretty darn good. She laughed some and we love that. Love you all.

Today is the moment.

Jess had a good day. She was more upbeat. We had a few good visits. You have no idea how I have learned to cherish those small moments. She was able to rest quite comfortably. She walked down the street with her physical therapist. She loves to watch So You Think You Can Dance, which she is doing right now as I type. When she was a little girl she was very gifted at dancing. She took several different dance classes. She has always had rhythm. Her grandparents, Eugene and Annie Perkins are gifted dancers. I think Jessica got her rhythm from them. She will still bust a move. In fact, sick as she has been, she has taught Charlie some dance moves. Charlie, for those of you that don't know, is Jessica's almost two year old nephew. He is Alisa and Robert's son. Well again thanks for your prayers, we can feel the comfort. We love you.

I decided to make an extra effort to update the blog for today. Jess did quite well today. A special someone left beautiful red roses on our step this morning. Robert opened the door and found them. They are the most beautiful color of red. Jess was down this morning when she woke up. She gets discouraged at the pain that will jar her awake and not cease. She was really cheered up by the roses. We don't know who left them but we sure are enjoying them. I had fun arranging them in a red vase. I broke out my special antique flower frogs that hold flowers in place in a vase. Bishop Bur thank you for the books on the temple for Jessica we appreciate that a lot. We were talking that this Wednesday would be a perfect day to go to the temple as I am off work. Mom is at the temple that morning so we could go when she is off maybe. Then I remembered that my recommend is expired. So I don't think it would work out. Mom made Sunday dinner for us and it was divine. Mom thank you so much for your hard work. We sure enjoyed it. Jessica napped after dinner and she said she enjoyed hearing the wind in the trees outside the bedroom window at Granny's. It has been a good day. After Jessica got on top of her pain she enjoyed the Sabbath day. Love you all. Thanks again for your notes. Jessica says "I appreciate everyone that cares about me and is praying for me. It makes me cry everybody who is so kind and thoughtful to me and us".

Thank you

I forgot to tell you thank you for your messages. Jessica just loves these. She is so touched by them. Please keep leaving comments. I will do better at getting the blogs in on a regular basis. You all touch our hearts and make us feel strong enough to keep on marching along in this trial. I just read all the messages to Jessica and she got a big smile and tears ran down her cheeks. She said everybody is so nice. One message said her influence was far reaching. How did you know? Jessica has asked has my life made any difference? She is so young that would be a normal question. I am an old hen and I still ask the same thing. But anybody that knows Jessica is well aware that her life has been one of example and that of being a blessing to all. Thanks everybody your love and concern means more than you will ever know. As one of Jessica's saying have always been, "Keep it coming". We love you. You know what this feels like? How it will be in the next life when we are all able to stop and be all family again.

