Maybe we're just crazy

What can I say?  Life is good.

Anna was discharged from the hospital one week ago today.  She had that "emergency" visit last Tuesday to replace the ng-tube, and then her first clinic visit today.  All seems well.  Her labs that were drawn on Friday as well as the ones drawn at clinic today were fine.  (Fine for a kid in Anna's circumstances, but fine nonetheless.)  She has her MRI scan scheduled this Thursday and then, assuming that scan does not have any bad surprises, she will have her next round of chemo beginning next Tuesday morning.

Last week we hit a stride by the end of the week and, after a few well placed conversations, made the perhaps insane decision to plant our garden on Saturday.  Our garden is not quite as big as my parents' garden from when my brother and I were kids, but we have more fruit trees here at our home than we did back in Bloomington.  Matt and I scaled back a little bit on the variety of vegetables that we planted this year, but we decided that since we won't be making many big travel plans this summer anyway, why not make the most of our yard?

Besides, if we can't harvest and preserve all of the food this summer, we'll either have friends over to help or just give it away ... both of those things have been known to happen in the past few years anyway.  Besides,  having a garden is more fun with friends around :)

So that was Saturday.

On Sunday, we chose to go to church in the morning as a family.  After all that we have been through in the last few months, we knew this was the right thing for us to do.  Not only is our faith an extremely important part of our lives, but we are very close to our church family, especially considering we do not have any immediate family living in Madison.  In addition, we knew that of all places, Anna would be the most accepted and loved in our church for who she is right now, even as a kid with no hair in a wheelchair.  She was.  She loved being there.  She sang right along with the "Celebrate" service liturgy and enjoyed going up front for the children's message. (Then she was worn out and needed food and meds,  so we had to leave before the sermon ... oh, well.)

Besides that, Sunday was Mother's Day.  Mother's Day is not usually too big a deal around here.  The kids make cards;  Matt gets me flowers; I don't have to cook dinner.  But the rest of life happens.  Diapers still have to be changed; toys have to be picked up; groceries have to be purchased.  Same kind of thing this year.  Except that we were all home together :)

But somehow with all of this focus on mothers, and with Father's Day almost a month away, I want to make sure that Matt gets credit for all that he has done recently, too.  Anna's got a pretty awesome dad.  Check out the bling on her wheelchair.

Yep.  Those are purple underglow lights on the bottom of her chair with adjustable settings, and with a battery pack mounted to the back.  She's got the coolest ride in town.

And last week, when we were overwhelmed with the sheer magnitude of what it took to have Anna home, here's what Matt designed and implemented to make her medication time easier.

In case you can't tell, the syringes, and also the medicine bottles, are color coded with bands of tape.  (This, of course, matches the schedule that I came up with on the computer ... he color coded the labels on that, too.)  Yes, we're crazy.  But maybe you have to be ultra-organized to keep this all straight with a Kate and an Ethan running around underfoot, and a desire to have a life outside of medication and diapers and feedings.

And then, he also managed to take Kate and Ethan grocery shopping to Woodman's East sometime back in April.  Going there alone is a challenge in itself, but taking along a toddler and a preschooler means that you're doing pretty well at your job.

On top of all that, he took them both to Kohl's the other week to find some new pants for Kate, complete with a stop in the changing room so that Kate could try the pants on.  Seriously?!  And they came home with pants that fit!

Plus, he learned how to (almost successfully) do a side braid in Kate's hair.  Yep.  He's pretty awesome.

As for the kids, Kate and Ethan are obviously enjoying the fact that the whole family is back together.

For several nights after we put Ethan to bed, he would say to himself "mama" .... "dada" ... "Anna" ... "Kayta" ... over and over again.

Kate has boundless energy; she is happy all the time (well, almost all the time).  She and Anna certainly have a different relationship than they did before cancer, but their friendship is growing again.

Anna is getting stronger and stronger every day.  She hasn't watched any TV since she's been home; she's asked to play and participate with life; she wants to taste food; she likes to sing; she wants to be here.  :)

Time for prayers

Thanksgiving
Please give thanks for successful clinic visits.
Please thank God for family time.
Please continue to give thanks for healing.
Please thank God for strength, wisdom, patience, peace, and rest.
Please continue to give thanks for the support that we have been receiving.
Please thank God for all who have helped Anna medically.

Requests
Please pray for healing.
Please continue to ask God for strength, wisdom, peace, patience, and rest.
Please continue to pray for Anna's care staff.
Please continue to pray that Anna's treatments are 100% effective.

I forgot to mention one other awesome thing nurses do!  They are also really, really good at being the liaison between families and doctors/hospitals!  How could I forget that?!?!