It has been a busy week, but a good one. We can say this, though...after 3 sore throats, 3 runny noses, a few nauseated tummies, one out of order hand, several times catching Eva with marker on her face (only later to find that she had opened the zipper of her jammies and shoved markers in and pulled them out when "convenient", countless sleepless nights with musical beds, one giant cold sore, one VERY low blood count on our little girl, and countless disinfectings of the house to keep Grace healthy...we look the picture of dysfunction. But, we're pretty happy-all in all. It's humorous to see us in all our craziness! It would make for a good comedy show.
Grace had her doctor's appointment on Wednesday and her counts are clear down to 300, from 1, 400 last week, so we'll be around house still until they climb again. Her doctor thinks they could just bottom out, so we're praying that all the sickness that has been entangling our household doesn't get to Gracie or she'll end up back in the hospital. But, so far so good. On a VERY VERY happy note-she has almost made it through Delayed Intensification (only 2 weeks left and those two weeks won't see any chemo because it would send her to the hospital-her counts are just too low). We are so proud of her through all this struggle! It was a VERY hard 8 weeks, but we've almost made it. Now on to Interim Maintenance (8 weeks) and into Maintenance (2 years).
As far as the kids, well-they're funny, resilient, and keeping us very busy. Grace is currently into singing funny songs all over the house. She makes up her own lyrics to random tunes. We also caught her telling Tanner to "just grow up" tonight when he got grossed out looking at JR's finger stitches. I guess Cancer can really toughen the spirit! Tanner is very into setting up lego battles and SO into drawing Star Wars scenes. He is LOVING basketball and acting as JR's other arm lately. Eva has, well, got way too much planning going on in her head. She is dangerously perceptive. She can count to 20, sing the alphabet, say many of her shapes, and actually screams out "WAIT!" when she "borrows" my cell phone and I want it back. It's kind of got us scared for the future!
JR's sweet brother is a guy unlike any other. He's handsome and hilarious, a wickedly good dancer and has a heart that is SO tender. He is also totally adored in our household. In fact, Max was one of the first words each of our children could say. We love you Max! Thanks for the wonderful new hair do for Grace face. We love it, but more importantly, Grace LOVES it!
Brok is JR's sweet cousin. He is the sweetest kid and we adore him. This week, he decided to chop off his really awesome hair and trade it in for another fabulous hair cut in honor of Grace. Grace LOVED it! We're amazed at the supportive gesture. In fact, we think there are a lot of amazing, supportive people to do that for Grace!
Life is continuing to show us that it doesn't like a slow pace. JR had his surgery-and it went well, though he has 8-10 weeks of physical therapy for his hand, and he has a big "mit" covering his arm. Poor guy!
