Angels In Voice

Well, it has been a long day for us.  We left our house this morning at 6:30am and got back home this afternoon at around 4pm.  I had my CT scan scheduled at the Mayo clinic for 8:20am.  Again the CT scan was done both with and without IV contrast so I had to prep with 150mg's of prednisone and 50mg of benadryl, they are quite big amounts to take especially when I have to take a couple of the prednisone tablets during the night.  So it makes it rough to have a good night sleep.  Although, I am feeling wide awake tonight as I'm typing this post.  We had a few hours to kill between appointments and since I had to fast for the Ct scan and since the rest of our family hadn't eaten anything either, we decided it would be fun to have breakfast at Village Inn this morning.  We enjoyed a nice filling breakfast.  After that, we headed over to Paradise Valley Mall and looked around in some of the stores.  Crystal and I found a cute baby-doll top for $5.00 at Wet Seal.  We get so excited when we can find something at such a bargain.  So that made our trip to the mall worth while, its always nice to add something new to your closet. Ha ha!!  We left the mall and headed back over to the Mayo clinic for my appointment with Dr Mulligan.  The Ct scan went well and I saw Dr Mulligan as well as his assistant a little after 1:00pm and they had good news to share with us, no new tumors!! Praise God!! However, there is a small 4.8mm size nodule on my left lung, that was not seen on the previous Ct scan.   Dr Mulligan didn't seem to be too concerned about the new nodule at this point because my (AFP)  ALPHA-FETOPROTEIN, TUMOR MARKER is at 6.8 which is in the normal range. We've seen my tumor marker elevated at over 40 in the past.  Since this nodule is very tiny, still less than 1cm he is going to keep a close watch on it and I will follow up in January with another CT scan.  It makes our family feel better knowing that he's going monitor it very closely.  I know the Lord has his hand upon me and I am thankful that we can conclude 2007 on a high note.  Overall, we have really had a wonderful year of good health.  Thank you so much for all your prayers.  Words will never express how thankful we are to know that people are praying and supporting us.  

Our concert at Life's Destiny Church was awesome.  We did perform ten songs with a little break in the middle and the help of a little oxygen.  The concert was wonderful and we definitely felt the presence of the Lord.  We are so thankful that we can sing his praises and minister through our music and testimony.  It was a Tuesday night, and normally it is the women's ministry night,  but they opened it up for the church congregation.  The people were so kind and we truly felt welcomed and loved.  We sang "Come and Fill this Place," "The End of the Beginning." and "In Christ Alone" such wonderful songs and have great meaning.  Mom gave our story and how God has blessed our lives.  We then sang "You Raise Me Up," "I Bowed on my Knees and Cried Holy'" and "Somebody's Praying Me through."  Candice and I talked about each song and what it meant to us.  These are all great songs and have such powerful meaning.  "Days of Elijah" is always a favorite of everyone, they were all singing along with us.  "I will Never Leave You Alone" is a beautiful song and it talks about how the Lord will never leave us or forsake us, this song so fits our lives with all the health issues we have had to deal with.  We sang "You are My Hiding Place" which is another one of our favorites, this was the first song we sang when Candice and I started performing again after her first cancer surgery.  We find it a very comforting song.  We closed our concert with "the Prayer."  Mom's words are "It's just beautiful!"  The evening was wonderful.  We want to thank Life's Destiny's church for your warm welcome, we look forward to seeing you again.

Last night our family had dinner and fellowship at Dr. and Mrs. Jain's home.  They are Eastern Indian's who we met at the Logos Mission's Church.  They invited us so we could meet and sing for Mrs. Jain's cousins, Dr Edward Nandlal and his wife from Queens New York.  His sister and her husband were also visiting.  They also invited some friends whom we've meet several times at the Indo-Pak Church.  What a wonderful evening we had, the dinner was scrumptious.  Its so uplifting to fellowship with fellow believers.  After we sang a few songs, we sang hymns together and then they sang one song in Hindi.  This is the language that is spoken in the part of India we are from.  What a wonderful week we've had, and we're looking forward to our services on Sunday.  Please keep us in your prayers, Candice goes for her three month CT scan follow up at  the Mayo clinic next Wednesday the 31st.  We are praying for good results.  Dad went for his bladder scope on Monday and he was still clear.  Praise God!  We are thanking the Lord for his good results.

 

Our family had a wonderful time in Disneyland last week.  Candice and I joked about moving to California and getting a job at Disneyland, what fun that would be!!  It is definitely the happiest place on earth.   None of us were ready to leave, we thoroughly enjoyed our time together.  We left early Tuesday morning and arrived at our motel about 12:30pm.  We had lunch, rested a little while and then walked around the little shops at Disney.  Our motel was right across the street from the park, so it was very convenient.  We couldn't believe we were actually there.  The little shops were so enjoyable, we each bought a little something from the Disney store to bring home with us.

