All systems are GO! (and we made it to NYC safely)

 Dear family and friends,

Thank you for all of your prayers in our behalf these past weeks as we prepared for the New York trip.  We felt the strength and comfort that comes from those prayers.  We have been richly blessed by so many of you.  You have given of your time, energy, and substance in order for us to come to New York, all with the possibility of us having to turn around and come right back.  Heavenly Father knew what was going to happen and has led us in our thinking and our actions.  We have been truly blessed with guidance and direction, comfort and peace.

We flew on Wednesday, June 2nd to New York.  My angel mother came down and stayed with the kids until the boys went to stake young men's camp and Annie went to the neighbors for a week.  On a side note, the boys had to come back early from the camp because of a wild fire.  Please pray for rain!!  Annie is having a wonderful time living with the neighbors.  I have seen pictures of donuts and swimming and heard news of a movie.  That is my kind of summer!

Thank You!! to everyone that is helping our family this summer.  We have family and friends taking care of the kids and watching over the house.  We are so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.  We could not have come here to New York without your help and support.

We had a full day of tests on Thursday, June 3rd.  We got there at 8:15 pm and did not leave until 5:15 pm.  It was a long day.  Dr. Slotkin is very nice, professional, knowledgeable, and honest.  She didn't try to get our hopes inflated.  She stated the facts and expressed her hope that the new chemotherapy would work, but made no promises.  Angela and I have enjoyed working with her so far and are sure it will continue to be a great experience.  We are hoping to see Dr. LaQuaglia while we are here.  He is the pediatric surgeon that did my surgeries in 2014.  He is a wonderful doctor and was very kind to us.  

Friday, I was able to work from the apartment after getting my work computer to connect to the hotel internet.  I love Google, but in this case Edge got me where I needed to go.   We needed to get some things for the hotel, so we headed out once I finished working.  The amazing thing about New York is that almost anything you need is within walking distance.  We have a grocery store just down the street.  There are many restaurants.  There are all sorts of businesses within a few blocks of where we are staying.  We see people on bikes whizzing down the streets which makes even more things accessible to them.  We have needed to take a taxi a few times to get where we needed to be on time and with our bags.  That is its own kind of thrill ride.  

Angela has connected with some sisters (female members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) and they have been so helpful.  They have lent us kitchen and office items.  They have taken Angela places and shown her helpful things.  I think they are going to be a necessary social contact for Angela.  I will be trying to work most days and Angela will be teaching piano lessons for part of the day and she is going to need some good social interaction.  We did find a waterfall in a small park with some trees not too far from our hotel.  It will likely provide a place of solitude, a place to escape to now and then.

Dr Slotkin has many medical professionals and staff that work with her.  We refer to the group as the Team.  The Team called on Friday and said that all of the tests they had done looked good and that I was officially registered for the study.  WooHoo!!!  That is great news.  I start treatment on Monday with the new chemotherapy.  We know that you will be praying for us.  Please keep our children in your prayers also.  This is the longest we will ever have been separated from each other.   We plan on doing 2 cycles, a scan, two cycles, and a scan.  At that point we need to decide if the treatment is helping or not.  We will need to decide if we continue with the study or abandon it.  We will be praying intently for Heavenly Father's will to be done.  

We are praying that we can be of good to the people here in New York.  We hope that we can lift a burden or comfort a broken heart.  There is much need all around us.  I hope I can have the courage to act on the promptings I receive.  May Heavenly Father and Jesus bless you all.

With Love - Doug -