Day of Rest

Today has been a day of rest and hydration to help David have a bowel movement. Ashley and Jason were here to help me while I checked out of the RMH house and moved into The Pendleton's condo. David was very sluggish and tired until the Osborne family showed up with Kyle. Kyle really wanted to see David so they offered to bring Kyle down. David was THRILLED to see his friends:)

He perked right up when they came in!

My heart smiled when I saw that Kyle and Caleb had on their Team David shirts. Tonya and I smiled when we realized that David and Reid had on the same shirts and we did not plan it:) David was so happy-check out that smile!

David will do what he needs to for others and here is Macy making him drink his Gatorade! Ha! I love it! Kyle did not want to leave and asked if he could stay here with us. It broke my heart but I promised him that oh so soon we will all be in MArion under one roof. The big news is that David finally pooped tonight so it is looking good for discharge tomorrow if all goes well with his chemo and radiation:) We are praising God from Party Central tonight!!

Look at my happy Rock Star to see his friend Reid. We were so thankful that the Osborne's were willing to bring Kyle down to see David.

My heart just swells when I think about how amazing Kyle has been through this whole nightmare. He loves his David and he is ready for us all to be together. That will truly be a happy day. David was sitting on the potty tonight crying for "Marion" That boy knows where all the love has come from and he is ready to go home and see his fan club.

I love silly pictures that remind me that life will get back to normal again sometime. This morning the oncolgist came during rounds and we talked for a while about what David needed to do today (drink and poop). She then asked me if I had any additional questions or concerns and I spoke up and just asked her how to live. I explained to her that we have crossed the bridge where we learned the awful news, we have made it through the big ugly surgery, and we are starting the treatment phase. At some glorious point down the road we will be at the end of treatment stage where we PRAY that he will be in remission. But I cannot wrap my head around the idea that life will ever ever be normal again.

I just keep getting stuck on the idea that life will never be normal again because I will always be stressed that the c word will come back. She then explained that other parents find that the c word is always in their minds, but as time passes it moves a little bit further back each and every day. She then pointed to our bible verses and said "it is also obvious that you all have a strong faith so that is where your faith will carry you" Makes sense to me, but we will need to pray that God will give us peace. He has been so faithful that Iknow he knows our hearts and will provide, but that fear of relapse has been gnawing at me lately.

In the meantime we are ready to fight. We have a grueling week ahead of chemo tomorrow and five radiation treatments-one each morning this week. It will be hard, but knowing our Rock Star he will take it all in stride. He is our hero and our strength. He makes us laugh when we could bawl and he has wormed his way into many a heart here in Wahoo Land.

David enjoyed a few hours alone with Ashley and Jason while I packed up and moved our stuff around. Right as I was checking out of the RMH house, a family called asking about availability. I was so pleased that our room will be used tonight for another family that is living some kind of nightmare. I will miss smelling the breakfast in the morning at the RMH house from that kind Amish family that has put out a breakfast spread each morning. Y'all know I am obsessed with Amish living and it is truly a miracle I have not embarrassed myself and invited myself to eat with them. :)

So tonight this is what we know:

That David pooped and hopefully it was enough to break us out of here!! If so, we will be staying this week during treatments at the Pendlton's condo here in Cville. They were so gracious to offer it to us-it is precious and clean and will be the perfect cozy spot for Rock Star to rest this week. The RMH house is pretty loud and chaotic.

That we are counting the hours until we can go home to Marion and be under one roof together.

That David has a grueling week ahead, but I know that Jesus will be with us each step of the way.

That God is awesome and has provided for us. One of the sweet nurses brought us a Chris Tomlin CD of Christmas music that is so awesome. UVA has taken care of our entire family these last 18 days and I am so thankful for the care that we have received.

That we know we still have a long road of treatment to endure for Rock Star but after this week radiation will be done and he will have a weekly appointment here in Cville for chemo on Mondays. After all that we have been through that sounds like a walk in the park but I know we still have an uphill battle. The risk of infection or the scary pneumonia is real and we will have to be the ultimate germ freaks when we get home. I will worry about that another day.

That I miss my man. He is home tonight to attend an important school meeting tomorrow. When he is gone I realize what a team we are and I have missed him tonight. He is returning here tomorrow evening after his meeting. My Mom will be running the Marion household until we return on Friday. We are obsessed with getting home on Friday to be with the birthday boy for the big 10th birthday.

That we have some amazing friends. During this nightmare we have realized how blessed we are to live where we do and be surrounded by such a loving "extended family." The nurses here are blown away how many visitors we have had considering the distance. Southwest VA knows how to love a family and stand in the gap. Wow.

