Blogging in B Minor

Friday, July 23, 2010 @ 10:30 am.
Bayside Community Church (High School Building)
8171 Sierra College Blvd., Granite Bay, CA 95746

*Reception immediately following (also located at Bayside).

In lieu of flowers, an education fund has been created for Aidan and Keegan. 

Donations may be mailed to: R W Baird & Co. Inc., 300 University Ave. #200, Sacramento, CA 95825 (payable to Rachael Miller FBO Aidan and Keegan Miller Education Fund).

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I know it’s been a while since Mark’s last post and we wanted to keep everyone up to date on his status. 

Mark was discharged from the hospital on July 2nd and we are all making adjustments to a new routine. 

As Mark mentioned in one of his earlier posts, after a lot of thought and prayer, we made the decision to retain at-home hospice services.  With the last MRI report revealing more new lesions and enhancement in such a short span of time, it made the decision to utilize hospice a little bit easier.  

Mark’s stability has been a growing concern in that the use of a cane was not giving him enough support.  He is now using a wheelchair to help him get around the home safely.  We are fairly home-bound due to his mobility issues, along with the tumor progression and how that limits him.  However, we have been enjoying friends and family visiting, helping and loving on us through this challenge.  His parents, who spend their summers in Oregon, have been here the last several weeks and plan to stay on as they offer tremendous support to not just Mark, but to our entire family.  In addition, Mark’s daughter Lauren, who lives in Southern California, was able to take a leave of absence from her job and has been staying with us, helping with Mark and the boys, running countless errands, doing lots of household chores and saying yes to every favor we ask of her! 

While we wouldn’t have wished for this journey ourselves, the outpouring of support from loved ones, family, friends, and even people who barely know us have comforted us beyond words, providing critical reminders that we are not alone on this path.  No, it isn’t what we would’ve chosen, but coming to a place of acceptance and the peace that brings with it is an immense blessing I couldn’t have foreseen.   

We can’t thank all of you enough for your continuous love, support and prayers. 

All our love,

Rachael (on behalf of Mark)

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Our sitter, good friend (and many times life-saver!), Sarah, was married on Saturday to Derek Brandt who we have gotten to know and is just a great guy.  They have both taken to our boys and love them as their own.  Anyway, they really wanted both of them in the wedding which was so thoughtful (and brave!).  I couldn’t make it but Rachael and her dad went an handled the kids.  Seeing little Keegan all dressed up like this was a riot!

Congrats Sarah and Derek!

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I’ve received a number of requests for more info regarding tomorrow night’s meeting.  Here is a PDF w/ info.  Thanks for your support!  It should be a fun night.

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I’ve quietly been upgrading the blog software behind-the-scenes. I am now beginning to add more functionality such as making the blog accessible from blackberries and iPhones as well as adding small improvements such as threaded commenting and the ability to share posts through more of the social  networking sites.

As for the mobile application, as with many it’s a scaled-down version of the blog. I can post to it from anywhere and readers can read the posts, comment on a post and use the contact form to contact me.  All of my research is also there.

Here is a look at a few of the blog screens on an iPhone:

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Over the next week or so I will be performing an upgrade on the blog. If the blog is inaccessible, seems to lose some of its features or is sluggish just know that it’s because there is work being done behind the scenes. I am also pondering changing the entire look and feel of the blog and making it much simpler. Making it more simplistic I’ll allow me to have an easier time with it moving forward which I think is going to be a better situation for me.

I wanted all of you know.

God bless

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Every once in a while I take a look at where my blog visitors come from.  The internet is truly amazing.  Of course the majority of readers are in the US but there are percentages of users from other areas of the world, many of which use the translator.  I have received so many emails and for me, it’s encouraging to me to know that I am at a minimum helping others to some extent.

 Here is a breakdown just in the last week:

Pretty amazing and shows all of us with brain tumors that we are not alone!

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Over the past several years, I’ve been in touch with a countless number of survivors, caregivers, friends and family who have had prayer requests.  I wanted to provide an area here where you could make  prayer requests.  There is also a tab at the top of the site.  It’s set up as a running “comments” section. 

Regards,

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