February 21, 2010 10:30 PM It's here!!!

What a day!

I am really speechless! Kind of ironic since I did the sermon at 2 church services and then spoke at our party afterwards. But it's true! The number of you who showed up for the party was tremendous and, yet, there were a number of you who didn't make it for one reason or another which would have pushed the number that was close to 100 over the top. A few people said that if they gathered all their friends together it wouldn't have come near to the number of people who were there.

I know that we have a lot of friends and acquaintances but we kind of consider that our situation is the norm and, I guess, maybe we shouldn't. To be sure, we certainly count each and every one of you as a blessing in our life.

Fortunately, my talk went over well at both services. The story(our story) is a gripping one because it is so unique and people want to hear it so it is easy to tell. To be so blessed as to come through all of this so unscathed is not the norm by any means. And to be finally able to communicate that to so many others was removing a burden from me because it had been bottled up inside for so long - it had to get out.

I want to thank those of you who made donations in my name to my church or the Bone Marrow Foundation. I appreciate it and I know that the organizations do also. I want to thank all who worked so hard to make it happen - especially my wife, Nancy. It was a lot of hard work - even though it was a work of love.

But there was one thing today that I found to be very moving and humbling. Remember that I commented to you the other day about this friend of ours who really wanted to be at the church today didn't make it because she passed away of leukemia on Friday. She had asked me beforehand that if she didn't make it to the church could I please forward her a copy of my talk. Obviously, I would gladly have done so. With her passing, I thought that that was no longer an issue. I was wrong!

Between services, her husband cornered me and asked if he could have a copy of the talk so that she could be buried with it. As I write this, I still have tears in my eyes. I gave him the actual copy that I used this morning when I went to the funeral home during calling hours tonight. At the funeral home her family said to me that she had said to them so many times that she wanted to be at the celebration today. I am sure that she was there in spirit but she was missed by all in body.

Lastly, the weekend of celebration has one more event before it concludes and that is the TV interview tomorrow afternoon at 3:00. I am much more nervous about that than I ever was about giving my talk - especially since I have never been on television before and I had already done the sermon a few years ago.

In life, we all need to experience new things...

Bob