My heart has been heavy here on 7 Central tonight. There are lots of infants here. There is an infant here that has not had a parent here all weekend. His bassinet stays in the hallway so the nurses can hear him cry. You often see them sitting with him in their arms as they work. It breaks my heart that he is here alone. We do not leave our Rock Star to go get a drink and here is an infant here alone. Sigh. Then I remember that that baby does not have a parent here but He has his heavenly Father here with him always.

The need for everyone to get to know Jesus better each day. You never know when your family may face a nightmare and it is so much easier to know all about Jesus so you can remember his strength and power when you are facing a crisis. If we did not have our Jesus we both would have crumbled two weeks ago it has been so hard here. Our Jesus has given us both a superhuman strength to endure watching our baby endure this nightmare. If we had not known of Jesus' comfort, mercy, power, and might we would have felt hopeless. We have just kept recalling all the miracles that Jesus has performed throughout the bible and it has given us such great hope.

Good night from Party Central and hopefully tomorrow night I can post all about breaking our Rock Star out of here and taking this show on the road:)

Happenings from Party Central

Today we got fanastic news!! If DAvid has a big poop we can be discharged tomorrow after radiation and chemo and do the rest of our treatments on an outpatient status!! I am so excited that I have already checked out of the RMH and have moved our stuff over to our friend Bonnie and Barry's condo. They have a condo here in Cville that they have graciously let us use this week while we are outpatient. So prayer warriors please pray that David's bowels move (hee hee) and we can be outpatients!!

Other exciting news is that Oma finally found a Beast costume in England and it arrived this weekend! Thanks Oma-we love it so much! He wore it last night and scared all the nurses.

David has really been feeling good and we have played wit all of our new toys! Check out his handwriting:)

So while you are in here your time schedule is off. I was exhausted last night after the emotional day at the walk, but I could not sleep. One of the nurses came in and we started chatting. She then shared that she gets so excited when she is assigned to us because we always have such great praise music. We then had an awesome talk about how we all need the Lord always, but times like this is when we realize we truly cannot live without Him. I love how God has put some amazing nurses and professionals in our path that love Him too. I finally fell asleep around 2 a.m. and some sweet nurse put this bible verse on our dry erase board for me to wake up to. I love it and this is also the verse that Ed Musser shared at the walk yesterday.

So today David is pretty wiped out. Ashley and Jason have been such a blessing to me to sit with David while I check out of the RMH house and move into the condo. He is dragging today but we know that radiaton and chemo wipe you out. He is eating well and drinking good today, but we are waiting on that big bowel movement to get us out of here. Tears welled up today when the oncolgoist mentioned the word discharge this morning during rounds. God continues to sustain us each and everyday here and gives us hope and peace that only can come from Him. There are lots of sick infants on the floor with us now and that is so hard to see and hear day in and day out.

I got permission to take this picture, but here is David on a movie date with our neighbor Haley. We have all fallen in love with her and the girl can certainly rock her cowboy boots. They are from three hours beyond us in SWVA and she is here waiting for a heart. She needs a heart transplant and to be status one on the waiting list and be first she has to be inpatient and on her meds ready to go. They are here indefinitely until cutie girl gets a heart. We love her and she and David play in the hall together. Please pray that a heart becomes available for this cute girl.

So today we are waiting for bowels to move and resting up for chemo and radiation tomorrow. Blessedly he only gets the Vanchristine chemo drug tomorrow which is a lighter treatment. We are facing five early mornings of radiation but we know that God is going to be with us each step. Thanks for the prayers dear friends and hopefully oh so soon we can bring our Rock Star home!!

We pray that we can all come home this weekend when he finishes radiation. We know that from here on out we will be coming up every Monday for chemo, but that is all good. He must take an antibiotic called Bactrum three days a week to ward off the scary, life-threatening pneumonia that can affect children on chemo with suppressed immune systems. We had to hold him down today to get the medicine via nebulizer. It was not pretty but I felt okay to hold him down for that treatment. We can hold him down for twenty minute treatment once a month to keep a life-threatening pneumonia at bay. Pray for David's immune system once we become outpatient.

That is the update from Party Central. Thanks for the love and prayers and we hope to be home soon:)

Love

Words cannot express the love we felt today at the Thomas Musser Mr. Strong walk! Yesterday morning my Mom called me and said that she and my Dad would come and sit with David so we could go home to go to the walk. At first I said no because I did not want to leave my boy, but everyone encouraged me to go and so off we went. Our dear friend, Cathy Timmons came and sat with DAvid until GG and Pops could get here to take over. It was brutal leaving him just for a night, but it was so good to get some fresh air. David did awesome while we were gone and tonight I am already back here at UVA.

