Much has happened in our family since our last note: Jes and Josh got married on May 12 in a beautiful and unusual ceremony filled with antiques and symbols, friends, fun and laughter. Many have told me it was the best wedding they have ever been to. They traveled to Iceland for their honeymoon and had a wonderful time! Dan has finished his first year of teaching, enjoyed it, and has been rehired for next year. Good news! Today, Father’s Day, 5 years ago our family was all together eating at Moo Moo’s Burger Barn in Lodi. Little did we know that a few days later, Tuesday June 19, 2007, we would be heading to the ER with Dan and start the beginning of the long hard trail (and trial) of combatting Dan’s neuroendocrine pancreatic cancer. Many of you have traveled down that road with us in prayer and helps and for that we are most grateful. Five years later we shout “hallelujah to the Lord” for His goodness and mercy to us! Dan’s last PET was negative. In 11 days he will undergo surgery to replace his left hip which is related to his bout with cancer. Hopefully, this is his last operation ever! We are praying for a speedy and uncomplicated recovery and would ask you to join us in that request. We are also still praying for Dan and Ashley to be able to conceive. I am including Ashley’s last note from their blog and also a link to a message that Dan shared at his church in La Mirada on April 29. Dan does not readily talk about himself or his situation, so if you have 28 spare minutes, I encourage you to listen to it: http://redeemerlm.podomatic.com/entry/2012-04-30T07_36_32-07_00#.T59o9HCm_-g.email Ashley’s note: Love, Marriage and Babies (and a cat) May 14, 2012 This just a quick update on life to let everyone know we're still alive and kicking. You'll notice that cancer isn't mentioned in the title. This is simply because we have nothing new to share on that front. Dan had a couple weeks in which he wasn't feeling good, but it looks like that may have been related to a new medication that has since been stopped. Now, we just keep watching and waiting until the next CT in June. In the "love" news, our best friends Lisa and Andrew recently got engaged with a wedding set for November in the Wine Country. Lisa and I have been friends since the 3rd grade, so it feels like my sister is getting married! We've also known Andrew since our freshman year at Biola, and he was in our wedding. My goodness, are we excited! And, our friends Laura and Brian got engaged, too. They'll be getting hitched this summer. This will certainly be a memorable year! In the "marriage" news, Dan's sister Jessica just became Jessica McBride. Jes and Josh got married this past weekend up in Lodi at a very unique and beautiful wedding. The entire event screamed "Jes and Josh" and they looked fantastically happy. They are headed off to Iceland for their honeymoon today. Now, Dan and I can start bothering them for a baby...well, we'll give them a few months ;) Also, my family was invited to the wedding, so I was able to hug my parents and brother for the first time since December. It was also the first Mother's Day that all my mom's kids were in the same place with her for almost 5 years! It was very sweet and way too short. We'll be looking forward to another visit from my family in June for my dad's graduation with his BA from The King's College. So excited! Finally, in the "babies" news, a lot of craziness has been happening. I'm taking far more meds than I'd like, but hopefully they will help us conceive anytime now. We had been working under the assumption that Dan's chemo treatments were to blame for our current infertility issues...but he is very close to normal! I, however, am the one to blame for things being so tricky :( It turns out that I failed my glucose tolerance test because I have insulin intolerance. This is different than diabetes in that my body just makes a ton of insulin, but my cells won't use it properly so my blood sugar takes longer to normalize. This elevated insulin and glucose ratio throws off other hormones which has essentially kept me from ovulating for Lord knows how long. No ovulating means no babies. Because of this, the doctor started me on metformin to balance the ratios and bring my levels to normal. Also, I have had to change my diet around a lot. No white carbs, lots of fruits/veggies and protein, no caffeine...it's been "fun". Dan has been AMAZING about helping me stick to this diet because I get really sick if I don't. Many women  begin to ovulate normally just with taking the metformin, but the doctor wanted to throw a couple more punches. After some more investigation, the insulin resistance is part of a syndrome called PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome) which is the most common reason in women my age for infertility. As one can probably guess from the name, I also end up getting pretty large and painful cysts on my ovaries. When the ovaries occur we have to put fertility treatment on hold for a month while a different medicine shrinks them. This has already happened once and is very frustrating. (Yet, God knows what is happening in every cell of our bodies and knows the exact perfect timing of every need. Even if that means, we wait a long time for a baby or we never have one at all. As painful as that thought is, I trust that God has a perfect reason for His will and actions.) My most recent cyst is gone (yay!) and I've added 3 new meds to my daily cocktail of drugs. The next few weeks (or months) will involve a lot of doctor appointments and waiting and ultrasounds and waiting and praying and hoping and waiting and praying some more. Dan and I are really praying that we are able to conceive with just medications helping us, so that we don't have to move to more invasive technologies. We would appreciate your prayers in this, too! Oh, and the last bit of our update: a cat! We made the decision to get Toulouse a new friend to help him be less lonely and crazy. We are still holding out on whether or not this has actually worked, but it has been very entertaining. The new kitty is named Fleur de Lis (Dan's choice to keep with the "cats are French" notion in our home). She is 1.5 years old, very small, very spunky and very loud. She talks all the time. Poor Toulouse. Prayer Requests: * Keep the cancer away! * Safe travels for Jes and Josh * Good timing, successful meds and God's hand in helping us in the baby-making * A quick recovery for Dan's hip surgery with NO COMPLICATIONS Remaining at peace in God's will :)  You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you, because he trusts in you.  Trust in the LORD forever, for the LORD GOD is an everlasting rock. Isaiah 26:3-4