See the balloon our neighbor Lillian brought Vernon last Sunday afternoon? Perfect for his first anniversary with one candle. I didn't get this picture until today, though. He is sitting in the recliner after I trimmed his hair.

We had a great time in Gainesville for the biopsy on Tuesday. It started Monday evening as we met Rollin and Kandi for dinner. Rollin was transplanted five days after Vernon and was scheduled for biopsy the next morning like Vernon. We hadn't seen them since the reunion in early August. They live in Miami so we were glad to be scheduled at the same time. Two other patients had biopsies with Vernon, Cookie and Dave, so we got to be with them Tuesday morning before and after the procedure. Chuck, transplanted three days after Vernon, had a doctor appointment at the hospital so we got to see him and have lunch together after the three of us visited some patients/friends on the 5th floor. We hadn't seen Chuck for two months and enjoyed time with him. We returned to the hospital for a couple more hours of visiting patients and the nurses before meeting our friends John & Lynne for a light dinner. Then we spent one more hour at the hospital visiting the night nurses in CICU. The enthusiastic and positive response Vernon receives from them is great medicine. And they appreciate the Dove chocolates he offers. We overheard one nurse telling two others that he'd really like some pretzels but when Vernon offered him some chocolate he was very happy. So it was 9:30 PM when we left Gainesville and 11:30 PM when we arrived home. We thanked the Lord for another safe trip there and back.

Wednesday we received really great news from his biopsy. This was the third biopsy in the six months since he’s been off Prednisone and all three biopsies he's had in that time were zero (no rejection). So that fact shows that the heart he received is a very good match for his body, otherwise his body would show some rejection when off Prednisone. We know he will stay on the other two steroids the rest of his life but it is wonderful that he doesn't have to take this one. We are thrilled to learn his heart is a good match, too. He will not have another biopsy for a whole year unless a problem develops.

On the home front, other good news is we were able to replace our really old washer and dryer yesterday. They were here when we moved into the house 18 years ago and a repair tag dated 5/81 was found attached to the washer. Just Friday the washer stopped agitating and spinning and Vernon said he couldn’t fix it. Though our dryer still worked, it sounded like a freight train. Saturday morning our neighbors two doors down had their washer and dryer for sale in their driveway for $100 each. They’d received newer ones so wanted to pass on what they had to someone else. I was very thankful I didn’t have to shop anywhere and could get them so quickly. Plus the price was great. I did a load last night and they worked just fine. So I have been saying, “Thank you, Lord.”