The Night Watches

I am often asked, what happened your sister's daughter ?? A long overdue update... she is doing amazing! Her last appointment with her cardiologist said that she was doing perfectly well. She is getting bigger and bigger, and a joy to my sister. She came up to MD for a visit a few months ago, and I snapped a few pictures of her. So for those of you who have asked, here she is!

A week ago, we asked my sister-in-law, the very talented Megan Russell, at the very last minute, if she could come over and take a few pictures of our little family. With the third phase of Jack's treatment, we are seeing more and more hair come out each day, and I just wanted to have some good pictures of all of us together before it all came out. She was so willing to come, and took some amazing photos. Here is a slide show she made for us of the pictures she took. .for jack. from megan russell on Vimeo .

It is hard for me to believe that we are about to begin phase 3 of this whole crazy thing! Tomorrow marks the beginning of the 3 year mark that we can expect for Jack to be in treatment. So 3 years from tomorrow, he should, Lord willing, be done!!! Let the countdown begin! This past phase he just finished, called Consolidation, has been easy compared to the first phase. I feel like we have finally gotten our Jackers back, after being so food obsessed the first phase. He is running around chasing his brother, talking all the time, singing and dancing, and overall just so happy. It has been so wonderful to have these days, even when he has had to undergo many procedures at the clinic. So tomorrow we begin phase three, called Interim Maintenance 1. This phase will last 56 days, and we go in for treatments every 10 days. He has to have blood drawn prior to these visits, to ensure that his liver and kidney are functioning well with the increased dose of a certain Chemo he will be getting. ...

“Bless the Lord, and forget not all his benefits.” Psalm 103 (the hats Jack has been given so far) There are certain ages that are optimal if someone is going to get cancer and undergo chemo, and Jack’s age is one of those. We are very grateful for this, and thank God that if he was to get cancer during his life that he got cancer when he did. Since he is so young, he also has the added benefit of most likely not remembering the e arly and most intense phases of his treatment, and will hopefully be able to look back on his childhood without having needle pokes, chemotherapy rounds and no hair in the forefront of his mind! We are so grateful for this. I am consistently amazed at all he endures with little to no complaint. However, we do want him to remember some things about this trial we are walking through. One of the things we do want him to remember though is the faithfulness of God to him through this time. I wouldn’t want him to be unaware of how people prayed for him, support...

We just had a quick trip in and out of the ER the past two days. Jack spiked a fever yesterday of 101.2 and so, since whenever he has a fever we have to take him in to the hospital right away, we packed our bags and prepared to be admitted. Gratefully, his fever went down upon arrive at the ER last night. They went ahead and started him on antibiotics last night, and released him to come home. Jordan had taken Jack, and they got home around 10 pm. Little boy had a really hard time sleeping last night. Jordan and I were up at all hours, uncertain as to why he wouldn't sleep. When I was up with him at 5 am, I had the thought to bring him to our bed, or even start the day.... but he finally fell asleep at 5:30am. Thankfully, both Tyler and Dylan slept through all of that! Jack, Dylan and I went to the ER again today to get his second dose of antibiotics. I spent the better part of the morning trying to get in touch with our Dr. or Nurse Practitioner to find out where I was to take hi...