Basement Bouncing (& oh yeah.... more chemo)

You'd never know by looking at the pictures that Abbey had two doses of chemo today.  

The methotrexate was increased from her last treatment and we were to expect nausea and her feeling pretty lousy for the rest of the day.  Loss of appetite and constipation are also to be expected in this phase (along with the possible sores that I told you about earlier).  She got through today like a champ. Her numbers again looked great (they were down some from her last treatment, but that was to be expected and normal) and she had a lot of energy this afternoon.  When we got home, she ate a good lunch and pooped right after!!!!..... (doesn't take much to excite us these days :) and was ready to play!  Her and Jacob had this great idea for the basement, which I'll tell you about in a minute.

This past weekend we had some special visitors.  Jim's sister Andrea and her husband Jeff came from Indiana to visit for a couple days.  It was a nice treat for all of us and the kids had a blast spending time with them (we enjoyed it very much too!).  Thanks so much for coming!  Hope we can do it more often :)  

So, back to today.... When we have visitors our basement becomes our 'guest room' since all our bedrooms are full of us.  We had the air mattress set up downstairs for them and still hadn't taken it down today.  Soon after lunch we went in the basement to play and the kids started jumping on it, then had this idea to prop one end on the couch to make it like a slide.  They laughed, jumped and slid for a long time (until dinner) and we more than enjoyed watching them have fun.  Chemo days can be so draining, so it filled our hearts with so much joy to see her like this... especially after sitting in a hospital all morning watching chemo drip through a line in her little chest.  Kids are amazingly resilient and God is amazingly awesome!  We are thanking Him for these blessings today.

I also wanted to say thank you to so many who made comments about homeschooling and have been an encouragement to us as we embark on this new adventure.  I have spent a lot of time this week familiarizing myself with the curriculum and am starting tomorrow.  I am very excited to see all that God has in store for us in this area.  So, thank you for your comments. 

Another thing that has been on my heart so much lately is all the others that we have "met" through our blog who are in similar situation with having a sick child.  Our eyes have been opened to a whole new world since Abbey was diagnosed and we have gone to many of your blogs who also have a child with cancer or other life threatening illnesses.  Our hearts break with yours as we read your stories and our hearts also connect with you.  I have cried over your pictures and stories of your children and have also prayed for each one of you.  If any of you would like your blog, facebook group, caring bridge page, etc.. put on our blog, please leave a comment and we will be sure to add it under 'please pray for our friends'.  I know I often feel helpless in Abbey's situation, but one thing I can do is to tell and show others how good our God is and how He is carrying us through this and also ask others to pray for our baby.  I know I have some amazing prayer warriors on here and some truly wonderful people who are following.  Also, it's a great way to connect to others in similar situations, so if you'd like your story to be added in that section, please let us know.  I truly believe that God is at work through many little ones around the country through their illnesses and these situations are ALL in His hands.