We so felt the love and it was WONDERFUL to see so many wonderful friends and get so many hugs. Smyth County family you all have stood in the gap for us! To see so many people there today sporting their Team David shirts blew my mind. I bawled good tears as we were overwhelmed with hugs and love. Here I am with Suzanne and Tonya. Love these ladies!

Kyle was so excited to run the 5K and he did it in under 34 minutes with my friend Tonya!! Kyle asked me some tough questions on our 15 minute ride to the walk. The walk is for Thomas Musser who passed away last October due to cancer. Kyle was suppose to start the race with Thomas' sweet brothers. On the way to the race Kyle asked me why Thomas isn't starting the race if it is for him. I then reminded him how we prayed for that family and that Thomas is now with Jesus.

He was silent for a minute or two. I then went on to say that we are a family that believes in God's Will and that we want David to stay here with us forever but that sometimes God calls us home to be with him. I told him that the doctors tell us that there is a great chance that David is going to be fine, but he has a long road to go in terms of treatment. I always want to be honest with Kyle so I tried so hard to tread lightly with this conversation. My Kyle then blew me away and said "So Mom if David does have to die then he will go to heaven and be with Jesus right?" I answered yes and then immediately Kyle said "I don't want him to go there but Jesus will take good care of him if he ever has to go."

That was probably the hardest conversation EVER but I know that God was with me and gave me the words to be honest with my Kyle but upbeat. Kyle is such an amazing kid and the faith that he showed today blew this Momma's mind.

This is one amazing kid that showed grace and faith today:) He had such fun running with Tonya and I am so proud of how he is handling this nightmare in our family life.

Here is Thomas' Dad, Ed giving an amazing speech before the run. He and his wife Lisa are amazing role models for us. I just cried in Lisa's arms when I first got to the run and said "you know, you know" because they know the nightmare we are living. They have been such amazing faith role models to us all and it was an honor to be with them today. I hope to talk to Lisa more in the days ahead because she knows Momma to Momma how awful this nightmare is and has such experience to share with us. Mike and I were so appreciative that they allowed Team David to participate in a run to honor their son.

Here is Kyle with Thomas' twin brothers, and Colby Sprouse who is currently undergoing treatment for cancer. Kyle was super excited to blow that air horn:)

Kyle blew the horn and off he ran with Tonya. I am still impressed they did it in 34 minutes!

Here is a glimpse of Team David. My friend Lynn who brainstormed the whole idea said that of the 500 shirts purchased, seven remained after the race. Thank you so much to all those that walked with us whether in body or spirt and purchased a shirt. Mike and I are so appreciative of all the support that you all have shown for Team David. We both cried happy tears today seeing all the Team David shirts:)

Family picture in the wind:) Sure wish our David was with us! Mike was so sweet and kept asking me if I was okay during the walk. He knew how hard it would be on me and heaven knows he is the one that is always so composed:)

Here is my friend Tracey and their twin boys that ran the preschool race. Tracey has been such an awesome friend to me and has texted me several times a day while we have been here. She is such a wonderful friend:)

Here are Addyson and Sophie running in the preschool race. These girls are Hope's friends from church. Hope was so shy that she would not get off of my hip to run.

Tonya and Hope. Tonya grabbed Hope and ran the preschool race with her:)

Jason and AShley ran the race!! I was so impressed:) These two are David's heroes and we are so thankful for all that they do!

It was so hard for us to be away for a night from our boy, but it was so good to have a quiet night at home with Kyle and Hope and then it was wonderful to see everyone at the race. It was emotional and hard in a good way:)

So tonight this is what we know:

That we were blown away at the love that our Smyth County family showed us today. You all have surrounded us with your love and prayers and Mike and I are so appreciative.Our Rock Star is a loved little boy:)

That Jesus has been with us every moment of everyday. He got me through that hard conversation with Kyle and he sustained us this whole day. Jesus is the great Comforter and Mike and I can both attest to the strength that we have from Him.

That we have some amazing friends that feel more like family to us.

We know that Rock Star has a rough week ahead with five radiation treatments and one chemo treatment this week. We know that God will be with us each step of the way and we take comfort in his comforting Words. We are clinging to 2 Cor 12:9 "But he said to me, My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weakness, so that Christ's power may rest on me"

We are weak, scared, and tired parents. We are boasting of the strength and power of our Lord who continues to sustain us here in Party Central.