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June 27, 2005
Wisconsin Fireworks
It’s more than a week since our last update. We’re now in Holmen, Wisconsin where my brother lives. Holmen is just north of La Crosse, where I was born and lived from third grade until finishing college and leaving for England in 1970. On our way here we drove through Bangor, where we lived with my grandmother and visited cousins of Mom’s, the cemetery, and the village park. It’s amazing how many memories are tied to those places. Today we drove past the farm where my grandmother was born. It’s good to see it still standing and still a farm. So many area farms are turning into housing estates! My brother has shown us numerous properties that he owns and is renting or remodeling. He doesn’t rest much.
Now let me back up to Saturday, the 18th. It was a beautiful, sunny day and about 50-60 people met in the cemetery for Sandy’s burial. Her son Erik had designed the tombstone and ordered white lilies to go on either side of it. The service was short, with two hymns and prayers, and a eulogy from a close friend. Afterwards most came to Jo Ann’s for coffee and brunch. Lots of time for visiting with cousins and aunts and uncles. The afternoon before we were watching a parade and Sat. evening, after a meal in the park near the canal, we watched fireworks! It turned out that the weekend of the 18th was Bridgefest, a local summer celebration with lots of activities. Sunday we spent the morning with friends at Evangel Baptist Church and the afternoon with family. Monday we made travel arrangements and Tuesday headed off for Chicago! We spent two nights with Greg and Ruth Scharf and Gordon. When they were busy we had time to rest, and when we were together there was no shortage of conversation. We also enjoyed meeting Sally, a friend who is living with them this summer, and seeing her art work. We went from Chicago to Milwaukee where we spent a night with my nephew Bill and his wife Jessica. We wanted to see their home as well as them, and the hours we spent together were a special treat. I couldn’t be any more proud of that couple than I am. Friday was their 5th anniversary and it’s a joy to see what wise choices they have made and continue to make in their lives. Friday night found us near Madison, staying with Peggy who has been a friend since 7th grade, and her husband Jon at their log cabin in the woods. Nestled in the hills just south of the Wisconsin river, it’s a wonderful place to enjoy the beauty of birds and bats and woodland and prairie flowers. Wish we could have stayed longer!
Back here in Holmen we went to a fantastic fireworks display tonight with musical accompaniment of patriotic marches. We will be here until Thursday when we will be going back to Upper Michigan for our niece, Trisha’s wedding on Saturday, July 2 and stay there through the Fourth of July holiday. On our way back to Portland we are planning stops in Ellsworth, WI, Minneapolis, MN and Fargo, ND.
Posted by David at 12:20 PM
June 17, 2005
Friday morning...
We awoke Friday morning to cloudless skies and a mirror-like lake just beyond the deck at Dave’s sister JoAnn’s home in Upper Michigan. We decided to drive through from Fargo on Thursday, so surprised everyone by appearing in time for dinner Thursday evening! We made the 2,000 mile trip in three days, driving 720 miles the first day, 776 the second, and 480 the third. It feels good to be staying in one place today!! And we saw views in Montana to rival even the mountainous beauty of Switzerland! The ‘badlands’ also have a unique grandeur, as do the rolling plains. We’ve been drinking in the phenomenal beauty of our homeland.
The drive went smoothly, the van was extremely comfortable to drive and ride in, and Wil glanced at scenery between videos and computer games! Now that we’re here we can begin thinking about how to visit as many family and friends as possible while we’re in the Midwest, since we don’t know when we’ll be back here again. We may try to fit in a trip to Chicago during our ‘Wisconsin’ time. The one glitch we’ve had is discovering that our cell phone doesn’t work here, so we are borrowing one from JoAnn for a month. The number is 906 370 0047 if any of you are wanting to contact us.
More relatives will be arriving today for the burial service of Dave’s sister Sandra tomorrow, which means Dave will be able to connect with a lot of cousins. Annie has a son Wil’s age and JoAnn has grandsons his age, so we should be able to keep him away from the computer part of the time. He and Dave went out in a paddle boat this morning!
Now the lake is rougher, with waves lapping against the shore. But both views are beautiful and we are reminded that God has created each day and so much beauty for us to enjoy. We want to rejoice and be glad in Him.
Posted by David at 12:18 AM
June 14, 2005
Test results
I’ll start with the news many of you are waiting for. Dave and I talked to Dr. Panutich this morning and his recommendation is that I continue with the hormone treatment for another two months, then repeat the scans. The tumors in the liver have grown, but not drastically, and the estrogen inhibitor still may cause them to shrink over a longer period of time. If there is still no improvement by the middle of August, I’ll have to consider chemotherapy. The better news is that the bone density test shows the Femara is not having an adverse effect on my bones, so I can just continue with calcium and exercise.
