5:00 AM... The alarm is blasting in my ear. As the fog blows off my mind I remember why it is going off and start to pry my self loose from the pillow. Got to get the kids ready to go.
5:15 AM... Take the kids off to stay with a friend for the day. Back to the house to load Daisy up with her overnight bag. Grab my day pack.
5:35 AM... We're off to the hospital. Daisy is going in to remove a potentially cancerous tumor on her thyroid.
6:00 AM... Daisy gets checked in and comfortable, or as comfortable as one can be in a backless flannel smock and a 2 inch garden hose stuck in your arm. The nurse flutters around like a butterfly getting everything in it's proper place. A quick meet up with the doctor and anesthesiologist and...
7:15 AM... They wheel her off to the operating room for two hours of cutting and poking and snipping...
As I settle in for the three hour wait for her to awaken from the anesthetic my mind is wandering back in time, remembering all the things we have been through together and how it all began.
Life, it seems to me, is a series of new beginnings. Moments in time that define and shape who we are. When we pass one of these defining moments we are changed, we become a different person in often subtle but sometimes dramatic ways.
Our time together began with one of those moments, a decision that set my course and put my heart in a direction that led me unwavering into a new and amazing world.
Before Daisy and I met I was a single father with three children at home. This had been my lot for 5 years. It was January of 2004 that I made the choice. I chose to look to the Philippines, the land of my nativity, to search for someone to fill the empty space in my heart.
The actual 'process' of making this choice was pretty simple, I went to the most popular Philippine dating site and opened an account. What I did not realize was how quickly my life's course would change. Twenty four hours... that is how long it took for Daisy to find my new profile and send off an email introducing herself and inquiring if I would like to email with her. After reading her online profile I answered her email and, just like that... nothing would ever be the same!
It did not take long to know that She was someone very special, someone whose life I wanted to be a part of. We quickly moved from email to online chat to online voice chat. and within a few days we were spending several hours every day chatting on our computers. I did not know it yet, but my life would never be the same after that.
Our next 'Moment' came in July of that same year when I returned to the Philippines for the first time since I had left there in 1960 as a six month old baby. My arrival in Manila was my first opportunity to see Daisy in person. You can video chat forever and not really see a person as they really are, and now I was actually there! And my sweet angel was waiting for me! We got our hotel arrangements made and went to the Manila LDS Temple as we had previously arranged. As we sat side by side through our first temple session together the course for the rest of my life (Our life) was set, and this time I recognised it in the moment it happened. Sitting in the Celestial room together I placed an engagement ring on her finger and suddenly Her life and My life became Our life, and we never looked back!
From July 2004 to May 2005 saw two more trips to the Philippines, each more amazing than the last. Our love grew stronger with every passing day, and My love for this special place and the wonderful people I met there grew as well. Finally after 14 months of chat and visits, the paperwork was finally complete and Daisy was able to come with me on the return flight to the US.
Again we met in the Temple, this time in Salt Lake City. Now we would make Eternal the bond that we had carefully built together. This moment did not change our direction, but rather reaffirmed it.
Many moments have followed in the ensuing years, some wonderful and some tragic, but each in it's own way shaping our future and forming in each of us abilities and strengths we did not know we could posses. As with every moment in our lives, each of the moments that come before serve to lead to, and prepare us for, the one we are experiencing now. Such is the case today as I wait for word from the doctor confirming the desired results of Her surgery. Each of us has been carefully prepared by a loving heavenly father for our respective roles today. Am I worried as I wait? Of course! But that is my job, to worry and watch over my Sweet Daisy. But even as I worry, I know that we are ready for whatever lies ahead for us. As always we will go, hand in hand, into Our Eternity, one moment at a time...
9:40 AM... Still waiting...
Postscript... 11:20 AM... The Doctor reports all is well. No Cancer in the preliminary tests. Daisy is resting peacfully in her room. Tomorrow, if all looks well, we go home and begin again...
