Grace's Courage and Faith

For over two weeks Grace's day-to-day has consisted of needles, tests, machines, doctors, nurses, surgeons,  and procedures, accompanied by an unstoppable appetite, the scary thought of loosing her hair, the start of a brand new school, the fact that she cannot leave her room, missing her home, missing playing outside, and knowing that her body is very ill. Yet, she is continually cheerful, happy, and optimistic. That is not to say that she doesn't hate taking her medicine, or not want to be here, but in the end she does it and moves on. 

She looks at us, sucks it up, and does what she is asked to do.  Tonight a glimpse of her faith and determination was shown in a simple conversation we had over Indian food.  

While watching a movie Grace commented on how good a plate of food looked (see above referring to appetite) and I told her that the dish was an Indian dish and it was very good. We started talking about where I had tasted Indian food and I told her about these food carts in downtown Portland that have great food, but are a decent walk, and look a little scary-hygienically speaking.  I told her to trust me that they were very good and the Indian food she was looking at on TV tasted awesome. For some reason, although she was probably talking about the food I felt this overwhelming feeling that she was talking about more. I said to her "you should come with me next time and give it a try," she responded by sitting up on her hospital bed,  looking right at me and saying with a sweet, but exhausted smile, "I would go with you anywhere daddy."

My heart aches for Grace. We as adults know the details of her sickness, we understand the seriousness of cancer, and we appreciate how important all the tests, machines, and hospital hours are. Yet Grace, knowing she is sick, but not knowing the big picture goes with us anywhere. Trusting and having faith that the promises we have made to her about getting better are worth the suffering and discomfort. 

One again we would like to say thank you for all your thoughts, prayers, gifts, calls, comments, love, and friendship. 

Big Day

Gracie gets her second bone-marrow test and spinal tap at 3pm. We will update the blog when we hear more.

PARTAY!

What says PARTAY! more than pipe cleaners and sushi!

More hospital pics

Title by Grace "The big funny monkeys"

Who needs to be home when you have a mini skirt, an ipod, and your sis- your best friend

The medical world is in denial

Grace woke up this morning and the first thing she told me was that she figured it out. It is not a "bow and arrow test" it is a "bone marrow test." We were told today that it still looks like we are going to be here a week. This morning was hard for Grace and she really wants to get home, but we know that the doctors all want the best for her.

An old one, but a good one

Eva and I were watching old home movies today and this one is one of our favorites.

I guess the doctors just can't get enough of Grace, because they think she'll probably be here the rest of the week. Her fever is gone, her blood smears come up clean of bacteria now, but they are waiting on her numbers to go up (with her white and red cell count). So, for now-we'll be doing lots of drawing, games, and books!

SOPHISTICATION

Last night I (JR) had the great opportunity to stay with Ms. Grace for the night. Although the entire time was great there were a couple of things that stood out that I think all of you who know Grace will get a good laugh.

First, while speaking to the doctors this morning she requested a couple of condiments from home to make her food more enjoyable. The first was balsamic vinegar, her favorite dipping sauce. The second, red wine vinegar, to mix it up sometimes, and the third was Greek Seasoning, which she like to add to her turkey sandwiches. The doctor's looked at each other and one said "Grace you have very sophisticated tastes"- it is nice to hear that they know her so well.

Because Grace's taste buds have changed their mind on a couple of things, turkey sandwiches are her prime choice. She usually has 3-4 a day, sometimes one for breakfast , lunch, and dinner. Speaking of turkey sandwiches another one just magically showed up in our room, it was Grace's after lunch, lunch.

The second thing that happened was that Grace cuddled with a seeing-eye dog. She then decided to paint her toenails pink, so today during rounds her doctor's commented on how beautiful the dogs nails were as it visited different patients after visiting Grace.

We have not heard a definite date for Gracie to return home, but when we do will will post it. I asked her is she wanted to leave today, and she said she did, but didn't think we could pack up her room in just one day.