A day in the life....

I haven't written since our trip to Barcelona in August. Not because "I didn't want to", but rather because things have been very crazy since our return. We returned from Barcelona on a Monday morning, and on Thursday morning my mom told me that she was diagnosed with a rare blood disorder called "Primary Amyloidosis" and that she would need to meet with a Hematology-Oncologist (blood cancer doctor). From that moment, my life feels like it's been on a long roller coaster ride, going very quickly down hill. I flew to Florida a week later, to go to the Mayo Clinic (in Jacksonville) wiht my parents, where they would receive a 2nd opinion. The doctor confirmed the Amyloid diagnosis, and then added an additional diagnosis, Multiple Myeloma. The cancers are very rare, and it already has started to affect her kidney function. The only way to stop the damage to the kidneys, and to stop the production of the amyloids, is to get a Stem Cell Transplant, using her own stem cells. She would need high dose chemo, followed by a stem cell transplant and 6-8 weeks in Jacksonville, FL - hours away from their home.

I returned home, to Germany, after 2 weeks in Florida, and began making preparations to return to Florida agian, 3 weeks later, to help my mom get through her chemo and transplant process.

I write this from a rental apartment in Jacksonville that we have, 4 miles from the Mayo Clinic, where my mom was admitted yesterday. She received her first round of chemo today, and is doing very well.

I am updating her treatment progress on a Caring Bridge website, and fear I won't be able to keep up on 2 websites. So, if you'd like to keep up on the latest Wieman adventures and to learn about my mom's treatment progress and daily prayer requests, please visit: https://www.caringbridge.org/visit/journeywithgrace

I look forward to getting back here and posting some more fun trips, and not my mom's cancer treatment. Unfortunately, for now, this is the adventure God has placed me and my family on, and I will go through it with my head held high, and Jesus at my side (well, okay, he'll be carrying me through alot of it)!

WOW! I realized the other day that I have done a poor job at updating our blog! I have had lots to post, but have found that “time” has gotten its hold on me, and is quickly ticking away. I can hardly believe that it is almost September. This is a poor excuse, but I’m going to try and do better from here forward.

So, I will need to back track a bit….at the end of July we returned to our home – which is indeed CATERPILLAR FREE!!!! We moved back in with great hesitation not knowing if the cleaning job the German Hazmat team did was good enough, but it indeed was. No one has broken out in any new rashes, and now caterpillar season is officially over!!! We can say this adventure is DONE – until the new season in the spring. We’re told by our housing office that post will come by our home at the end of April to “treat” our trees, which will keep the caterpillars from making their nests in the first place….so, I guess rather than being “done”, I should say “it’s done for now”!

Soon after our return home we received our household goods shipment, which meant A LOT of boxes to unpack! It took me longer to get the house unpacked and organized, and in ways I’m still “working” on it, but the main living and sleeping areas are complete – praise God! The basement is another story, but we continue chip away at it a little each day.

In the midst of our household goods arriving, our neighbors moved in. Since we knew them when we were in DC (we stayed at their house the week before we moved out here), it’s been great getting together with them, playing with their little ones, and of course getting my “baby fix”!

Whew, I realize as I type this, that all of the above happened within 5 days of each other, so the end of July was quite busy!

As we rolled into August, we have enjoyed some time at the schwimbad (pool), the kids playing with the neighborhood kids, and watching Rebecca FINALLY interact with the German neighbors that lives on our cul-de-sac. For our first 8 weeks here she wouldn’t even go near them, because she was scared of them not speaking English. Well, they still don’t speak any English, but apparently bicycles cross cultural boundaries, because once she had her bike delivered, as soon as they were riding in the cul-de-sac she went out and joined them….and the is history. The kids are 5 and 7, so perfect ages for her. She’s picking up on some German words already, but has learned a lot of non-verbal communication – a great skill to know, in my opinion.

During the weekend of August 13-16th, we took our “big trip” of the month to Barcelona, Spain. We managed to find airline tickets for only 14 euro round trip (per person), which is about $22. WHAT A STEAL!!! We rented a 3 bedroom apartment, and had a glorious 4 day weekend. Our neighbor, Sue Brown, who is Tim’s mom, lives with them, so she joined our weekend adventure. “Nana” was a great addition, fun and easy to travel with. Needless to say, I was a little worried about what Nana would think traveling “Wieman style”, filled with crazy and unknown adventures, but I am happy to report the weekend was awesome, and we think that Sue will join us on more trips in the future!

Introducing "Nana" Sue

We had to wake up at 2:30 am, since our flight left at 6am, and the airport is 1.5 hours away, but it was worth it. We arrived in Barcelona at our hotel by 10 am, had some “lunch” while we waited for the apartment to be finished cleaning, and were able to enjoy our first day with a full day of sight-seeing! Barcelona is a beautiful city, filled with rich history. From our windows we could see the Sagrada Familia (Holy Family) church, with its majestic castle appearance. As we walked through the city, we saw beautiful art and culture, historic buildings and were please by the kindness of everyone. Then came the beach….oh, excuse me, “the sea” as the locals call it! :) I had never been to the Mediterranean Sea before, but it is just beautiful! The water is crystal clear, the sand in most areas is white and soft, and the waves are not overbearing, but rather just right for “playing in”. The kids enjoy the beach, so this became a highlight of our trip. Each day, we’d do some sightseeing, go to the beach for a few hours, then return back to the apartment via a new route to see more of the city, have dinner and get back to the apartment by 9pm, to kick our feet up a little bit and prepare for the next day.

The highlight for Samantha was going to the 1992 Olympic Park, and seeing where Mary Lou Retton scored perfect 10’s! We managed to go into the Olympic Museum which showed all of Olympic history highlights, including video screens that we could sit at and look up events based on venue, sport or even the Olympian. Samantha has now seem ALL of the gymnastics footage (from all of the winners), since women joined the Olympic sports! :) We also saw where the opening ceremonies were held, at the track and field venue, and walked to see the Olympic torch.

The Olympic park is quite a walking distance from downtown Barcelona, so we took a Fenicular up the side of the mountain to it, which was awesome. If I hadn’t watched Amazing Race I wouldn’t have known what the Fenicular was, but in essence, it’s a “cable type car” that goes up the side of the mountain. VERY COOL!

This is the fenicular "station"

This is the view from the fenicular

To get off the mountain we could’ve taken the Fenicular down and caught the metro train to the center of Barcelona again, but instead we took a ride on the cable cars, over the Barcelona sea port, where we were high above all the cruise ships, and had a glorious view of the city. It was while waiting in the line for 40 minutes, that we realized (yet again) how small of a world we actually live in. The people in front of us were from Boston, and after talking to them for a little bit we realized that they were originally from Minnesota, very close to where Jason grew up, and their youngest daughter is going to be a freshman in high school and wants to go to West Point!! She and Alex hit it off, and are thrilled to know they may actually “know” someone when they go to West Point in 4 years. They have connected via Facebook already – what an awesome world we live in!

Our cable car

VIEWS FROM THE CABLE CAR

I leave you with these pictures, and hope you are able to enjoy Barcelona along with us. We pray taht you are able to take advantage of the fact that we’re out here, and use us as a “hub” for your travel adventures, in the future!