The Night Watches

Long over due, as usual.... Can you believe we are finished with Delayed Intensification already? The time in Jack's treatment I dreaded most, has come to an end! And even though there was an 8 day hospital stay in the middle of it all, it was better than I thought it would be by far! Jack is such a trooper, and has endured so much. He has been full of energy on most days, which is a joy to us all. When we walked into the clinic last week to start the next round of chemo, the Dr we work with smiled and said, "You did it! You made it through the toughest part! All down hill from here!" Wow, enter an audible sigh of relief! He began his next phase of chemo treatment last Friday, and has another dose of chemo every 10 days until the end of September. This past dose, he came down with some mouth sores and thrush, which are common side effects of the chemo he was given. After a few days, of most foods hurting his mouth, the sore healed up enough that eating was not painful, a...

The happy news to share is that Jack is HOME! Yesterday morning, Jordan called to tell me Jack's ANC went up to 215! Although not officially discharged at the time, we knew they would be coming home. So happy. It took all day, but finally, around 4:30, they left the hospital! We are so grateful to be all together again. Thank you friends for the many many prayers said on our behalf. We surely feel the care and are lifted up by your petitions to our Father, who hears them all. It is humbling to realize the multitude of friends praying for us, and we are just undone by your care for us. And on the topic of homes, I am not sure who out there is reading this blog, and who knows what else is going on in our lives besides Jack... but we are looking to move soon! We have the honor to be a part of a church plant in Arlington VA with our dear friend, Eric and Lisa, Josh and Ali, Phil and Jess, and so many new friends. Jordan will be working as a pastor on staff with the church, and we are s...

On Wednesday afternoon a week ago, Jack started feeling warm to me, and by the time he woke up from his afternoon nap he was just hot. He had a temperature of 101.1, so we knew we were headed into the hospital. Jordan took him in, and ended up in the ER until after midnight. They finally got admitted and into a room around 1 am. Because Jack is not 3 yet, they have a rule that the little ones have to sleep in "Cribs," which look a lot more like cages than anything else. We have faced this every time we are admitted. We have to beg and plead to get Jack a normal sized bed, and by the end of the second day, we got one. Since then, we have been waiting each day to hear what Jack's counts were, since he was fever free and we could give him antibiotics from home, to see if we could go home or not. After the second day, they found he did have a Staph infection, and have been treating him with antibiotics since we got here, but also specific antibiotics to his infection. He seem...