Each Day Is a Gift

No running today.  Spent the morning at the peritoneal dialysis (PD) clinic getting trained on using the cylcer (a machine that does continuous peritoneal dialysis).  Hubby currently does PD five times a day at home.  The PD procedure is called exchange (draining and filling of fluids from the peritoneum) and usually takes 30-40 min. each time.  The cycler is programed to do 5 exchanges within a span of 9 hours.  So this enables him to do the PD at night while he sleeps, and he just needs to do one exchange manually during the day. 

Today also marks the 8 month anniversary of hubby's emergency craniotomy in Sydney Australia when he was serving as mission president.  It is also transfer day in our mission and many of our sister missionaries, who we received 18 months ago into our mission, are returning home tomorrow.  If we were not released early because of medical emergency, this month would've marked the half way point of our mission. 

Our mission, though lasted only 10 months, was a gift from our Heavenly Father.  Our lives are continued to be blessed and we continue to love our missionaries.  :)  We are so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ.  We marveled at His infinite love and amazing grace given so freely to all mankind.  The redeeming and enabling power of His atonement is real and we feel that power in our daily life.  I am so grateful for His gift, the gift of eternal life! 

Hubby slept so well that he did not hear the cycler's alarms 3 times last night.  Between getting up to tend to the alarms and his constant restless leg syndrome movements, I got very little sleep.  I reluctantly dragged my tired body out of bed when Leslie's texted me for our morning run. 

Midway through the run on the flat MCT, I was chatting away and suddenly my heart went into tachycardia and a dark circle closed in on my vision.  I stopped running and alerted Karen and Leslie.  I then sat down on the ground and put my head between my knees.  Karen was about to run to a house to call 911 and I assured her that I just need a min. to get my heart rate settle down.  It happened briefly on Sat. when I was running at a leisure pace by myself.  At that time I just slowed down and breathed deeply and the arrythmia subsided.  I do not like these tachycardia episodes.  I have had 5 or 6 of these the last few years.  It leaves me feeling drained and wiped out.  Anyhow we walked a bit and then resumed running. 

Busy day today getting the house cleaned and guest room ready.  We are picking up Sister Penumaka (now Seerapu) and her husband from the airport tonight.  They're taking a 28 hours flight from India.  So excited to have them here and to witness their temple sealing Fri. night. 

Got home from picking up Sireesha and Sudhakar (from India) at the airport past midnight; didn't go to bed till after 1am.  Hubby could not fall asleep and his restless legs were causing havoc, the cycler alarms went off a few times.  Needless to say we had a sleepless night.  Crawled out of bed to run with Karen, Leslie and Wendy.  So so so tired!  Could not run faster than 9:45 pace.  So grateful for friends who are patient with me. 

Poor Sireesha was vomitting and could not keep anything down.  Hopefully it is just the time change and cold weather and she'll be alright.  It was so good to have her and her husband (of 2 months) here.  This is her first time to America and it's been a year since she finished her mission in Australia.  Not a day goes by that we don't think about our missionaries! :)

No running today.  Took Sireesha and Sudhakar to Salt Lake to visit his brother and sis-in-law.  Then we went to the U. Hospital to visit Sis. Levine at the rehab unit.  We were very happy to see her progress.  She was smiling, making us laugh.  A few of our sister missionaries who returned Tue. night also came (Sisters Burnett, Boiteux, Davis and their siblings and families).  It was like a mini-mini-reunion.  Before we said goodbye, we sang "I'm a Child of God" together.  That video ended up in part of the segment of the KUTV News broadcast at 10pm that evening.  The newscasters wanted to do a follow up story of Sister Levine, her progress since she was hit by a car moving at 40K/h while she was standing next to her parked car in Canberra, Australia where she served in our mission.  She had just reached her one-year mark of service.  Her story is one of many miracles, tender mercies and blessings.  She and her parents are awesome inspirations to many many around the world through the FB blog "Prayers for Sister Levine."  It's been over 100 days since the accident.  We are humbled yet gratified by this experience! :)

Busy happy day!  Leslie and Wendy accommodated to run early with me.  Ran on MCT east via Dry Creek to Alpine Hwy tunnel turned back and ran Leslie home to make 9 miles. 

Went to Costco as soon as it opens to buy flowers (for the bridal bouquet and center piece) and food for the Open House.  Texted Sis. Clegg to come over to do Sireesha's hair and make-up.  Then it's time to drive the bride (Sireesha) and groom (Sudhakar) to the Salt Lake Temple.  We picked up Sireesha's sister-in-law, Aruna, (her escort) on the way.  The temperature is in the high 30s, calm, sunny.  Her sealing was a bit delayed (4:45pm).  It was a beautiful service with friends and some of our returned missionaries in attendance.  Larry was one of the witnesses.  I was the mum of the bride! :)  By the time the newly-sealed come out of the temple to take pictures, it was dark but temple square was aglowed with Christmas lights. 

Thanks to my wonderful sis-in-law, Lily and Gary and their kids, they had everything set up for the Open House which was supposed to start at 7pm.  But because of terrible Friday night traffic, we didn't make it home until past 7:30pm.  Some of the guests have arrived before us.  But all is well.  It was a beautiful occasion to witness the sealing and union of our Indian daughter to her husband! :)

No running today.  We got up early and drove (along with Sireesha and Sudhakar) to the Bountiful Temple to witness the wedding/sealing of Sister Kielee Davis to Andrew Wiser.  Many of our returned missionaries and sisters were there as well.  After their sealing, we were walking down the hall and lo and behold I saw through the open door of another sealing room, my long-time friend, Anissa.  Anissa and Willie greeted us and invited us to witness the sealing of their daughter.  We've known Tiffany and Ricky were to be sealed there the same day, just not the time, so it was rather convenient. 

The snow held off just in time for pictures taking after the sealing.  We went to Kielee and Andrew's reception in Sandy in the afternoon.  Then we went home for Larry to do one dialysis exchange before heading back up to downtown Salt Lake for Tiffany and Ricky's wedding banquet.  It was a very long day for hubby.  He started to feel sick about 1/3 way into the banquet courses so we left early.  What a great weekend to see so many of our returned missionaries.