Photos of our story

From Barbados to Nicaragua to New York to Algonquin to Kitchener-Waterloo the story continues with FAMLY and FRiENDS, PUPPiES and ADVENTURE!!!

Our home- the foster factor

Well, February is coming to an end. Cancer treatments are ended. Life has turned a corner in our home and we are looking at a new normal. Besides the tsunami of cancer treatment that has enveloped our lives for the past 9 months, there has been the foster factor here on the riverbank. Arnel, our foster son turned 18, pulled his school marks up from from 50s and 60s to high 70s, celebrated living with us for a year and bought his first car. What a gift he has been to us, with his gentle faith, his loving care for Cindi through her treatment and his slow journey building a life in our home. Our dog Jake adores him and that's the litmus test isn't it? Our three rescued and adopted dogs Sammy, Jake and Harley have been great, albeit expensive at times what with cuts and sickness and even a Quail egg blockage in the intestines for poor Harley. They are most definitely a part of the family fabric here. We saw our first "Friendly Giant" foster dog come and go last year. Maggie was a lovely 75lb. lapdog. She was with us for a few months of fostering and now lives permanently just outside of Parry Sound on the edge of a lake with a wonderful couple. Yesterday we rescued our second "Friendly Giant" dog, an 8 year old Mastiff mix. She's probably about 15-20 pounds overweight and clocks in at about 110lbs. She's a talker and amazingly friendly. Sad story is that her owner lost his job, his disability, his home and pretty much everything and had to make the tough decision to give her up so she would be cared for. He lives out of his truck and friends basements. She would never have made it at Humane Society - probably too old to be adopted out quickly. So here we are, rounding a corner, fostering people and dogs and trying to live lives of honesty and integrity and sometimes actually getting that right. I believe that Jesus was in the business of redeeming and because we want to follow him (although that may be hard) ... Well we believe we should be in the redeeming business too. It just makes sense to my heart. So in the midst of the dog hair and teenage laundry we foster and we love it. It has proven great for the soul...Pete

The Celebration that Almost Wasn't

February 12, 2013 will always be a day to remember. The final day of treatment for breast cancer! The first steps towards freedom from daily medical appointments, parking at the hospital, long walks down crowded hallways, and cold fingers prodding and poking. Time to shed the aches and pains of active treatment and just focus on rest and recovery. And celebrating! So the plan was to complete the final treatment, check in with the family doctor at the end of her busy day, and then go home to celebrate. Dear friends were waiting to make homemade waffles as a nod towards pancake Tuesday. But while my family doctor examines me, she finds what looks like another lump in the same breast. Suddenly i am going home with a very different plan in play: another mammogram to be scheduled, along with an ultrasound - which is likely to fall in the middle of our little mini-getaway planned for next week. WOW - talk about a curve ball! So instead of going home and celebrating with my husband and friends, i have to deliver some sobering news. We had planned some serious parties: lunch with my sister, mom and niece on Wednesday. Friday leave for a weekend with friends in Parry Sound. Next week, go to Toronto to relax, unwind, visit one of our favourite haunts, the zoo. Now all of this is put on hold while we wait to hear from the doctor about when the new mammogram is scheduled... Deflated does not begin to cover it. Fast forward to this morning: our neighbour, herself a breast cancer survivor, hears the update. Another lump, with ominous possibilities. So she makes a few calls and suddenly i have a mammogram and ultrasound scheduled for THis AFTERNOON! it is a whirlwind, but we leave the hospital with good news: nothing suspicious at first glance. Looks like scar tissue, or perhaps something fibrous, but not anything to worry about. Nothing out of the ordinary. Music to my ears! The celebrations are back on, and there is no lingering cloud of worry hanging over us. THANK YOU DEAR NEiGHBOUR - you know who you are!!! Recovering from cancer means living a "new normal." i think this experience was our first step into this new reality. Pete asked me today if this was always going to happen when our doctors and oncologists found a suspicious lump. The answer to that is yes - now that i have survived cancer, the medical community will always act in the interest of caution. That is part of the "new normal" for us. i am thankful to have such a thorough doctor! i am also thankful to be surrounded by friends and family who are so quick to respond to our cries for help and prayer. Another friend in Nicaragua sent me the following verse that has helped her breathe in difficult moments: Living one day at a time; Enjoying one moment at a time; Accepting hardships as the pathway to peace; Taking, as He did, this sinful world as it is, not as I would have it; Trusting that He will make all things right if I surrender to His Will; That I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with Him Forever in the next. Amen. --Reinhold Niebuhr