happy new year!!

I can't believe that I forgot to write this yesterday! We just got busy completely and utterly relaxing. When I started to think of something to do, I just turned it off and relaxed. We played games around the table. (Have you played Bananagrams yet??It's addicting) I am gearing up for getting order restored this weekend. The tree will come down and all the Christmas deco will go back into it's little red and green boxes. It's always sad to say goodbye, but how much would we love them if they were here all year? It feels good to clean it up.
My littles have been having a blast in all this snow! Don't you love those pink cheeks?

Here's a small list of things coming up for us this year:

KEEPING CHRIST FIRST.
END OF TREATMENT FOR BRAVEHEART!!
GRADUATION OF SENIOR SON!
PLANNING AND GOING ON B'S MAKE A WISH TRIP!
GETTING THESE FEET HEALED.
WILL THE WEIGHT COME OFF? :) Glenn and I are sugar fasting in Jan. Pray for us.
GET THAT HOME IN ORDER.


You all have an excellent new year!

a wedding with flower girl

Here is the lovely bride. Many of the photos I took in the chapel area just did not turn out well, so I will keep honing that skill I hope. This is why you see no handsome bridegroom here.
This wedding was so sweet and God honoring as their promises were made. Praise God for them and the couple's life together.

saturday and sunday science....

Excitement is mounting as we listen to the quiet peeping from their warm eggs.

We weren't expecting these little buggers until Tues, but we had a great surprise when daddy noticed some cracks in a couple of the eggs. See the little beginning crack on the egg at the right? The egg on the left is making it's way around the egg shell.

Buck takes breaks.

count down to a cure

PHASE 5: MAINTENANCE

The weather heated up for a moment and Braveheart is feeling better and look; this is his first time out in the snow this year!

We had a great start on 'day 0' of our new phase of therapy and we are very thankful for how far we've come on our journey.

Here's an excerpt from my carepage musings:

As I think about all we have been through, the ups, the downs, the in betweens, it just at this very moment today, having gotten his results and knowing we are going to forge ahead tomorrow, occurred to me what a milestone we have crossed. It causes me to reflect back to the day we almost lost our dear son on the way to the hospital! I remember he started having trouble swallowing as we were driving him there and he couldn't breathe well. How God made it possible that we got there that very day we needed to be there. The doctor even said that. The feeling of complete loss of control as we were told he had a very rare disease with a very low chance for a cure. He was lying on the table and I remember realizing he was dying. How does one explain the feeling in the pit of your stomach when you can’t go backwards and have a ‘do-over’? Some of you DO know. One must be brave and yet, you just want to go outside and scream. Well, needless to say, we were praising God when a few hours later they established that it was actually the t-cell Lymphoblastic Lymphoma. Even so, he was still very ill and had to go to PICU to monitor his airway. (He had partially collapsed lungs) They said it had a high cure rate, but what does that mean to a parent who knows the stage/ advanced amount of disease and reads the numbers and that t-cell is harder to cure etc.? Then, you spend the first 5 or more weeks not knowing if your child is even responding to the chemo at all; if he is even going to live! Watching him so ill and getting that wrenching feeling in your gut. We are thankful for the peace God gave us then, the joy and hope we had when we were finally told that he had responded well with 90% of the cancer gone!! It was still not a full relief until after the second phase was over and a long wait to tell us that remission was finally a reality. That was 4 months later! Let me tell you, these guys give you no false hope. No encouraging words that it is all going to be OK. We got through it all by the grace of God, your prayers, love and friendship. It has been hard sometimes, I won’t lie to you. We have had moments of weakness. Also, we know that feeling in our gut isn’t going away forever….yet, our battle isn’t over and only God knows the outcome for sure, but we are so hopeful and thankful to be looking back on this huge mountain behind us.My mind is baffled when I think of how only God knows if there is a bad cell left in his little body. He knows if that last hospital stay, where he was brought to ‘the door’ and back was needed to make sure every little hidden cell was ‘caught’ and killed. I sometimes wonder; at what moment is the last one gone? Doesn’t that blow your mind? Obviously, we know that it is likely still there and he would relapse without another year and a half of MAINTENANCE therapy. The chemo is working at keeping his body ‘in proper condition’ as defined above, giving a continual dose to hopefully get any new bad cells that try to surface.To clarify for any of you who are new or forgot, Bryce is in remission, which means that none of the cells are visible on the scan. He is not yet CURED and will not be considered so until 5 years out of treatment.
Suddenly, here we are today and it all seems so fresh and new, knowing we are starting phase 5. Although we have been doing fine in our hermit like state while he recovered (he was unable to go very far due to low counts and increased risk for infection) now it is exciting to think of all we/ he can do again. He is anxious to get back to church and hang out more with his friends. It’s very exciting. Yes, looking back we are in awe of how we’ve been given strength through Christ in it all. He isn’t fake, He is real, a REAL HELP in time of need, no matter what the outcome of this trial in our lives. Now we begin this new part of our journey and we are looking forward to what's ahead with joyful anticipation. Thank you for letting me share a piece of our journey that I haven’t really shared with everyone. Thank you for continuing this journey with us.

year in review

It's official...I LOVE BLOGGING!! How goofy is that? It's not that I am any good at it, but it is this easy way to let out some creativity on a near daily basis. Just think of all that would be forgotten by me without it? I love taking pictures and blogging has helped me remember to take pictures more often. Before it was "Wow, I really like that photo, look hun...yeah, cool.." close the book to gather dust and sit on the shelf because I will never have time to actually scrapbook them. (That makes my mind crazy) Now there is a way to showcase it, write about and it fluff it up a bit, not to mention the enjoyment of keeping up with friends/ families lives. I like to have the memories for myself, my family and maybe grandkids someday....you never know.


REVIEW
I think if I were to pick just one word for our last year it would be too hard, but 'survival' comes to mind. It was one of the hardest years of our families lives. "Dependence' is another as we had to really just keep leaning on the Lord for strength and peace and He really came through for us there. I don't know how people get through these major events without Him. "Thankful' for our son's life....our family and receiving so many blessings through it all.

NEW YEAR'S JOURNEY

What's next? I refuse to use just one word, at least for now. One word will have to be 'persevere'.

to persist in anything undertaken; maintain a purpose in spite of difficulty, obstacles, or discouragement; continue steadfastly

to bolster, sustain, or uphold

Romans 5:3-5 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Let us not forget magnanimous, it has been our friend of a word and we must keep at it.

Joyful, is another that calls out to me.

We are excitedly looking forward to this year's journey and all it's joys and bumps in the road. Here is a few of my personal goals:

• get with God and pray for my husband, kids and others daily, continued spiritual growth
  


• get the home super, mega organized



• recommit to eating healthy, life sustaining, cancer healing, weight losing foods



• work on and enjoy girly girl project with my damsel all year long and more



• drink green tea often



• get back to exersizing routinely like I used to (and better yet)
  
  
• eat these highly nutrient dense foods in our regular food rotation often (salmon~ almonds~blueberries~avacodos)

I didn't really want to get too detailed here. I am also going to start Wordless Weds just to have a fun, quiet way to showcase a favorite unique photo. I have a few other ideas/ plans but I am just going to have fun and PERSEVERE!! and maybe while I'm at it i won't be quite so behind on everything....:)