September 29, 2006

Our family

Leah cuddling with Reeve

AFP= TWO! YAY!!!!! Pray, Praise and Give Thanks!

First of all, we received many phone calls, visits, and emails from people in the last week who have all told us they are holding Leah close in prayer. This means more to us than we can ever express. We would love to think that we could control what happens with Leah's health, but realize that God is in control. However, we do believe that God answers prayer and know that many, many people remember Leah each and every day in their prayers. So, please keep praying!

Yesterday Leah stayed home from school. She also missed Wednesday--somehow she managed to develop a nice cold. While it is just a cold, we know that any fever means a hospital stay AND we would like her to feel well in Florida. So, we had a few extra days of rest. She did take long naps both days and slept in, so even though she was not down and out the rest of the time, she did get a bit more sleep than normal. On Monday night when she started coughing both Chris and I started getting concerned. First of all, what most parents would consider to be the coming of a cold and what we would normally consider to be nothing more than that, we now question ourselves and have to wonder if something else is going on inside of her. I don't think you have seen two parents so happy to see snot streaming from a child's nose--then we knew it really was a cold! We have been praying for her cold to subside by the time we get to Florida so she can really feel great and enjoy our time (the rest of us will probably be sniffling away then!).

Brianna Schaefer came over to "play" with the girls after school. Both of them love the attention from someone older and had her running all over the place. I think they may have pushed their luck when they had her down on the floor pretending to change her diaper. We also had supper delivered to us from a family at church. I am eating some more of the homemade apple pie right now---the whole meal was wonderful. A few more stops from friends made our evening pass quickly-that was a wonderful blessing as the days before Iowa City visits are always a little -or a lot more stressful.

Leah and I left around 6 this morning. Chris managed to get the two little girls to Karen's this morning. As much as I dreaded the day Leah was practically giddy talking about how she wanted to see the construction outside of the window by Elevator F. She managed to stay awake until the Iowa City exit and then slept for 20 minutes while I waited in traffic to park. I am glad we were in IC today and not tomorrow! Already some TV stations were set up outside of Kinnick.

We ran into Dr. Rahdi right away in the hall. He had no idea we were there to see him and was on his way to a meeting. So, we went to clinic and promptly ran into a classmate of Leah's from last year who was there for her 6 month check-up and doing great! (I like the happy stories because it gives me something to hope for). We got to see many of our old friends- Tom, Mary Lou, Fred.... Leah's port was accessed, blood drawn and then Dr. Rahdi snuck back to examine her. Even though Leah barely says two words to him she did want to bring him pictures of herself in her leotard to show him, so he looked at the pictures I had laid out and commented again about how good she looks. We were sent to the CT waiting room where Leah got her yummy barium drink. I had brought a sippy cup along and she got started on her drink and I drank the remainder that did not fit into the cuppy. It definitely leaves something to be desired. While doing this we snuck over to the bone marrow unit just down the hall and visited with Roshaun and James. Leah was all over them--giving hugs and sitting on their laps.

Anyway, the CT was uneventful. I think Leah actually thought it was fun! Luckily they could inject the contrast in her port. Once that is removed they will need to put an IV in her each time. Not so fun, but the idea of being hospitalized for each fever is not very exciting either. (Our surgery consult is scheduled for our next visit). The whole CT took about 5 minutes---so much shorter than when we do general anesthesia and stay all day. They gave her a few treats and we were on our way. As we passed the waiting room who should we see but my principal and her husband. It turns out I had a class with him when I went to Wartburg. Somewhere in the span of events we went back and forth to Bone Marrow, stole James' nametag, ate a cookie in the cafeteria and tried to find somewhere to get reception on our cell phone to call people. When we stopped back at the clinic, Nita, one of the PAs there had our lab results and expressed that things "looked perfect." I cannot begin to tell you how relieved I was to hear the number 2! Just yesterday I was reading Lisa Whelchel's latest newsletter. (If you didn't grow up in the 80s, Lisa Whelchel played Blair on The Facts of Life and is now well known for her evangelism work). In her newsletter she discussed how good God was and how he is huger, better, bigger than we are and how we should let God surprise us with his goodness. I tried to remind myself of this on our ride down-that instead of thinking of all the bad scenarios and what ifs, I could think of some positive what-ifs knowing that God is good and being happily surprised was also a possibility.

Having such a good day at the hospital, we decided to hang out a bit longer and met my co-op student from last year who is now a student at the university. I introduced her to Prairie Lights Book Store and then we watched Leah play at the ped mall playground. Leah also managed to drench herself in the fountain there--it is probably a good thing I brought along some extra clothes. On our way home we stopped in CR/Marion at our favorite consignment shop. Leah is a great shopper so we have many new purchases--the best is a pair of black leather pants for Chloe. Leah discovered a lovely pink fluffy coat. I could live without it but the way she ripped it off the hanger and rubbed it all over and wore it around the store let me know it was truly her heart's desire, so we are now the proud owners of this fuzz-ball coat.

Tonight we can finally begin to think about the fact that we leave tomorrow to stay in a hotel for our Florida trip. Our flight leaves at 6:23 AM on Sunday morning. Please pray for safe travel and a wonderful trip of happy memories for us. We will all miss Reeve, although Leah told me today that we would be so busy we would forget about her, but know she is just fine at home.

Leah wants to add her two cents worth again--it seems when she does this she presses some weird buttons and the blog ends up halfway down the page, so we shall see if we can fix that problem this time!

.lp,l,..