For about a month, I prayed my daughter would not have a serious medical condition involving her heart. Her Dad and I, and her pediatrician, were alarmed at the obvious and frequent palpitations, the chest pain, and the heart rate that wavered rapidly between 124, and 84. And so, Em was referred to a pediatric cardiologist. She had an echocardiogram scheduled the same day as her appointment.

When we saw the doctor, we learned that Em has costochondritis. It sounds horrible, and it is horribly painful, but it doesn’t involve her heart and isn’t dangerous. It’s inflammation of the cartilage in the ribcage, and over time, it will resolve.

So that was great news.

This week, we received the results of the holter monitor. It showed no palpitations, no fluctuating pulse rate, no problem!

While the inclination is to think “whew! It wasn’t her heart after all,” the truth is that, according to James 1:17a~Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. (NLT) It turned out that her heart is fine, but it wasn’t fine, and I’m thanking God for making it good and perfect.

I was struck this week for the plot to book 6 in the House of Bannerman series. This plot replaced the previous plot for book 6, which upon reflection, I decided to scrap. This is sooo much better! All I’ll say for now, is that the Bannermans are going to England to meet the descendants of the Bannerman who did not emigrate along with the first Delevan Bannerman (not to be confused with Miles’s older brother, who was the last). This will include a historical aspect as “Miles” and “Stoncastle Inn” do. The tentative title is “Ashes of Roses.”

I’m struggling to finish “Failure to Engage,” because it’s been so busy around here! I write a sentence at a time some days… how would one do otherwise? What I mean, is that I write a sentence and then I’m interrupted. I come back, I write a sentence, and so on. It is on page 265. I hope to increase that number before nightfall. I no longer expect it to reach the length of “Terms of Engagement,” but… that doesn’t mean it won’t.

“Lochlan Museum” is waiting to be written, and has been, since last year. I looked over my notes today, and felt such an urge to start writing it. The story involves a girl named Claire, a guy named Ryan, a museum, and… lots of other things, including a mystery, of course. But I’m going to stick to “Failure,” and finish it before I start another novel. Expect both books sometime in 2017.

In the meantime, happy reading!