Monday we will head back to the clinic for Abbey's second treatment in interim maintenance.  She seems to be handling the chemo that she got last Friday pretty well and we've only noticed a couple side effects.  As long as her neutraphils are above 750, they will increase her methotrexate and she will get another dose of vincristine.  

The last few days she has been complaining of some leg pain.  Bone pain and joint pain are normal side effects.  She told me this morning that her medicine is making her legs  hurt. It is so sad how she can connect the medicine to making her feel yucky and having pain and it is so hard for a three year old to understand that she has to get sick to feel better.  In the past, there have been times when I feel sick about giving her medication when I know it is just going to make her feel horrible.  Next phase she will be back on the steroids and those of you who have been following our story know that those we're the worst part of her treatment so far.  She had more side effects then I can remember when she was on those and my heart breaks for the time that we have to give her them again.  

For now, we will focus on getting through this phase and enjoying her good days where she is playful and happy.  The other night when she was brushing her teeth, her mouth was bleeding, but I haven't seen any sores.  We are praying that she doesn't get the sores this early in the phase because as the phase goes on she will get more and more of the medication and the side effects will get worse.  Since her numbers had such a hard time recovering from the last phase, I am concerned that her body is extra sensitive to some of the chemos.  We will see Monday when they look at her blood how her body is handling what she got last week and if her bone marrow is able to recover from being knocked down.  

On an exciting note, we have decided to start homeschooling Jacob.  He was in preschool this year, but we decided a couple weeks ago to take him out and start doing a kindergarten curriculum with him for the rest of this year.  We then will decide if we will send him to kindergarten next year, or if I will continue to homeschool.  It was something that's always been in the back of our minds, but since Abbey was diagnosed so many things have changed and God is using this situation to change our hearts and minds about many things.  There were many reasons why this decision just 'made sense' and since we've finalized our decision on it, we have such a peace.  Isn't that the best feeling ever when you have a hard decision to make and when you finally decide on something, you know it was the right choice because God gives you that peace in your heart?!  I started the reading with both him and Abbey a week ago and it has been great.  Since we are always home and rarely leave the house (unless we're at the hospital) it is giving us some structure to our days and has been good for all of us.  I am going to continue to let Abbey do as much as she wants for now... we know it can't hurt and at this point she is very eager to learn and do whatever Jacob is doing :)  I am still in the process of getting all the other subjects organized and figuring it all out and we will start the rest next week.  Do any of you homeschool?  I'd love to hear some of your personal experiences with it.  My sister-in-law Alicia homeschools her kids.  They have 5 kids, and she is currently homeschooling the oldest three.  She was very helpful to me in picking the curriculum (thanks Alicia!) and she has been very happy with the program that she uses so we feel good about what we've picked.  She is a great mom and they have great kids so we are excited to see what the future holds in 'Colbert Elementary School'.  

Thank you guys for following our story and for continuing to pray for our Abbey and family.  We are so thankful to know that people are praying all over the country.  I love looking at the site meter on our page and to see so many states represented that are a part of this with us.  Thank you also for praying for all these others that we know that are fighting cancer.  God is using each one and we know each situation is a perfect part of His plan.