Sad News, and happy news

So as many of you probably know, and some of you probably don't, Jason is student teaching this semester. He's really enjoying it. But it means a full semester of being totally and completely broke. He doesn't have any free time to work until Dec. This couldn't be happening at a worse time. And I will tell you why.

Jason's Grandfather in Illinois (who sealed us in the Temple) has been in the hospital for almost 4 months now. He went in for a simple surgery to have a growth removed, and its just been one complication after another, to now they are saying he could go any day. He has developed that horrible staff infection called MRSA. They signed a DNR (Do Not Resuscitate) the other day.
That's bad news #1. Here's bad news #2.

Jason's sister in Illinois about a month ago started having really bad headaches that would make her sick, and she started seeing double. So they took her in for some tests and an MRI and all that. They found a tumor on her brainstem. The doctor said it was cancer and inoperable. So then she went to another doctor, and he did a spinal tap and said it wasn't cancer, but there is a growth and they don't know what it is. Some what of a relief. So she went home on some steroids, and after a week started having symptoms again, and getting worse. So they decided to do a biopsy. That meant a 6 hour surgery. When they got the results back from that, we all found out that it was indeed cancer, and was a Grade-4 Glioblastoma (i think thats what it was called) on her brainstem, and is inoperable. This is 3 weeks after she was first told she didn't have cancer. So after all that waisted time, she will finally start Chemo and radiation next week. And all this time, Jason and I have been feeling completely helpless all the way out here. All we can do is pray, and fast.

Here comes the good news part...
So we told my family what was going on, and how we were just sad we couldn't get out there before the semester ends, etc. My sister in law Kristi asked if we wanted to have a family fast this weekend. We thought that was an excellent idea. So we all fasted. We went to church, paid our tithing (which i now have a much stronger testimony of...but that's another story). Anyway, long story short, we were over at my parents house playing Boggle (don't laugh at us word nerds, it was a blast!) and my mom came out of her room with an envelope for us. Jason opened it, and out spills a huge wad of cash. My brother and his wife and my parents paid for us both to fly out to see Jason's family. We both just cried like babies. And as luck would have it, UEA weekend is in a month. So we are flying out in October. We wish it could be sooner, but if we didn't go then, we probably wouldn't be going till after the new year. We can't believe what an awesome family we've been blessed with.
I'm 100% positive this is a blessing of paying tithing. If we hadn't been doing that, we could have flown out there a long time ago. But we pay every month, and just prayed that we'd --1) make it through the semester without going into too much debt, and 2) find a way to visit family.
PAY YOUR TITHING PEOPLE.

So anyway, we called Jason's parents last night and told them what happened and they both started to cry.

And I better quit while I'm ahead, cause I'm tearing up and my contacts are all sorts off messed up!
So keep his sister in your prayers for us, we still don't know the full extent of things, like if she's been given any sort of timeline. We've been reading up, and apparently its not that great.
We will post updates as we get them.