Oxford 5k, Meeting 1st Grand baby, Visit with Nate & Rachael

Yesterday was a special day that will be forever etched in our memories. We felt the incredible support from our local community at our annual 5k that was dedicated to Larry this year. We then made the three hour drive to Provo where Larry was finally able to meet his first grand baby, Adilynn Christine Rose. In the evening we had a wonderful visit with some of our dearest friends, Nate & Rachael Harris. Larry first met Nate 28 years ago while servings as a missionary in the Philadelphia, PA mission.

Not only did it warm our hearts deeply to see how many people had come out to support our family, but it was also touching to see all of the purple shirts. Purple is the pancreatic cancer color. The sense of community that we felt yesterday is a large part of what has helped sustain our family through the incredible trials we are facing and it give us the hope and courage to keep pressing forward.

Ben told me the night before that he was going to ride a horse for the 5k. I really didn't believe him until we got down there the next morning and the Westover's showed up with their horses. It was so fun to see everyone participating in the 5k in the ways that they were able. We had runners, walkers, bikers, strollers, a scooter, and the horses!

When Larry recently bore his testimony, he shared one of our favorite family sayings--"Everyday in Every way We Get a Little Better!". Our sweet friend, Katie, remembered this and made a poster with it on it for the 5k. I think it is a perfect motto to help us as we embark on this cancer healing journey and I have brought the poster with me to hang in Larry's hospital room while he is at the treatment center. 

We are so grateful to all of the people who donated their time and money to create such a wonderful and inspiring event. We had an incredible sound system, fun decorations, delicious breakfast, an awesome raffle, fun and inspiring sayings along the 5k route, t-shirts, and an awesome crew to register the participants and record their times. Everything was so perfect right down to the cute little stickers with Larry's name on them. 

After returning home from the 5k at about 10:00 we had a little siesta and then finished our packing for our trip to Mexico. Yesterday's destination point was Provo, UT where Larry was finally able to meet his first grand baby! The kids were pretty excited to meet Adilynn (Addie) also. We also had one of Larry's favorite mission companions in the Philadelphia, PA mission, Nate Harris and his wife, Rachael, join us for dinner. Nate and Larry have been friends for 28 years now and so much has changed during that time. Between us we now have thirteen children, two sets of twins, several businesses have been started, a wealth of knowledge gained through a lot of trials and experiences, and most importantly we are still strong in the gospel and our love and devotion to Jesus Christ. We are so grateful for the time that we had to spend together and we were all very sad when the night had to come to an end.

We spent the night at Larry's brother, Lyle's house, tomorrow night we will spend in Las Vegas with another Elder from Larry's mission who is now an estate attorney and will be helping us update our estate information on Monday morning. Monday we will drive to his Aunt Clarissa's house where we will stay the night and prepare for entering the Hope4Cancer clinic early Tuesday morning. We are so excited for this opportunity we have to go to Mexico and receive treatments for Larry's cancer. They have a 50+ success rate of having people with stage IV pancreatic cancer make it past two years. God willing, we hope to be among those statistics. We have seen so many miracles in our lives and have the faith that we will continue to see miracles.