Wednesday night, only 3 days after brain surgery, I was miraculously doing so well, that I was cleared to go home. What a blessing to be in my own bed, and get to cuddle with my baby boy. But we have seen so many miracles, and here are just a few of the miracles and tender mercies of the Lord that I have seen:

* I have an amazing medical care team – world-class neurosurgeons and more. And they truly care about me and my family.
* Because one of these doctors just happens to be a good friend, when I reached out with my symptoms, he told me to go to the hospital and took care everything.
* Four years ago, we moved to Texas which put us in place to have some of the best care on the planet for what I’m going through. And the hospital is only five minutes from our house.
* We made it back in time from our trip to Idaho before everything became critical so that I was exactly where I needed to be in order to get the right care at the right time.
* Over the past month, I was privileged to spend special time with family and friends all around the country, including two amazing weeks with my mom and some of my sisters. I even had the chance to get together with my best friends from high school for the first time in almost 30 years. It was a gift.
* My oldest daughter, Lily just happens to be taking a semester off school at BYUI and will be in San Antonio. She had decided this back in January – what a miracle. Not only do we have her with us until Christmas, but we also have our 19 year old son, Derek with us because of him serving his service mission. When he was called as a service missionary here, we were all a little surprised at first, but now we know. He hasn’t missed a single service assignment this entire time, he has the structure and purpose of his mission, the support of the other missionaries, and he is home. And having them home will truly help my twelve year old son, Arthur. We have all of our babies at home ❤️.
* The prayers on our behalf are truly beyond amazing. I can truly feel their power holding me up. It is something I have never experienced before and is the most powerful and amazing thing as I feel the prayers and love.
* The love of my church congregation, my team from work, my friends and family throughout the world is overwhelming. I even had a few former students come visit 😭.
* My amazing brain surgeon, Dr. Bogaev, did the brain surgery without having to cut my hair ❤️. What a small but huge thing.

* One of the biggest blessings leading up to all of this, was that this summer I was able to spend extra time in the house of the Lord. Our temple closed for renovation at the end of May, and so my 12 year old son, Arthur, decided he wanted to visit as many temples as he could over the summer. Because of that, we were extra intentional about planning them in as we traveled places, and I ended up visiting eight different temples across the country – Hartford, Boston, Boise, Meridian, Pocatello, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, Twin Falls, (even visiting the Farmington, New Mexico temple open house on our drive home).

On Thursday, as Kevin was prepping some brand new water bottles for me – since at the moment, I can’t drink out of a straw as a surgery restriction, I found the brand new water bottle stickers my mom bought back for me in Idaho. They were so perfect for my current situation, that it took my breath away.

Saturday was the best day. We may still be waiting on the pathology reports for the mass in my brain, I have so many unknowns and uncertainty, but my amazing stylist, Darcy, not only washed my hair today, but she even gave me a trim. So grateful for her tender care washing out all the gunk, carefully combing out my hair by my scar, and made me feel like a person . And let’s give another shout out to my amazing neurosurgeon who took out a brain tumor without even cutting my hair .

As the week progressed, and I continued to try and get little bits of strength back each day, I also had to face the reality of what to do about going back to work – and if it was even a possibility for me for months. And so, after discussions with admin and people from HR at the district, I put in for FMLA. But that means no meet the teacher night, no meeting my students, and so many other things. However, I did get special permission to go into my classroom on Wednesday and have Kevin, Lily, and some friends pull everything out of the closets and set things up so they would be ready for my substitute and my students. I sat there in my room and thought about all the plans that I’ve made, and how won’t be there to do them. I’m not even sure when I will get to meet the students that are going to be in this room starting next week, and it was very sad, but I am so grateful that I was able to do this one thing.

And even though it was hard, It was also an amazing day. I got to walk into my school, and hug and say hello to all my wonderful friends. I got to see them, and talk to them and feel their love. I even got to take a picture with my 4th grade team, which meant so much, since I won’t be back until I am finished with treatment and cleared for work.

And that night, as if she could sense I needed something more, my sweet friend, Penny, came over and gave me a pedicure 😉 – such a simple, yet amazing gift.

Another huge miracle for me happened on the 9th, when I was able to read a chapter of our book aloud to Arthur. I cried. You see, right before I had the tumor removed from my brain, I had gotten to the point where I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t write, I couldn’t type, and I couldn’t read things aloud or even sing along to a song. All the information and all the words were in my head and they were trapped there. It was terrifying. The gift of reading to my baby boy was the most incredible blessing.

There’s still so many things we still have to deal with and journey through, we’re still waiting on an exact diagnosis from the oncologist, but what I do know that I’m getting myself back. Two days ago, I typed a coherent message. Yesterday I was able to write words in my journal that I wanted to write, and they came out correct.

In many ways, this all feels like a dream.  It happened so fast.  I actually have to keep reminding myself, “I just had brain surgery.  That is why I am so tired.”  And now we are in the waiting and in between stage. My health journey is not over. From the very beginning, both our friend and my brain surgeon felt like the three tumors in my brain were metastatic tumors, and so they kept looking for the source. They found a tumor in my lung.  And now we wait for pathology, blood tests, and all the things, so we can make a plan.  In the meantime, I am so grateful for the love and prayers for my family.  It is making all the difference.