We are not alone

This was the first weekend without Nana. Boy what a difference a Nana makes. We dearly miss her encouragement and assistance, and we feel blessed to have had her be available as long as she was able. While feeling slightly overwhelmed, this weekend has proved to be okay. We have had a couple family walks around the neighborhood, run some errands to not-so-crowded places, kept up with household chores and entertained our children all the while. Woo! At times, we forget that James is neutropenic, but today we were reminded how quickly illness can strike when his neutrophils are low. He started the day waking up 1.5 hours later than usual. Great, some might think. But, this is really out of the ordinary. Then after taking in his morning milk, he promptly threw up. He really wasn't the same vibrant little boy today and despite us taking his temperature approximately 20 times, he did not have a fever. Praise God! We anticipate that we will be in the hospital sometime between now and January 15. Today just felt too soon. So, maybe he's fighting something, maybe he was mourning Nana's departure, maybe he was just tired today. It will likely be a guessing game each time, which is quite frustrating as concerned parents. Ultimately, I think that we will have to trust our instincts regardless of what the thermometer says.

Joy will be home alone all day with James and Adrianne starting tomorrow. Considering that I work late at the beginning of the week, and with James potentially not feeling well, this will likely be a challenge. I have such faith in Joy and her capacity to continue to be a wonderful, loving, and available mother and wife. Please pray for her as this new phase of care begins.

We continue to be blessed by the multitude of friends and family that provide food, lawn mowing, finances, a listening ear, and prayer. We truly don't know how we would manage without this support. Most of all, you have helped us feel close to the Community of Believers when we have been unable to participate in corporate worship. We miss church and know that it will be sometime in late January (at the earliest) that we can get back to church. We are so family-oriented too, and it has been so hard not being able to attend games and other events. Most of all, we know that this Thanksgiving and Christmas will be just our little 'ol family. While that's going to be challenge, we know that there are so many who have so much less. So, we are so grateful for the abundance of love that continues to be poured out. Thank you.

Our most recent prayer requests:
1. James will stave off fever and remain protected from bacteria and viruses that can make him sick.
2. Joy and I will remain well to best care for both children.
3. Joy and I would have discernment about how to best juggle work, potential hospital trips, and child care.
4. Joy will feel peace when managing child care, medicines, and household maintenance alone (during the day) for the first time on Monday.

Neutropenic?!?

We went to the clinic yesterday and had a good visit. The doctors are pleased with how James looks. We were able to get some of his counts before we left and they all looked good-hemoglobin good, platelets good, white blood cell count had gone down but it was OK. We also found out that James liver enzymes went down and so they were pleased(thanks for praying). They attributed the increase to the antibiotic he was on so next week we start a new antibiotic by IV that he will receive every 2 weeks. We also got a picture of what his next phase will looked like and I have to say I was a little discouraged-so I won't say anymore because it is still a ways off but you can begin praying for us.

When we got home the doctor called with his ANC count. It showed that his neutrophils were 750 which labels James as neutropenic. That means if he gets a fever then its an emergency. it also means that we will be confined once again to our house and having to limit visitors. So our big prayer requests is--Pray for James that he will be protected from viruses and bacteria so that we can continue along with his treatment. Also pray that his ANC would stay the same or go higher--if it drops more they will reduce his chemo thus causing a delay in treatment.

Pray for us tomorrow-we put Nana on a plane to head back to Tennessee. We are so grateful to her and her help and know that she will be back soon. James will definitely miss his Nana!

Fun Times

I wanted to include a couple of pictures with James and his cousin Taylor. They have had a great time together. Taylor and her family will leave on Wednesday and we will head to the clinic.

Prayer requests:

1. Pray that James' liver enzymes have returned to normal.
2. Pray that he continues to have minimal side effects from the chemo.
3. Pray that his body will be protected from sickness since we are about to enter a rough phase of treatment and the time of year when people get sick.
4. Pray for our upcoming transition(my mom leaves on Friday).

We love you and we are so thankful for you!

Record Time

Today James went to the clinic and had a great visit. We arrived at 8:15 and we left there with chemo in hand at 10:00. That is down as the fastest clinic visit ever. His counts were good. They are monitoring his liver enzymes because last week they were elevated and this week they had doubled from that. They are taking him off the Bactrim(antibiotic) until next week when we go back. Please pray that his enzymes will return to a level that they are comfortable with so that he can resume Bactrim. Its important for him to be on Bactrim because it best protects him from a pneumonia that immune-suppressed people get.

