Guess what I finally was able to find my blog.  I'll be back later to do a real post.

As I sat down to write this post, on my desk is a index card with the verse,  Be strong and of a good courage: be not afraid neather be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with theee whithersoever thou goest.   Joshua 1:9   That means He is ever present, and I like that.

We brought Pop home from the hospital Thursday, June 12, 2008.  Since he has been home he has had some pain, but is getting stronger everyday.  Today he went outside for the first time and he did ok.

He goes back to the kidney specialist Monday June 23, 2008. he is also facing another surgery in about 6 weeks.  It is too soon to tell wheather there is permenant damage or not but the doctors think there may be.

I don't know what I would do without family also the prayers and encouagement from blog friends.

My oldest daughter (Robin) is with us now. She came the night of the 4th and is staying till the morning of the 30th.  She is from PA. and I know her family is sacrificing a lot for her to be here but they being sweet about it. They will never know how much it means.

All nine of the children were here at one time or the other.  My son-in -law from Oklahoma cleaned out the back fence row, mowed the lawn and installed an air-conditioner in the garage for us.  Pop is a person that likes to do things his way, himself. but he was thankful and releived when he found out what had been done.

Our one granddaughter is a sales rep for one of the big hotels, therefore she got us a big discount on the rooms we stayed in.  At one point we had 7 or 8 rooms rented. I give a great big thank you, I apperciate it more than words can say.

Mrs Darling along with 2 other daughters seen to it I got a talking machine, while we were in Boise.  My oldest son stayed with Pop at nights so I could get my rest. My second son (Ted) drove 2 1/2 hours to be here when we got home, in case we needed help getting Pop in the house.  Son #3 (Mart) bought Pop a beautiful bouquet of flowers in a vase that was a ceramic Ford pick-up.  Son #4 brought his family over. they live over 400 miles from here, as do most of the children, and when they went on a walk in th gardens around the hospital, the children brought back pine cones for grandpa.  The little 4 year old girl placed her neatly on the bed, the 2 year old boy threw his to grandpa. Our 4th daughter and her husband was ther to do whatever needed to be done and they lended me a lot of moral support.  They all was as kind as they could be, The children and the in-laws, I don't know what I would have done without them.   My 5th daughter and her husband brought their family of nine children down to the hospital and they sang some songs with with us, which was a blessing.

All in all we had a blessed time together, in spite of the fact it was a rather a sad time, wondering what each day would bring forth. 

I find it true and I found it true again these last couple weeks that truely "The Lord our God is with us withersoever we go." 

Pop was put in the hospital at Ontario. He was not doing very well, so Thursday, June 5, 2008.  he was transferred by ambulance to Boise (which is 50 miles away)

Pop, being Pop, in spite of his condition, waved to the grandchildren waiting in the hall to tell him goodby.  He has been in the hospital since and was supposed to come home tomorrow.  He had a lot of pain again tonight so I don't know for sure if tomorrow will see him at home.

He had complete kidney failure and they drained over 2 quarts of fluid that had backed up in his bladder that he couldn't eliminate.

In Boise they put in a couple of stints to help, but the one stint didn't do the job, so they put a hole through his back to his kidney and placed a catheter into his kidney so it could drain. At that time they found a big kidney stone that the doctor wants to remove when he gains more strength.  (in about 5 or 6 weeks)

When he went to the hospital the doctor told us that creatinine level of .8  to 1 is normal.  at a 7 they put a person on dialysis.  Pops was a 9. But thank God it has slowly come down to 4.08 and there's hope that it will come down further.

All I can ask you to do is keep praying.  God is keeping His arm around me, and giving me strength, although yesterday I have to admit I had a 12 hour "pity party" and God seemed very far away.

Can one get discouraged without feeling sorry for themselves?  It's when I focus on me, instead of my loving Father, that I think I can't make it.

I'm not throwing stones at anyone who has been discouraged, I'm not judging them by myself.  I don't know what they have been through.  I've walked some deep dark valleys in my time and so have some of my family.  I know that sometimes discouragement can be caused a chemical imbalance, but I am asking myself, do I get only get discouraged when I take my eyes off of Jesus?

I thank God for what He Has done so far, and I know He will walk with our family through this valley, also.

First let me say a great big thanks, and God's blessing to all those that resonded to my last post.  More than once it brought tears to my eyes when I realized that people were willing to pray for us from all over the U.S.

We just got back from the doctor.

Pop was feeling bad enough that he consented to let his #5 daughter (Valerie) go with us to the doctor.

There was only one problem with this..... just before we left, daughter #4 called and asked.  "Did you just get back home?"  for just a minute my mind went in all directions.....(Where had we went?... Is my mind failing me? ...  Did I forget where I went?)  All of a sudden it dawned on me ......  Valerie wasn't the olny one involved in this.  Our children were working against us (or for us), they had ganged together to get Val, to get Pop to the doctor.   It didn't help matters any when we got to the doctor and we said something about this, the nurse looked at Val and said, "Yes, it's almost as hard to raise parents as it is to raise teenagers, they won't listen to you"

I would say this. Since they didin't listen to us when they were teens, now it's our turn to not listen to them.

We went to a walk-in clinic and that doctor let us know there was reason for concern, and didn't think it was a good idea to wait for 2 weeks till we could get  in to see the other doctor again.

Pop's blood pressure was 159/107 (he had just taken a pill a couple hours before)

The doctor did an EKG and gave him another pill to take, a pill for his headaches, and sent us home telling us to se our regular doctor tomorrow morning (in the same clinic)  So tomorrow we have an appointment at 10am to see our doctor.  Pop came home, took pills and went to bed.

I don't know what I'd do without my blogging friend to fill my day while Pop is in bed.  Thanks you all, and God bless you all.  Please, keep praying.