Our world now.....

Sorry it has taken over a week for a post but I think the sickness is finally gone in the family. Greg is back to 100% and so is James(at least today) and Adrianne and I remained well. This week we have shifted our focus to potty training. We are not there yet but with your prayers and our persistence we will be victorious! Here is a funny picture with James and his Diego underwear!


As always, thanks for praying and keeping up with us!

Quick update

Just wanted to give you a quick update on what is happening in our house. Thank you for your prayers concerning James and the flu/steroids. After Thursday night, James didn't run anymore fever. yesterday I had to take him back to MDA for them to draw blood because the culture they took last week grew some bacteria. Judging by the fact that he hasn't run fever, MDA thought the growth was from outside contamination but nonetheless they wanted more blood to make sure. Sometime between meeting friends for lunch and leaving to go to the hospital, James right eardrum ruptured again! So it was a good thing we were going there in the first place so they could check him out. They put us on antibiotics again and we are suppose to recheck in 2 weeks. Meanwhile Greg is feeling awful and has been in bed since last night. He tested negative for the flu but the doctor told him it could be the beginning. We could use your prayers--for James ear and continued health, for Greg to feel better soon, for Adrianne and I to stay well, and my middle sister who is having a baby today (health for her and the baby). Thanks for keeping up with us!

The NEW Normal

Joy has been quite the trooper the last few days I have been out of town. It seems that when there is a holiday or one of us is out of town, the blessed fever pounces on us. Just today, MDA called to say that James tested positive for the flu. We are all on Tamiflu and will hopefully make it through relatively unscathed.

As Joy and I were talking today, this turn of events truly represents our "normal" at this stage of our life. I think that God has put on both of our hearts that things are not as they are intended to be. One, James has leukemia. Two, he's going to get sick more often than most kids because his immune system is compromised from all the poison we are pumping into his body. Three, we will have frequent trips to the hospital. This is our "normal." I am not sure why it took us 1.5 years to accept this "normal," but we are at a place of acceptance today. God is sovereign. God is love. God is always with us despite our crummy circumstances. There's a strange kind of peace in that. I know that we aren't immune from feeling frustrated or overwhelmed. That will come again in due time. TODAY, we feel the peace of the Lord. That is good. Thank you for continuing to pray for us and James' daily healing.

Spoke too soon..

OK, so I spoke to soon. Yesterday was our clinic day and I got both kids ready and out the door to my sis and law's house to drop Adrianne and meet my father in law. Greg has been out of town for the last couple of days so yesterday was a challenge to get it all done. Anyway, for the last couple of days James has developed a cough and runny nose(shocker). So we are headed to the clinic at 7:45 and around 8:10 we get onto I45 and at the Rayford/Sawdust exit James throws up everywhere. Of Course, I hadn't packed a change of clothes or brought a towel. My father in law stops at the HEB, and we get wipes, trash bags, and paper towels. I call the clinic and tell them we are going to be late and then we head to the the Super Target at Cypresswood. I go in there and buy James 2 sets of clothes and a pair of shoes and I buy myself another jacket(b/c he threw up on me too). We finally get to the clinic and his counts look great and he seems to be feeling fine. We had to go for an anesthesia consult because he is getting an LP next month. We get to the place at 1:00 and we walk out to go get our car at 4:00. We get back to the house around 6:00. I tried to give him his 2nd dose of steroids and he spits it everywhere so needless to say I am at my wits end!

I put the kids to bed at 8 and James wakes up all night long. I go check on him at 12:30am and he is running fever. This morning his fever climbed to 102 and I called the clinic and they wanted to see him again. So James, Adrianne, I packed the car, we dropped Adrianne at my sis in law's, and we headed back to MDA. They took some more blood and gave him Tylenol and sent us home. They are going to call and let us know his counts and if there is an infection at his port site. I will keep you posted on how he is doing. Please continue to pray for us!

We're doing good...

It has been a while since we blogged and I wanted to let all our faithful readers and prayer warriors that things are going good. We go to the clinic tomorrow and James starts his 5 days of steroids. I also wanted to let you know that we have finally conquered the sleep battle. James has slept in his bed for 6 nights in a row without getting up. He still wakes up in the night and cries but he stays in his bed and falls back to sleep!!! Yeah!!! I will try to be diligent and update tomorrow after our visit. Thanks again for keeping up with us!

Remission Run

Yesterday we had the opportunity to participate in the Bill Crews Remission Run. To celebrate FIVE years of remission, the Crews family and their friends hosted the race to celebrate health & life, to raise awareness about lymphoma and other cancers. Dana Sue, Bill's wife, was one of my coaches for the half marathon and she really wanted James to be a part of this celebration. We signed up for the Family 1 mile walk. Greg and I also had the opportunity to register on the bone marrow registry. Since cancer is so close to home, we want to do our part to raise awareness and be a part of finding a cure for this life altering disease!

Enjoy the pictures from the day....
James with Bill Crews

James and Adrianne after the race with their finisher medals
This is a picture of all the survivors that were present at the race. James was the youngest.