July 26, 2006

Leah and Chris are back from Montana! This picture is of Leah at the airport being greeted by Chloe. Chloe was quite excited to see her sister (and dad) again. She and Leah held hands in the airport. Within an hour of being home they were playing dolls and fighting, and eventually having some time outs for hitting each other. So, I guess life is back to normal.

Chris and Leah had a busy time in Missoula. They spent a lot of their time outside and Leah looks tan, although it is Chris who really looks much darker. Some highlights include a rafting trip, picnics outside at various locations, shopping at Rockin Rudy's, icecream at the Big Dipper, an outside movie on Saturday night, a trip to a local waterpark, and playing with many of Randy's neighbor kids. The plane ride was also exciting, although, the escalators at the Minneapolis airport seemed to be the focal point of the whole flying experience.

Leah is happy to be home and after five days I can certainly see some more signs of hair coming back. She and Chris were somewhat surprised by all the cleaning/reorganizing/and digging out of trash that was accomplished in their absence. They both had been forewarned that this would occur, but I am sure it was still somewhat surprising. Leah's exact assessment was, "this is impressive." The living room has a new arrangement along with some new furniture, the basement has been mopped, shop-vacced, scrubbed, and a lot of stuff thrown out in this whole process. In fact, so much cleaning occurred that I could never have done it myself. AJay and Anna, Suzanne, Lis, and my parents all got in on the action (I am sure they didn' t know what they were getting themselves into when it started). We never did get to the closet project I still want to accomplish this summer and some bunk beds will be delivered in a week or two as well. Leah is very excited she will be here for this project.

Tomorrow is an Iowa City day. As I am sure you may be able to imagine it is not a visit we look forward to. They will do an AFP check again. So, even though we have been busy, this has been sitting in the back of our minds, and it is something we continue to pray about - to have very low AFP results. We ask that you, too, continue to keep Leah in your prayers - for her health to continue and for cancer to become a distant memory to us. Interestingly enough, Lance Armstrong will be in Iowa City/Coralville tomorrow for RAGBRAI and to raise awareness about cancer.

We continue to enjoy some very hot summer days here and are looking forward to August--especially August 15- Leah's 5th birthday! Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers being said for Leah each day, and for your continued concern about her and our family.