Wednesday was the exciting day, and the weather was perfect.  There were more people there than we expected.  The park was decorated so neat in Fall and Halloween colors.  Our first ride was Pirates of the Caribbean.  I remember that ride from when we were kids, and it's amazing now to see how much it has changed.  The animation was really something.  We then rode the Haunted Mansion which was cool  We rode all the children's rides, Peter Pan, Pinocchio, Snow White, Alice and Wonderland, the toad ride, and Dumbo.  Those were all so fun.  Our favorite was Peter Pan; we really did feel like we were flying.  Dad, Candice, Jody and Rhonda rode the teacups.  While mom and I sat that one out, neither of us can do anything that goes in a circular motion.  Dad had them spinning so fast, that we were dizzy from watching them.  We rode Thunder Mountain, the Matterhorn, and Space Mountain.  Thunder Mountain was our least favorite of the three.  Candice rode that once, while I rode it twice.  We love roller coasters, but that one was really bumpy.  Space Mountain was so awesome, the lighting effects and the music greatly enhanced the ride.  I guess they’ve made it faster now than it used to be.  There is something exciting about riding a roller coaster in the dark, it’s not as frightening because you can’t see where you are going.  We had such a great time on that ride; we rode it again.  We also did the Utopia cars.  Candice drove with dad, I drove with Rhonda and Jody drove with mom.  I must say that I think we are now capable of getting our drivers license.  Ha-ha!!  Wednesday evening we attended the Parade of Dreams. it was really awesome seeing the characters from all the old Disney movies we enjoy so much.  All the details that go in to making the floats are just spectacular.  We felt like children again, standing there watching it.

The parade lasted half and hour, it was so beautiful!  The next day we couldn’t believe how much larger the crowd was, and lines were longer.  Since we enjoyed Pirates of the Caribbean we decided to ride it again.  Then Rhonda, dad, Candice and I rode splash mountain, it was still pretty cool out, and since we had never been on the ride before,  we didn’t  know what to expect. On the big drop going through the waterfall, we got wet and Rhonda, who was in the front seat got soaked.  it was a blast!!  Be sure to look at the picture below of the four of us on the ride, and carefully, at our facial expressions. (WOW!! what fun.)  Our dad is the only person in the picture that looks like he was really enjoying the ride.   We rode the Winnie the Pooh ride, it was adorable.  We just love Pooh and Eeyore.  Later in the afternoon we walked over to California adventures.  We only had time to ride a couple of the rides there.  Madness was a four seat car roller coaster, it made us feel like we were going to fall off the track.  The other one was the river raft ride, it was more fun!!  Mom and dad got hit by the geyser and the two of them were soaked.  We all died laughing.  Rhonda told dad it was payback for not taking the front seat on Splash Mountain.  Dad’s wallet was even wet.  That was definitely one of the highlights of our trip.  We would have liked to have ridden the Tower of terror and wished we could have stayed at that park longer.  Through the fall California Adventures closes early, so it doesn’t allow you a lot of time to do very much.  The Indiana Jones ride at Disneyland was closed both days, and the line for the new Nemo ride was anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour and a half wait, so we didn’t get to ride those.  That was a bit of a disappointment, but if we get the opportunity to go again we’ll make sure to do those rides first. The Tiki Room and the Jungle Cruise were both very entertaining as well as fascinating.  We really did a lot in the two days we were there.  We were all pretty exhausted by Thursday night, but we had such a wonderful time.  It was really sad to see it all come to an end.  We still talk about the rides and the fun we all had together.  It was one trip we will never forget.  We arrived back home Friday afternoon, and this week has been very busy.  We’re trying to get caught up on emails while practicing music for our voice lessons.  We have a big upcoming concert next Tuesday evening

October 23^rd check calendar for location.  So we’re also preparing for that as well.   Please pray for us.  God is good, and we’re so thankful that he is using us to minister in many places.

Click on picture to enlarge

Candice and I were both sick all last week.  We thought it was just asthma that she was having, but after seeing the doctor last Monday he told us she had a viral infection.  He couldn't give her any antibiotics for it because she wasn't running a fever.  Well, she passed the virus to me last Wednesday.  So we both had it and thankfully we started feeling a bit better last Friday.  We really wanted to sing at the Logos Mission Church, (the Eastern Indian Church) for their 7th anniversary service.  We sounded congested, but we did our best and we were just so thankful to the Lord that we could be there to minister.  We had a wonderful time for both Saturday and Sunday services.  Candice and I always feel at home every time we sing there because they are our people.  To see the women dressed in their Indian Sari's, they were all so beautiful. Today we had a radio interview with Pastor James Hayes from South Peoria Baptist Church.  We've known Pastor Hayes for several years and sing at his church quite often.  He invited us to do this interview a couple of weeks ago and Candice and I were excited about it.  We've never done a radio interview before, so we were a little nervous about it.  It went really well today.  It was awesome giving our testimonies and sharing about what the Lord has and is doing in our lives.  The interview will air Wednesday November 14th on KXEG 1010 AM station here in Phoenix.  You can also here it on the radio's website as well.  We will put a link to it here, so those of you who don't live in AZ can hear it.  The Lord is good and we are thankful that we are feeling better tonight.  Candice is still coughing quite a bit, but I think it's going to take her a little longer to get over the virus.  

We are traveling with our family to Disneyland this week.  We are so excited about it.  Our sister Rhonda, who lives in Cottonwood, is coming with us too.  She's been here since Friday and we truly enjoy having her around.  We all have so much fun together.  It's been busy for us these past few days, we'll write all about our trip when we get back.   Love to you all.