19 Feb 2017
Already only 9 days until the end of February as I type this! How did that happen? As the old saying goes, time goes faster as we get older...I believe it! Spring festival has come and gone but we did have an even bigger event in the Miller family and that was Rod turning 70! Yes, he is 13 years older than Sarah and this was a big milestone for us. If you've read this blog much over the years, you know that Rod has had some health challenges, specifically with prostate cancer actually first diagnosed in 2006. At that time, the probability curves showed us that if he lived 10 years, he had a good chance to die With prostate cancer and not From it. He had radiation treatment in early 2007 and all seemed to be OK. Then in 2013 the PSA started going up and he had alot of symptoms, so through a long series of events, after being told it was inoperable, in 2014 he was led to get treatment at a Alternative medical treatment clinic in Myrtle Beach, SC and then more treatment in Beijing, China and this started a journey on a new lifestyle of living that resulted in Rod becoming a vegetarian and losing about 50 pounds. In early 2016, the symptoms returned and he went to HongKong for some diagnostic tests and it confirmed that the cancer was still there, has spread locally, surgery still not an option and the best thing he could do was to continue his lifestyle changes and go on hormone treatments to keep the PSA down through hormones. Every time, he has aches and pains, we both wonder has the cancer spread, every PSA test we look to see the level, every hormone shot and it's side affects all bring with them yet more rides on the emotional roller coaster of living with cancer. Last week, he had a CT scan and I'm happy to report that it has not spread to any major organ! He still has it, it is still growing, it is not operable, and he still follows his vegetarian lifestyle, still exercises and takes alot of vitamins and mineral supplements , still returns to Myrtle Beach clinic each year to treat it every way he can.
We have no guarantees, so today, we live our life, continuing with the philosophy that we will not let cancer rule our lives. We live one day at a time and we strive to enjoy each day as if it were our last. With all of the busy times of work, it's sometimes easy to forget that...so I ask God to help me remember. Today, I Thank God for our health and I ask God to bless us with more years together!
On the actual day of Rod's birthday, I was on a team-building trip to Harbin, China (more on that later) with my management team at work, so I couldn't actually spend all day with him. The hotel staff brought him fruit and a cake and cards and gifts, our Chinese families brought him gifts and took him out to eat, I got him a little something and gave it to him when I got back from my trip. There were many well wishes from my Facebook account. Overall, I think he enjoyed his grand entrance to his 70's. Happy 70th Birthday Rodney! May we have many more together!
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| Rod in his new silk Chinese coat gift from our Chinese family holding the 70th birthday cake (12 Feb 2017) they got him |
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| The hotel fruit and cake with a certificate for his 70th birthday |
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| The 70th birthday cake |
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| Rod with the hotel staff with flowers, fruit, cake and songs! |
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| Rod with our chinese family for his 70th |
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| The close up of the 70th birthday cake |
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| Before the 70th birthday meal |
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| Caught in the act of having a piece of cake! Enjoy your special day Rod! |
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| The birthday meal, all vegetarian...they can do amazing things with eggs and soy tofu! |
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| Sarah's gift to Rod for his 70th...a throwback to our visit in Tibet |
One of the benefits of living in northern China is that it's not too far by high speed train to go to Harbin, where the international ice festival is held every year. This year, I actually went 2 times with 2 different teams and combined it with a visit to some tire dealers and wholesalers to help our team have a better connection with our customers.
The snow and ice festival is the annual big tourist event of Harbin and it really is something amazing to see! I've been there 3 times now and it never ceases to amaze. I think it's only in China!
Below are some pics from my visit to Harbin (Rod says he doesn't need to feel the cold..he's content to see my pictures!)
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| The central figure of the festival this year |
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| Sarah in below 0F Harbin |
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| Harbin has a big Russian influence in architecture. Sadly, the church behind me is now an architecture museum, no longer a functioning church. |
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| The size of the ice work is just huge! |
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| Ice and lights everywhere! |
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| Sarah taking a reindeer ride with one of the members of my team |
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| One of the ice castles from the inside |
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| Before it gets dark the lighting just appears to glow on the horizon..really nice@ |
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| Big blocks of ice made from water from the river (that is frozen solid 1/2 the year!). It's really clean! |
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| The snow cathedral |
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| Snow budda |
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| Ice bridge with Sarah below it |
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| One of the many ice sculptures |
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| Sarah in front of one of the snow sculptures...they are huge |
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| Snow cathedral at sunset |
The size of all of these snow and ice sculptures are really huge, I try to capture the scale with the pictures, but can't really do it! If it's not on your bucket list, I highly suggest to add it!
After Rod's birthday on the 12th , we had another lovely event of Valentine's day on the 14th!
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| To my Valentine! |
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| Rod and Sarah,Valentine's day 2017, Shenyang, China |
So that about does it for this installation of a very special February!
May God bless all of us and continue to give us many more days together on this earth.
Rod and Sarah Miller