I’ve stopped taking most of the pain medication I was on, and most of the time am not in any more pain without it than when I’m taking it. I’ve seen a lovely physical therapist and she has shown me stretching exercises to do and made other recommendations to guard against lymphedema. Hopefully the more I stretch, the less I’ll be bothered by scar tissue and nerve damage.
Now we’re packing to leave for Michigan early tomorrow morning! We were able to buy a 2002 Nissan mini van which even has a small TV screen in the back seat! That’s the answer to our concern for how Wil would handle the long trip. The Corolla we’ve been driving doesn’t have air con, isn’t an automatic, was hard for me to climb out of at the curb, and had no leg room for Wil in the back seat. He’s now at least three inches taller than me and when we bought the Corolla he was about 5 inches shorter!! Do pray for safety in travel as we seek to reach Houghton, MI by Friday. We will visit my brother in La Crosse, WI before returning to Houghton for a niece’s wedding on July 2. We’d like to have a more leisurely journey back to Portland, stopping to visit friends en route. But we aren’t sure when our shipment from Manila will arrive! We are trying to leave adequate instructions and documentation for someone else to get the shipment through customs, etc. but hope it won’t arrive until after we get back.
Thanks to help from Lori Bryan, an interior decorator we met at Damascus, we’ve now selected floor coverings and wall colors for the modular home owned by the church and which we will rent once renovations are completed. All the present flooring needs to be removed and replaced, and it certainly will look and smell better when all of this is done. We’ve been given or been able to purchase a number of items for the house, and will continue with that project when we return mid July. We have to be back before July 16th so that Wil can leave for the high school water ski camp! Wil is looking forward to that, and to starting at Damascus Christian School in the fall.
‘Streams in the Desert’ has continued to be a source of inspiration to us. I want to close with an excerpt from one reading last week: If a person allows it, he can find something at every turn of the road that will rob him of his victory and his peace of mind…. Faith can change any situation, no matter how dark or difficult. Lifting your heart to God in a moment of genuine faith in Him can quickly alter your circumstances. God is still on His throne, and He can turn defeat into victory in a split second, if we will only trust Him.
Posted by David at 6:21 AM
June 8, 2005
June Prayer Bulletin
Dear Prayer Team, June 7, 2005
I thought I had done a prayer bulletin at the beginning of May, but since I can’t find a copy of it, I must be mistaken. We’ve been doing website updates at www.lampinenlog.com as often as possible, but some of you aren’t getting those and may be wondering what has happened to us. I hardly know where to begin! The first major news was that my breast cancer had spread to other organs, so radiation wasn’t going to deal with the problem. That threw huge questions over our future, and Dave and Wil came to Singapore so that we could talk together with an oncologist and make plans. We had almost a week together and spent a lot of it with doctors. Our OMF doctor, Stroma Beattie, was very good at helping us sift and weigh the information we were given, and come to the conclusion we needed to return to the States for treatment. I was able to leave Singapore with Dave and Wil on April 14, having decided to start with a hormone therapy rather than chemotherapy. That enabled me to start treatment sooner, with a medication designed to inhibit the effect of estrogen in my body. Dave and I were kept more than busy packing and saying farewell to friends during the next few weeks.
With lots of help from friends, we managed to complete the packing, selling, and preparation for shipping, and vacate our house by May 9. Then Dave and I flew to Portland on May 10 and Wil followed us on May 28. He wanted to be at Faith Academy for the end of the school year May 26 and the Burdick family were willing to look after Wil until he left. We are glad to be together again, to have a lovely little house to stay in (see address above) for as long as we need it, as we’ve been making decisions on Wil’s schooling (he wants to got to Damascus Christian School and a family in the church have offered to pay his tuition for the year) and housing (just when we arrived in Portland the church bought a .8 acre piece of land near the church with a double wide modular home. They have offered to rent that to us, and after looking a the cost of renting or buying in that area, we’ve decided to opt for living in the modular. All the flooring needs to be replaced and walls painted, so we have the privilege of stating preferences on those matters even though we will only be renting.
This morning I had a CAT scan of my liver and lungs to see whether the medicine is working to contain or even shrink the tumors. If it is working, I will only need to have scans every three months and we can visit family this summer. If not, I still want to make a trip to Michigan and Wisconsin before starting chemotherapy or some other type of treatment. I’ve had numerous doctor’s appointments since Dave and I returned to Portland, and been impressed once again with the care received through our insurance with Kaiser Permanente.
