April 17, 2006

All is well at the Ristau house! Leah is feeling good. One would be amazed that she had major surgery less than three weeks ago. I was off today, so Tina and I took Leah to Covenant to have her blood work done. Before we left for the trip, Leah said, "I don't need blood today, but I might on Thursday." Her hemoglobin was 8.7, so she might be right. We'll see if it drops below 8.0 on Thursday. After her blood draw, we followed Leah's request of a trip to Target and lunch at the Olive Garden. Great fun!!! After our return home, Leah and Tina took the stroller to pick up Chloe at the babysitter's house. They ended up playing there for at least an hour and had tons of fun. That meant a lot to our family and hopefully to Leah. She was the "leader of the pack" (the eldest of 5 girls and one boy) at day care before all of this came along. I know she misses being there, and that Karen misses her being there even more.

Easter Sunday was a very hard day for us. We have heard, believed, and always will believe the message for many, many years. It is a hard message to absorb at this stage in our lives, yet I think we were just simply so very worn out after sixteen days in the hospital that we did not give Easter the focus that it deserves. Yet, IT IS THE MOST IMPORTANT HOLIDAY OF THE YEAR! God has shown us much grace and mercy through answering many prayers. We will keep leaning on Him and He will keep showing us the way!

After Leah's benefit, the strength and support she received through your prayers was reflected in her recovery from surgery and in her blood counts. Though we are certainly not out of the woods, her AFP has lowered. We will not be getting another AFP # until before her next round of chemo, her 7th, on May 1st. We just feel that her bravery and strength is deserving of our ultimate goal - remission. There will be many tears shed when we hear those words and that will be ultimate post to this blog. In the meantime, as one of our friends who fought this same battle has always said, "Celebrate Life."

Blessings,

Chris