He was a "ham" again today. Everybody is so impressed with what a big boy he is. In fact when you ask him how big he is he throws up his hands in the air and we say "so big" (thanks for teaching him that Aunt Julie). After taking a ton of pictures I got some with him showing how big he is. He had gained some weight which was also good.




James has become quite a "reader" and I wanted to share some picures of him "reading".

We are now looking forward to his cousin Taylor, his Aunt Mary Beth, and his uncle Drew coming for a visit at the end of the week. Thank you for your prayers. We love you all!

Brother and Sister

Well we had a pretty good weekend. I am glad to say that the steroid burst is over. James had to be on steroids for 5 days starting last Wednesday. His body immediately picked up on it so we had to deal with the side effects again. We ended the steroids last night so hopefully we will have our sweet boy back soon. As I tried to write this, he was screaming in his room and Adrianne was screaming in the swing and my mom had gone to the grocery store. Oh well, that's how it goes with a one month old and a steroid raged 16 month old. I wanted to include a picure today. Adrianne went for her 4 week appointment and everything looked great. She has gained weight, she is up to 10 pounds and 2 ounces. James goes back to the clinic for chemo and a doctors visit on Wednesday. Please pray that the side effects would be minimal. it is so hard to know if he is hurting or not. Pray that he would continue to get in a normal sleep pattern and that Adrianne would follow. Also pray for my sister, brother in law, and niece as they travel--they are coming for a visit at the end of the week and we are very excited to see them and James is excited to play with his cousin.

Thanks again for you prayers and support. I also want to publicly thank Sandy Smith for organizing everything. She is such a blessing to our family and we are very grateful to her!

Normal boy things

It is nice to have a day when you kinda "forget" you child has cancer. Today was one of those days. I told my mom this morning that I wanted to get out of the house so we decided to go to the mall. i am sure many can relate to this day. I am still very unsure of myself when it comes to getting 2 kids out and about for errands. I told my mom at 8:30 that I wanted to leave by 10:30. Day was going along great-James was taking a nap, Adrianne had eaten and then was napping, my mom was getting ready and I had the opportunity to do some laundry and then get in the shower. As we were gearing up to leave Adrianne woke up hungry so I began feeding her. I thought she was done when she fell back asleep but she decided she wasn't. So a few more minutes went by my mom was in the bathroom, I was feeding Adrianne and James had disappeared. I can hear Emma's cage rattling(we had already put Emma up). When I go into check I was thinking James was letting her out. At first glance I didn't see him. When I flip on the light-there he was. James had somehow managed to get his entire self into the cage with the dog!(Emma is an eight pound weiner dog and her cage is very small) Unfortunately I panicked to get him out--would have been nice to include a picture! All is well--I got him out OK. The dog had the most puzzled look on her face. We laughed all the way to the mall.

Its days like today that I smile for James doing the normal boy things. In fact as I sit here to write this entry, he is tearing the Pottery barn catalog to shreds and I caught him trying to eat the paper.

Hope this makes you smile and give you a glimpse of our "normal" day. Thanks for continued prayer.

We have so much to be thankful for...

First of all I want to say--thanks for praying. On our way back from the clinic, Adrianne's nurse called and let us know that all tests were normal!!! God is so good.

We had a great visit at the clinic. James counts were very good which enabled him to get his vincristine. He was quite the talker today and walking around the clinic as if he owned it. He didn't cry when his doctor examined him-which usually is a fight. He waved hello to all the doctors and nurses that came by. He had lots to say about today just no one was able to understand it!

Being in the clinic today makes me thankful of our circumstances. James has responded so well and the cancer he has is so treatable. It breaks my heart to see other kids who are not doing as good. One thing this journey has taught me is that no matter how bad we think our circumstances-we have it easy compared to some. I thank God that He has carried James thus far through his treatment, that he has had minimal side effects, and that he hasn't lost that sweet sense of humor. God is faithful even when we feel our world is crashing in on us and we wonder how we will get through the next day not to mention the next three years.

So thank you for being faithful prayer warriors on our behalf!