We know God is in control and that He can heal me if He chooses to. In the meantime we’re trusting Him to show us His purpose in bringing us back to the States. We’ve loved connecting with Filipinos here and hope to present the challenge of cross cultural missions to them. Officially we are on home assignment for the next nine months and hope we’ll be able to visit many supporters in the US.
Some of you have asked if we need help in covering our unexpected expenses. The answer is yes, and OMF Philippines has a special Field Project (#365609) to process tax deductible gifts designated to Lampinen Special Needs.
Thank you for praying that God will reveal His plan for our future, Dave and Karen
Posted by David at 6:21 AM
June 2, 2005
Wil's return!
This may be quite a long update as a lot has happened since I last wrote. Of course the biggest news is that Wil surprised us by coming off the airplane with a new hair style and hair color! We’ll post a picture of the new look when we have one. A new friend at church has offered to do a family photo, but we aren’t sure we want one until this new look has grown out! It’s actually not as extreme as when he came home from camp two years ago with his head shaved in the shape of a tic tac toe board! Despite the hair ,Wil is a great kid and we’re very proud of him. We got a copy of his standardized test results, and apart from math, it looks like he’s ready for college already! He has quickly contacted and gotten back in with his friends here. He’s at youth group tonight as I write.
On Saturday, after he’d had another breakfast (he’s hungry about every two hours), he wanted to go somewhere and do something! Remember he’d just had a flight from Manila to Portland, but that didn’t slow him down. We ended up rafting down the Clackamas River that afternoon with the Jeskes! We had two rafts, one for those who wanted to stay dry (Dave and Dawn Jeske and me) and one for those who wanted to get wet (the three kids) plus my Dave. That made for a fun and memorable afternoon. On Sunday evening we were invited to a pot luck meal with one of the church’s Community Groups and there were lots of kids there Wil’s age. Playing volleyball and other games, and just hanging out together got him back into the swing of things with his friends here. Fortunately Damascus Christian School breaks for the summer at the end of this week, so Wil will be able to spend more time with friends. Monday was a holiday, and he spent much of the day with his best friend James from Sunrise Middle School. They haven’t kept in touch while we’ve been away, but you wouldn’t have known that seeing the way they reconnected. We know many of you were praying and God has answered wonderfully.
Several phone calls and contacts with Filipinos have surprised us too. On Sunday we were talking to Tess de la Pena from Malvar, Batangas who is now married and living in North Carolina. And it was a three way conversation with her parents in the Philippines!! We didn’t even know you could do such a thing! Tess’ father is Wil’s godfather. Then today Dave went to a prayer meeting with some pastors in our neighborhood and found that one of them is from an ABCCOP church in Bocaue, north of Manila, and another was the husband of the nurse who helped us when I went for the radiology appointment. She remembered us from our visits there with Ben.
God has encouraged me too through my visit to Dr. Schwarz, the surgeon I saw yesterday. Dr. Schwarz’s wife also has breast cancer, and they have a child the same age as Wil. So he was very sympathetic and showed more than just clinical concern both for me and for Wil. I liked him immediately, and appreciated that he too was very positive about the treatment plan I’m on. Through him I felt the Lord was saying to me, ‘You need to plan to live, not to die.’ Dr. Schwarz’s wife was diagnosed four years ago, and is now getting her pilot’s license!! He has given me referrals to physiotherapy and the cancer counseling center, plus lots of information to read on breast cancer treatment and related issues. He also thinks that my wound is healing well. Some of the pain I’m experiencing is caused by nerves being cut when removing the lymph nodes. But it’s gradually getting a bit less. It doesn’t look as though there would be much point in my having radiation at this point, but was good to get a second opinion on that.
The scan that will determine future treatment is on June 7. I’m praying I may get the results in less than a week (i.e. before I see Dr. Panutich again) so that we will know whether we can go to the Midwest. We have looked at several houses for sale in the Clackamas area, and also a double wide mobile home recently purchased by the church which would be another housing option. We haven’t yet made a final decision on where Wil will go to school next year, but at this point are leaning towards Damascus Christian School. A family in the church has offered to pay Wil’s tuition for next year if he wants to go there.
So we have seen some lovely answers to prayer and been encouraged that God is with us and guiding step by step. It’s still hard to have so much uncertain, but we’re doing well and trusting that when God knows we need to know the next step, He will show us. That’s really what living by faith is all about, isn’t it? Thank you for being fellow pilgrims with us.
Posted by David at 1:30 PM