Catch-up Blog

I am so sorry I have been so bad at getting information to all our loyal Jessica's Cancer Fight friends. I hope to do better. I will now fill you in and strive to do better. Most you you don't know as I have told only a few people but I have been dealing with a breast cancer scare. This has been going on for the last six weeks now. It has wigged me out more than anyone could know. I have felt very overwhelmed and when I feel that way I have trouble in many ways. It was as if this has been too much to handle. I worried over being sick and being unable to take care of Jessica. I worried over Alisa and her family and Steven if I to had cancer. The usual things I guess. We know in a very intimate way how having a loved one have cancer effects the entire family and all our loved ones and friends. They did more tests on me on Friday. I was given a preliminary report Friday that the lumps seem to be cysts rather than malignant. It was a change in my mammogram that stated all this. Anyway I will wait for the final report with hope. Everybody get your cancer checks. Now on to how Jessica is doing.
Last weekend Molly invited us to fly in their beautiful plane to Carlsbad California where they are building a home. She said that if Jessica felt up to it we could just take it very easy and let her rest a lot. Jessica said she thought that would be fun. Early Friday morning Molly picked us up and we went to the Spanish Fork Airport. It is a small airport with private planes. The pilot is Mike Patey. The plane is a jet turbo prop plane called an Epic. It is gorgeous. It is all leather inside and very plush. It flies at over 300 mph and climes to up in the 25,000 plus feet range. It pressurizes too. Charlie loved the experience and slept a good part of the way. Jessica did good, we put her oxygen tank in the cabin with us. We have some cute pictures we can post. We had a terrific flight. Mike is a really great pilot and we felt very confident in his flying skills. We landed in Carlsbad at a special jet airport. All these people came out to greet us. I fell out of the plane and we will always laugh at that one. All these scarred men coming to my aide with frightened looks on their faces as I came flinging at them. Darn knees. Anyway it was a real fancy place and we had a hard time leaving the airport bathroom for the lotions, hair products and mouth washes. We then went and saw Molly and Jeff's new house. It is, well......Amazing. It is on a hill and has a beautiful view and is on a really big piece of land. It has a large court yard in the center of the house that is open to air and has a fire place. Oh it is really beautiful. We had fun going for a ride down the ocean. We ate at some really good places and rested and relaxed. Jessica got tired but enjoyed the trip very much. We appreciate them inviting us as it was such a nice break from routine and all the hospital stays. We left Friday morning and got home about ten o'clock Sunday night. Molly had left her car keys in the rental car so Jeff and Mike Patey gave us rides home. Jessica and I rode home in Jeff's new BMW it it so fast. It has seats in the front that hug you when you turn corners so you don't fling. He asks Jessica what the fastest she had ever gone was and she said 90 mph. He hit the gas and in a second he said not any more and he said now you have gone 115 mph. Then he slowed down again. It was exciting and Jessica loved it she was beaming and her eyes were sparkling.

Monday she was very tired and had to rest for several days. She had intractable pain. She recovered and was able to sleep. I worked that day so Alisa took care of her.
Tuesday she rested.
Wednesday Grandma Knowles came after temple and picked her up and took her to lunch at Goodwood. She loves that place. She then took her to a book store and let her pick out several books. Jessica is such a reader. She will devour several books a week. She also took her to get a makeup make over. She got her eye shadow for her trip to Croatia. She had a blast with Granny. Mom said it felt like old times with Jessica.
Thursday was another rough day. She had a lot of pain again. She was depressed cause the day before she had felt pretty good. This has been hard for her and all of us that one day she will be ok and then next really sick. I think Jessica will get glimpses of hope that she is getting her strength back and then get her hopes bashed. She has struggled with that. Anyway on Thursday Lynn sent Zack over to pick her up. She went and sat at Lynn's all afternoon and she enjoyed that a lot. Lynn has huge chair that Jessica loves to cuddle in. Lynn fed her and just spent time talking to her and she just loves the break from her room. Jessica has always been such an active person this is hard for her. Lynn ended up feeding me too when I went to pick her up. I had just finished a rough week of ten to twelve hour days and was pooped.
Friday Jessica rested again all day. She did call on her pass port and the lady politely told her that there were three million pass post applications and her trip was three weeks away still. She told Jessica she felt confident it would arrive. We paid a lot of extra money to get it here by August 7th which did not happen. But as long as it is here before she leaves for Oregon. She flies out of Seattle. I am worried, so worried about her making the trip. I have no idea how she will do it. Alisa feels the same way. I will tell you her Dr's feel it is a terrible idea. But what do you do? Jessica has a burning desire to go. So what you do is put it in the Lords hands. Do all you can to prepare so if the Lord says yes she is ready to go and brace yourself for what to do should the Lord say no. That is how I live my life lately. I am going to do all I can do to help Jessica do what she wants to do, period. If is works out great if not we adjust. I am so limited in what I can do to help Jessica in this hard time.

This weekend we put her in a wheel chair and wheeled her to IKEA. This was a lot of fun. But she was tired. She went to Hair Spray last night treated by Meghan and Zack, Lynn and Kevin's kids. She had a blast. Said Hairspray was terrific and spent the remainder of the evening humming and singing the songs from the show. "Why have a twig when you can have the entire tree?" I guess it was really good.

Well that is it. It has been a terrific week and more. It has made up for the yucky hospital stay. Thanks to each and every one of you that has blessed out lives with your kind acts and prayers and thoughts. We love you. PS Jessica's hair is growing like crazy. She has baby eye lashes and brows, the works. You go girl!!!!!