Mom and Dad in their new home

October was a very busy month as Mom and Dad Dodds made the huge move from Palm Springs, CA to the Oklahoma City area. All three of us kids did all we could to help facilitate this move and they are now nicely settled into a lovely Christian Retirement Community called Tealridge. Here they are in the lobby of the facility, each with their matching walkers!!

They have a very nice one bedroom apartment overlooking a parklike setting. Their family room furniture fit perfectly into the small living room and they're really quite comfortable.

All three meals each day are served in a lovely dining room, however if they prefer to eat alone in their apt every so often, they can go down and bring their meal back and eat at their own little table surrounded by pictures of all the family!!

My sister Barb's two sons and their families live very close by and frequently come by to visit. Here are most of us enjoying a fabulous Sunday brunch in the Tealridge dining room. Barb and her husband Buddy are having a home built nearby as well and although they won't be living there permanently until they retire in a couple of years, they do plan to spend one week out of every month in OK, which is four hours east of Perryton, TX where they've lived for many years.

Barb and I stayed in the area for about a week after Mom and Dad arrived and then I flew to Palm Springs to see that everything was cleared out of their home. We're hoping and praying that it will sell soon.

Jim has already visited Mom and Dad in OK and plans another visit in late December. All of us are quite impressed with Tealridge and look forward to many trips in the near future.

From Palm Springs, I flew to Calgary to join Bob at Ambrose University College (formerly CBC/CTS of Regina, where we served for so many years). We were there for the installation of their new president and our good friend Gordon Smith. It was a wonderful few days of reconnecting with so many former colleagues and friends and we were so encouraged to see the growth and expansion of that campus and its vision for the future.

I thought that by the time I got home I would have missed the fall colours, but the trees in our courtyard were still ablaze with deep reds and oranges.

Immediately upon our arrival home in early November, Vi and Bart visited us from Edmonton. Here we are celebrating Bart's October birthday a little bit late.

Bob has also had two trips in the past couple of weeks to conduct board workshops--in both Toronto and this very weekend he's in Quesnel, BC. These are very short trips due to his need for dialysis, but we're SO grateful to God that he's been feeling well enough to be involved in this way.

He completed his second full round of chemo at the end of October and will have a rest from treatment until there are indications that the cancer is advancing. Increased pain and also a rise in the "tumour markers" in his blood would trigger concern. But for now we are full of thanks to the Lord. His doctors are very happy that he's doing so well, and somewhat confounded by it, but we know that with God, all things are possible!!

Our daughter-in-law Kim will have her final herceptin treatment on Friday and she's looking so forward to the end of this chapter of her life. She began chemo last year just two days before Christmas, so it's been quite a year. She and Tim are hosting Christmas once again this year and I know that there will be extra rejoicing as we all gather together.

The six cousins are already counting the days until they see one another. And of course Grammy and Papa are counting the days too!!!